Please Note: This article is written for users of the following Microsoft Word versions: 97, 2000, 2002, and 2003. If you are using a later version (Word 2007 or later), this tip may not work for you. For a version of this tip written specifically for later versions of Word, click here: Using Text Boundaries.

Using Text Boundaries

by Allen Wyatt
(last updated October 7, 2020)

If you work often in Print Layout view, you may find text boundaries helpful. These are dotted lines that appear in your document to mark the limits of text elements. For instance, when you use text boundaries, dotted lines appear around the margins of your text, as well as around headers, footers, footnotes, etc. To control the display of text boundaries, follow these steps:

Make sure you are viewing your document in Print Layout view.
Choose Options from the Tools menu. Word displays the Options dialog box.
Click on the View tab. (See Figure 1.)

Figure 1. The View tab of the Options dialog box.

Use the Text Boundaries check box to control whether Word uses text boundaries in Print Layout view and Web Layout view. Click on the check box to turn the feature on and off; a check in the box means it is enabled.
Click on OK.

WordTips is your source for cost-effective Microsoft Word training. (Microsoft Word is the most popular word processing software in the world.) This tip (381) applies to Microsoft Word 97, 2000, 2002, and 2003. You can find a version of this tip for the ribbon interface of Word (Word 2007 and later) here: Using Text Boundaries.

Author Bio

Allen Wyatt

With more than 50 non-fiction books and numerous magazine articles to his credit, Allen Wyatt is an internationally recognized author. He is president of Sharon Parq Associates, a computer and publishing services company. Learn more about Allen...

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