Borders and backgrounds

Borders and backgrounds are applied at the paragraph level - you can put a border around one or more paragraphs but not individual sentences within paragraphs.

Borders and backgrounds are set with the borders buttons on the right of the Format toolbar (see Toolbars) or in the Borders and Shading box from the Format menu.

Select the text you wish to put a border around and use the border buttons as follows:

image\bordline.gif

Set the border Line Style for subsequent borders. If you want to change an existing border, set the style and re-apply the border edges by removing and then reinstating them (as outlined below).

image\bordstyl.gif

Set the background Shade Style. Choose from a range of options between Clear and Solid. By default, the background is Clear and white - this can be changed in the borders dialog (see Using the borders dialog). In conjunction with the Shade Style you can determine the color of the shading by selecting one of the options in Fore Color, bearing in mind that no color can be set for a clear background.

image\bordleft.gif image\bordrght.gif image\borddown.gif image\bordtop.gif

Turn on or off the left, right, bottom and top border lines using Change border style. Select one of these by clicking on the arrow and selecting it in the displayed box. The currently selected line style will be applied to the selected border.

image\bordall.gif

Turn all borders on, using Change border style.

image\bordnone.gif

Turn all borders off (that is, remove borders), again using Change border style.

 

In addition to the above border styles there are others that can be set only in the Borders and Shading dialog, including the option to change border colors other than the standard black and the ability to specify an offset between the border and text - see Using the borders dialog.

See also:

Formatting paragraphs