Removing unwanted border lines in Word

In recent versions of Word, it is easy to create horizontal lines by accident. Unfortunately, it can be difficult to figure out just how to remove them.

The horizontal lines, which are paragraph borders, can appear if the “automatic borders” option is enabled in AutoCorrect and if you press one of the key combinations that triggers borders (three hyphens, three equal signs, or three underscore lines, followed immediately by the Enter key). If you want to insert a horizontal line quickly, the feature can be very useful. However, if you’re not aware of the way that the feature works, you can end up with an unwanted border line that is somewhat tricky to delete.

Sometimes, selecting the line and pressing the Delete key will remove the line. That doesn’t always work, however.

If not, try displaying the non-printing characters[1] (click the paragraph symbol, located in the Paragraph group on the Home tab in Word 2007 and Word 2010 and located in the Standard toolbar in Word 2002 and 2003; alternatively, press Ctrl Shift * [asterisk]) and then delete the paragraph symbol immediately above the line or the one immediately below the line. (If Word inserts the line as a “bottom” paragraph border, deleting the paragraph symbol above the line should work; if Word inserts the line as a “top” paragraph border, deleting the paragraph symbol below the line should work.)

Usually, that method will remove the line. But what if it doesn’t?

There are a few other possible solutions. With the non-printing characters displayed, select the line, as well as both the paragraph symbol above the line and the paragraph symbol below the line. Then do one of the following:

(1) Click the “No Border” icon.

If you’re using Word 2007 or Word 2010, navigate to the Home tab, Paragraph group, click the drop-down to the right of the Borders button (the icon at the right side of the bottom row in the Paragraph group), and click “No Border.” If you’re using Word 2002 or Word 2003, locate the Borders drop-down in the Formatting toolbar, click it, then click the “No Border” icon. (If doing so moves the border up, click the paragraph symbol above then line, then click the “No Border” icon again.)

(2) Clear the formatting.

After you’ve selected the line and the paragraph symbols above and below it, you can clear the formatting. Note that doing so could remove any styles you have applied to text immediately above or below the line, so use this method only if that is an acceptable result.

(a) To clear the formatting of selected text in Word 2007 or Word 2010, you can do any of the following:

(i) click the “Clear Formatting” button at the top right side of the Font group on the Home tab; or

(ii) click the dialog launcher in the Styles group on the Home tab, and when the Styles Pane opens, navigate to the top and click “Clear All”; or

(iii) click the Normal style in the Styles Pane (or in the QuickStyle gallery); or

(iv) press Ctrl Q to remove all paragraph formatting from the selected portion of the document; or

(v) press Ctrl Shift N to apply the Normal paragraph style (this method will strip out styles that have been applied to the selected text).

(b) To clear the formatting of selected text in Word 2002 or Word 2003, you can do any of the following:

(i) click the Edit menu, Clear, Formats; or

(ii) click the Format menu, Styles and Formatting, and when the Styles and Formatting Pane opens, navigate to the top and click “Clear Formatting”; or

(iii) click the Normal style in the Styles and Formatting Pane; or

(iv) press Ctrl Q to remove all paragraph formatting from the selected portion of the document; or

(v) press Ctrl Shift N to apply the Normal paragraph style (this method will strip out styles that have been applied to the selected text).

Once you have removed the border line, you might decide you’d like to disable the automatic borders feature permanently. Here’s how:

In Word 2007, click the Office button, Word Options, Proofing, and click the “AutoCorrect Options” button. Click the AutoFormat As You Type tab, click to uncheck “Border lines,” click “OK,” and click “OK” again to save your settings.

In Word 2010, click the File tab, Options, Proofing, and click the “AutoCorrect Options” button. Click the AutoFormat As You Type tab, click to uncheck “Border lines,” click “OK,” and click “OK” again to save your settings.

In Word 2002 or 2003, click the Tools menu, “AutoCorrect Options” (not “Options”) and click the AutoFormat As You Type tab. Click to uncheck “Border lines,” and click “OK” to save your settings.

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[1] To hide the non-printing characters, either click the paragraph symbol again or press Ctrl Shift * (asterisk) again — it’s a toggle.

Using QuickBullets (QuickNumbers) in WordPerfect

An easy way to apply list-style automatic numbering in WordPerfect is to use the “QuickBullets” feature (also sometimes referred to as “QuickNumbers”). With QuickBullets turned on, WordPerfect converts numbers that you type manually into automatic numbers.

In other words, when you type an Arabic or roman numeral or an upper-case or lower-case letter, then type a period (or an end parenthesis or hyphen), and then press the Tab or Indent key, WordPerfect changes the character into a code and turns on automatic numbering. It also turns the tab into a hanging indent (you can turn the indent back into a tab, however). When you type some text and press the Enter key, WordPerfect inserts the next character in sequence. To stop numbering, press Enter, then immediately press Backspace.

In older versions of WP, QuickBullets could not be used to create multi-level lists.  In recent versions (X3, X4, and X5), you can press the Tab key and Shift Tab to change the level of a paragraph.  (Tab “demotes” the paragraph to a lower level; Shift Tab “promotes” the paragraph to a higher level.)

If you turn off numbering, then want to turn it on again, just type another number or letter, followed by a period (or end paren or hyphen) and a tab (or indent), and continue with your list.  (Every once in a while, numbers won’t increment properly, but that is a relatively rare occurrence.)  Alternatively, click Insert, Outline/Bullets & Numbering, make sure the number type you’re using is selected, then click Resume outline or list.

QuickBullet (QuickNumber) Options

(Choose one from Column A, one from Column B, and one from Column C)

Character 1 (Arabic numeral) I (Roman numeral) i (Roman numeral) A (Upper-case letter) a (Lower-case letter)
		Followed By: . (Period) or ) (End parenthesis) or – (Hyphen)
				Followed By: Tab or Indent

To turn QuickBullets on, click  Tools, QuickWords, Format-As-You-Go. Under Format-As-You-Go choices (a little below the middle of the dialog box), there is a box you can check to turn QuickBullets on. After doing so, be sure to click “OK” to save your settings.

If your lower-case letters keep turning into capital letters, it’s probably the result of another setting in the Format-As-You-Go tab. Specifically, try unchecking “Capitalize next letter after end of sentence punctuation,” then click “OK.”

Many people prefer to turn QuickBullets off so that WordPerfect doesn’t turn manual numbers into auto-numbered lists. Be aware that leaving QuickBullets turned on can lead to unexpected results. One unsuspecting attorney who was trying to type an excerpt from a deposition transcript, using the standard Q & A format, typed a paragraph beginning with Q., and when she finished typing the paragraph and pressed Enter, WordPerfect inserted the letter R.

You can, of course, also use this feature for bulleted lists, but this tutorial deals mainly with numbered lists because they are more commonly used in legal documents.

Adding a “Print Preview Edit Mode” icon to the QAT in Word 2010

Those of you who have ventured into the brave new world of Word 2010 have discovered that the traditional Print dialog has been replaced by a full-screen version known as “Print Place,” where the left side of the screen provides drop-downs for configuring the print settings and the right side of the screen offers a preview of the current document. (Both File, Print and Ctrl P open Print Place.)

Although the preview available in Print Place is useful — you can zoom in and out and even can display two (or more) pages side by side — you can’t edit the document directly from within the preview.

However, if you miss that functionality, you can add a “Print Preview Edit Mode” icon to the Quick Access Toolbar (QAT). To do so, right-click the QAT, click “Customize the Quick Access Toolbar,” and when the Options screen appears, click to change the “Choose commands from” drop-down from “Popular” to “All.” Then, in the commands area, scroll about 2/3 of the way down. You’ll see several different Print Preview commands. The one you want is “Print Preview Edit Mode.” Click to select it, click the “Add” button in the middle of the screen, then OK out of the Options to save your settings.

Clicking the icon opens a print preview screen very similar to those in previous versions and produces a context-sensitive Print Preview tab in the Ribbon.

If you find that you can’t click within the document because the mouse pointer turns into a magnifying glass and clicking merely zooms in and out, locate the “Magnifier” command in the Ribbon and click to uncheck it. Once it is unchecked, the mouse pointer should function normally and you should be able to click within and edit the document. (Just don’t forget to save your changes!)

To close out of print preview mode, either (1) click the icon again (it’s a toggle) or (2) click the big red “X” in the Ribbon that is labeled “Close Print Preview.”