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: Turning Off Line Numbering.

Turning Off Line Numbering

Written by Allen Wyatt (last updated July 6, 2024)
This tip applies to Word 97, 2000, 2002, and 2003


In other issues of WordTips you learned how to turn on the line numbering feature. (It is great for legal or research-oriented documents.) There may be times, however, when you want to exclude a certain paragraph from line numbering. This is done with the Paragraph option of the Format menu, as follows:

  1. Position the insertion point in the paragraph that you don't want to have line numbers.
  2. Choose the Paragraph option from the Format menu. Word displays the Paragraph dialog box.
  3. Make sure the Line and Page Breaks tab is selected. (See Figure 1.)
  4. Figure 1. The Line and Page Breaks tab of the Paragraph dialog box.

  5. Select the Suppress Line Numbers check box.
  6. 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 (1136) 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: Turning Off Line Numbering.

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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