Borders and Shading

Tips, Tricks, and Answers

The following articles are available for the 'Borders and Shading' topic. Click the article's title (shown in bold) to see the associated article.

Adding a Drop Shadow to a Text Box
Drop shadows add a nice touch to text boxes, making it seem like they are hovering above the page. Here's the simple steps you need in order to add a drop shadow to your text boxes.

Adding Borders around Paragraphs
Want to draw attention to a particular paragraph? A great way to do it is with a border. Word allows you to easily add borders, as described in this tip. You can add a pre-defined border or a custom one; it is up to you.

Adding Borders to Paragraphs
Word includes a rich set of formatting features. Using the Format menu you can easily put any type of border you like around the paragraphs in your document.

Adding Borders to Text
How to place a border around selected text.

Adding Drop-Shadows to Paragraphs
Drop shadows are a special type of border that simulates a "3D" appearance. Adding these types of borders is easy using the Borders and Shading dialog box. This tip explains how to apply the desired formatting to a paragraph.

Basing Headers and Footers on the Previous Section
Word treats the headers and footers in a document independently, based on the section in which they appear. This means that the headers and footers in one section can be different from those in the previous section—or you can instruct Word to continue the headers and footers from the previous section. This tip examines some of the interactions that these settings can cause within a document.

Changing Paragraph Borders
Adding borders to a paragraph is a snap. You can also modify the paragraph borders so that they are all different, if you so choose. This tip describes how to set all four sides of a paragraph border independently of each other.

Chopped Off Page Borders
When you print a document that is formatted with a page border, does the border print properly, or is it chopped off on the top and bottom of the page? This tip describes a few settings that can affect how your page borders are printed.

Creating a Full-Page Border
Borders are easy to add around text or entire paragraphs. It may be surprising to you to learn that Word can just as easily place borders around entire pages. This tip explains how you can add this touch.

Deleting Borders
Borders around a paragraph can be a nice touch, but you may want to remove those borders at some time. You can do so quite easily by following the information in this tip.

Drop Shadows for Tables
When adding borders and shading to a document's elements, Word allows you to quickly add drop shadows to paragraphs, text boxes, and other objects. What you cannot easily do is to add a drop-shadow to a table. This tip explains different ways you can still achieve the desired results.

Extra Shaded Lines
If you insert a page break at the beginning of a paragraph, and the paragraph in which you insert the break is shaded, you could end up with some shading left at the bottom of the preceding page. This tip explains why and how you can avoid such a formatting faux pas.

Highlighting Information Using Shading
Paragraph shading is a quick, easy way to highlight information in a document. Using the Borders and Shading dialog box, you can apply all sorts of shading to your text.

Non-printing Page Borders
With your page border in place, you might be surprised if you don't see one side of the border (or all sides) print out with your document. Here's the reason for the missing border sides and what you can do about it.

Removing Automatic Lines
Type a few dashes, underscores, or equal signs, and you could end up with a full-width line in your document. This is normal behavior for Word, but it may not be the behavior you want. This tip explains why you get these types of lines and how you can get rid of them.

Removing the Box from a Text Box
Insert a text box, and it is automatically formatted to have a border around it. Getting rid of the border is easy, if you follow the steps in this tip.

Setting the Distance between Text and Borders
Add a border around a piece of text (such as a paragraph), and Word makes some assumptions about the placement of that border relative to the text. Here's how to adjust the distance between text and any borders you may add.

The Line That Won't Go Away
Have you ever had a line appear on your document that you can't seem to get rid of? It could be due to a built-in line-generating feature in Word. This tip explains the feature, shows how to control it, and finally discloses how to get rid of those bothersome lines in your document.

Understanding Page Border Art
Word allows you to place artwork around the border of a page. Here's an overview of the artwork used.

Using Text As a Page Border
Word allows you to add page borders to a document, but you might find the options in this area too limiting. What if you want to create your own page borders or use text as a page border? This tip explains how you can accomplish your designs.