Putting borders around a paragraph

To apply a border to any or all sides of a paragraph, follow these steps:

1. Place the insertion pointer in a paragraph.
2. Click the Home tab.

3. In the Paragraphs group, click the triangle next to the Borders command button.

   The Borders menu appears.

4. Choose a border style from the menu.

   For example, to place a line atop the paragraph, choose Top Border. Its icon is shown in the margin.

The border is applied using the line style, thickness, and color set in the Borders and Shading dialog box. See the later section “The Borders and Shading Dialog Box” for details.

To apply multiple lines, choose both border styles sequentially. For example, to add lines above and below a paragraph, first choose the Top Border command, and then click the Borders command again and choose Bottom Border.

• Horizontal borders stretch between the paragraph’s left and right margins. These margins are different from the page margins. See Chapter 11 for information on setting a paragraph’s left and right margins.
• A common use of paragraph borders is to set off a document title or heading. See the later section “Creating a fancy title” for formatting tips.

• When multiple paragraphs are selected, the border is applied to all paragraphs as a group. Therefore, a top or bottom border appears on only the first or last paragraph in the selected block.

• To place lines between paragraphs, see the later section “Boxing multiple paragraphs.”
• If you press Enter to end the paragraph, the border formatting is applied to the following paragraph. For top and bottom borders, the effect is that only the first or last paragraph displays the border line.

Boxing multiple paragraphs

To stick a box around a paragraph, use the Outside Borders command, found on the Borders menu and shown in the margin. When multiple paragraphs are selected, the box wraps around the group.

If you desire to box several paragraphs in a row and keep lines between the paragraphs, use the All Borders command instead of Outside Borders. The All Borders icon is shown in the margin.

• More and fancy options for boxing paragraphs can be found in the Borders and Shading dialog box. See the later section “The Borders and Shading Dialog Box.”
• Before you go paragraph-boxing crazy, what you might need in your document instead is a table. See Chapter 19 for information on tables.

Removing borders

To peel away the border format from one or more paragraphs of text, apply the No Border format: Select the paragraph(s), click the Borders button, and then choose No Border, as shown in the margin.

To remove specific parts of a border, use the Borders and Shading dialog box, covered … why, it’s in the next section!

Creating a fancy title

To create custom titles for newsletters, documents, or anything else you want to pretend is super important, click to select a paragraph and then go nuts in the Borders and Shading dialog box. You may end up with results similar to what’s shown in Figure 18-3.

To properly apply a special border, follow these general steps in the Borders and Shading dialog box:

1. Choose a line style in the Style list.

   Scroll the list to view the full variety of styles. (Refer to Figure 18-2.)

2. Set the color in the Color list.

   The Automatic color uses black, or the standard color as set by the document’s theme (usually black).

3. Choose a width in the Width list.
4. Click in the Preview part of the dialog box to place the line: top, bottom, right, or left.

To remove a line, click it in the Preview window.

To start out quickly, select a preset design from the list of icons on the right side of the dialog box. (Refer to Figure 18-2.)

Click the OK button to apply the customized border to your document’s text.

Boxing text

The border is primarily a paragraph-level format, though you can also wrap borders around tiny tidbits of text. To do so, follow these steps:

1. Select the text.

2. Summon the Borders and Shading dialog box.

   Directions are found earlier in this chapter.

3. Set the border style you desire.

   Only the Box and Shadow options are available, although you can set the color and line thickness.

4. Ensure that the Apply To menu shows Text and not Paragraph.
5. Click OK.

Also see Chapter 10 for information on shading text. From a design point of view, I believe shading text is a better option than wrapping it in a box.

Applying a page border

One gem hidden in the Borders and Shading dialog box is the tool to place a border around an entire page of text. The border sits at the page’s margins and is in addition to any paragraph borders you might apply.

Here are the secret directions to set a page border:

1. Put the insertion pointer on the page you want to border.

   For example, you might put it on the first page in the document.

2. Summon the Borders and Shading dialog box.
3. Click the Page Border tab.

4. Set the border style.

   Choose a preset style, line style, color, thickness.

   Use the Art drop-down list to choose a funky pattern for the border.

5. Click the Apply To menu button to select which pages you want bordered.

   Choose Whole Document to put borders on every page. To select the first page, choose the This Section – First Page Only item. Other options let you choose other pages and groups, as shown in the drop-down list.

   And now, the secret:

6. Click the Options button.

   The Border and Shading Options dialog box appears.

7. In the Measure From drop-down list, choose the Text option.

   The Edge of Page option just doesn't work with most printers. Text does.

   To add more “air” between the text and the border, increase the values in the Margin area.

8. Click OK.
9. Click OK to close the Borders and Shading dialog box.

To remove the page border, choose None under Settings in Step 4 and then click OK.

A page border is a page-level format. If you desire borders to sit on only certain pages, split the document into sections. Use the Apply To drop-down menu (refer to Step 5) to select the current section for the page borders. See Chapter 14 for more information on section formatting.