Written by Allen Wyatt (last updated November 26, 2016)
This tip applies to Word 97, 2000, 2002, and 2003
Subscriber Smokey Lynne Bare recently wrote about a problem encountered with formatting a table in Word. The table was formatted so the outline border used double lines, and the inside borders used single lines. Everything looked fine until the table extended to a second page. Then, the last line of the last row on the first page didn't switch to a double line, instead remaining a single line.
Before getting into how you can fix this, you should first make sure that you are looking at the table in the proper manner. If you look at the table in Normal view, it won't appear that the table is outlined properly at the page break. Instead, you must view the document in Page Layout view, or in Print Preview. In both of those views you should see the proper outline on the table.
If you still don't, then follow these steps:
Figure 1. The Borders and Shading Dialog Box
Now, when you view a multi-page table using Page Layout view or Print Preview, the table should be outlined in double lines on each page where the table appears. Only the interior lines should be single. If, for some reason, your table still doesn't behave in the described manner, it could be related to your printer driver. Make sure you have the most current driver for your printer, and try again.
WordTips is your source for cost-effective Microsoft Word training. (Microsoft Word is the most popular word processing software in the world.) This tip (878) 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: Last-Row Border Formatting.
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