Insert Horizontal Lines In Word Documents Quickly
When you want to quickly insert a horizontal line into your Word document instead of going through the Borders and Shading dialog box in the Ribbon here is a keyboard shortcut to save you time.
In this example I put a simple divider line between two paragraphs in my document. Just type 3 dashes — and hit ‘Enter’ immediately after.
You can also change the type of horizontal line you are inputting by changing up the characters you use for this short cut. In the following Word screen shot the green highlighted area shows the various horizontal line breaks possible. Three asterisks***, three underscores___, three equal signs ===, three pound signs ###, and three tildes ~~~
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When I type the ‘—’ it doesn’t work. It does on other computers, just not this one. I can’t find the option to fix it. I thought it was autocorrect but i dont know. HELP
how do you remove the horizontal line that was just created?
@jon: I have the same problem!
To get rid of the line, put the cursor directly above it and select Borders and Shading from the Format menu. Click the None box and click OK. To prevent the automatic insertion of borders, select AutoCorrect Options from the Tools menu, click the AutoFormat As You Type tab, and uncheck Border lines. In Word 97, the menu item is AutoCorrect and the check box is labeled simply Borders.
thank you for this GREAT!!!! tipp. word 2007 was horrible for me, but now at least one feature ist perfect!
the horizontal lines in word 2007 are FAR from perfect.
Now try putting a horizontal line after a bulleted list. It becomes impossible to get the left margin of the line the way it is normally.
Curses!
Thanks Thanks Thanks!! I am using Word as my default editor in Outlook and I’ve been to all the F1’s and searched Google and everything.. It simply works. thanks!
This is so AWESOME!!!!! I was trying to create a resume and could not figure out for the life of me how to insert a horizontal line! Then i discovered how to insert it from the borders on top, well that was HORRIBLE!!! If you don’t draw it straight it shows on the document.AAUUGH!!!!! Until I went to google search and FOUND HOPE!!!! THANK U SO MUCH!!!!!!!!!
Thank You for the kind review Rebeeca!
How do you re-enable it in 2007? I have disabled it and want it back on???
How do you shorten the lines?
you save my time and I learn an other feature
thank you
This is a great comment. Thank you so much. Could anyone similarly tell me how to insert a vertical line?
@Luis: The way to re-enable it is Office Logo Button -> Word Options Button -> Proofing -> AutoCorrect Options Button -> AutoFormat As You Type Tab -> Border lines check box.
FINALLY! A way to do it without having to fill the whole page width with _’s, just type it 3 times!
thanks!
Great tutorial. Thanks for the fantastic instructions
THANK YOU for telling me how to remove those damn horizontal lines
Thanks a lot….Your help is appreciated.
I cant get rid of the line. where is the format menu? and what if I only wnat to get rid of one?
Every time I save my resume as a “.doc” document, it converts to a “.docx” document when I try to email it. WHY? Can I fix this?
@Pat: How are attempting to email the file?
In my Outlook Express, I have the “paper clip” symbol for an attachment. I click on that, find my resume on my browser, highlight it and press “attach.” Somebody just told me yesterday that the appended “x” is simply a symbol showing it’s a Word 2007 document (vs Word 2003). Does that hold any credence? Thanks, jd2066
@Pat: If you do that then it’s already a .docx file when you attach the file. No converting is happening when you attach it.
If you want to send it as a .doc file then in Word, select the Office Button, Move over Save As and click “Word 97-2003 Document”. Then you save it somewhere and attach it.
Another way to do a nice graphic horizontal line:
Click the BOARDERS AND SHADING button, then click HORIZONTAL LINE button. Choose your line and click OK. The default is a nice plain horizontal line.
zOMG I just spent like half an hour looking for “insert –> horizontal line” like I do on my computer at home. Thanks man. Holy moly that was a waste of time…
haha
stupid new office
These types of lines are hard to get rid of. The only way I’ve found in word 2007 is:
1. Put the cursor in front of the line.
2. Click on the Page Layout ribbon.
3. Click on Page Borders.
4. Click on the Borders tab.
5. Select a Setting of None.
6. Click OK.
In Word 2007 if you have disabled the line drawing heres what you do to Enable it:
1 Click on the Office Button and choose Word Options
2 On the Proofing menu, click the AutoCorrect Options button
3 On the AutoFormat as you Type tab
4 Place a check mark on the Border Lines Box.
5 Press OK.
It should work now!
jd2066 & Dottiedi: Thank’s so much! Couldn’t find the setting. It would be nice if they told you somewhere that “horizonal line” was now called “Border line.” Thanks for setting me straight.
thanks dottiedi & others, agree with cliff1 it would be helpful if there was more of a clue how to do this.
Hey, I saw someone ask where “Borders and Shading” was – so, here it goes:
Under the Home tab, look for PARAGRAPH (Written beneath the Icons) and then just run the cursor over each of the options and one will say “Borders” or “Bottom Border” and then click on it and select “No Border”.
THANKS, I spent three hours try to get rid of HL , finally I got your comment from google. Really Thanks, They Disappeared .
How do you change the colour of the line?
I get 3 horizontal lines (taking up 3 carriage returns) instead of one and I can’t change it back to one line. (I type in 3 dashes to get a regular thin line) Any ideas?
Something I have just found out is that, like a lot of other similar formatting issues (bullets, etc), this trick does NOT work in documents with any Protected (e.g. forms) sections. Works fine on unprotected docs, tho. SO I just leave my border button set to horizontal line and do a quick jump up to the top of the window, click it, and then back. Not perfect (and it’s a different border), but it works. Just a heads-up.
RE: the entries about “how do you remove the horizontal line that was just created?”…
Thanks soooo much for that solution. I pulled my hair out for two days trying to figure out how to get rid of that stupid horizontal line. While some of the features of Word 2007 are great, their help documentation is dreadful! You would think a simple query in the help menu like “remove horizontal line” would yield an answer… but nothing even comes close on the query result.
While the solution was simple, it was hardly obvious (the fault of Microsoft, not yours).
Anyway, thanks again for this great solution.
RJ
yes. finally a way to organize my paragraphs
<3
At least for Word 2003:
Alternative A:
Type three dashes and hit Enter:
If nothing happens, the feature is disabled; to enable, in Word, go to Tools -> Options -> AutoCorrect Options -> AutoFormat As You Type -> Apply as You Type -> check Border Lines.
Experiment with three Underscores _, three Asterisks*, three Equal signs=, three Tildes~, etc.
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Alternative B:
In Word doc, put cursor where you want line to start; click Format -> Borders and Shading -> Page Borders or Borders -> upper horizontal border icon (or experiment with the lower horizontal border icon) -> OK.
Voila’
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Good luck …
RWS