MS Word came on the market as a word processor but has grown up to provide many features that are inherent in a Desk Top Publishing software. One such feature is Borders and Shading, found on the Format menu. The Tables and Borders toolbar also provides some of the commands and options found in the Borders and Shading dialog box.

Borders and Shading

Word provides you with a variety of choices. You can apply a border, shading or both around a single word, a selection of words, a paragraph, a group of paragraphs, a single page, a section, or all pages. The border can be an outside border or you can add just a top, bottom, left, or right border or some combination. You can also apply background shading. Choose from one of Word’s standard colors or custom design a color.

One of the newer options found in Word 2000 and XP is the Horizontal Line. This feature inserts a graphic dividing line between paragraphs. With Word’s flexible options, you have the creative freedom to design the style and look you want to achieve.

Let’s review the options found in the Border’s and Shading dialog box.

There are 3 tabs at the top of the Borders and Shading dialog box
• Borders –applies to selected text or paragraphs
• Page Border – applies to the whole document, the first page of the document, all but the first page of the document, or a section of the document
• Shading – applies to selected text or paragraph.

The Apply to: field found in the lower right hand corner of the dialog box has a drop down from which you can choose how you want your selections applied within the document. Depending on which tab you activate, you will be presented with different choices on whether it applies to a page, the whole document, a selection of text, or a paragraph.

The Options button lets you set the margin width from the text in the document to the border. Each border (top, bottom, left, right) can be set to a different margin setting in Office 2000 and XP.

The dialog box for the borders tab and the page borders contains three sections:
• Settings
• Style, Color and Width
• Preview (including border options for custom borders)

Details on how to use the borders and shading dialog box are described in the
Using Borders and Shading Dialog Boxarticle.

Details on how to insert a graphic Horizontal lin in your document is described in the
Inserting a Horizontal Line in Your Document article.

Please visit our forumand tell us how you have used the Borders and Shading to enhance your documents.

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