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: Controlling How Body Text is Displayed.

Controlling How Body Text is Displayed

Written by Allen Wyatt (last updated November 9, 2019)
This tip applies to Word 97, 2000, 2002, and 2003


When you are working in Outline view, there will be times when you want to see the body text associated with headings. Word allows you to control how body text is displayed. You can either display the entire body text or only the first line of each paragraph of body text. This is a toggle condition, controlled by the Show First Line Only tool on the Outline toolbar.

The first time you click your mouse on the Show First Line Only tool, Word displays only the first line of each body text paragraph; the second time, Word displays the entire text of each paragraph. You should note that this tool does not affect headings. Thus, if you have headings that require multiple lines, they are always displayed in their entirety.

WordTips is your source for cost-effective Microsoft Word training. (Microsoft Word is the most popular word processing software in the world.) This tip (766) 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: Controlling How Body Text is Displayed.

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. ...

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