Sep 28, 2010 - Susan Harkins shows you two easy ways to insert a horizontal line into a Word document. Mar 7, 2019 - Breaking up sections of a document by typing individual characters to form a line is a time-consuming and potentially error-prone method.
When it comes to business documents, it's not just the content that matters. Their layout and general appearance is also important, both to ensure they're as clear as possible and to make them look polished, professional and attractive. Divider lines, in particular, make documents easier to quickly skim for relevant information, especially when paired with clearly marked section headings. Depending on your preferences and on the effect you want to get, you can insert a solid divider line using several different methods.
Let AutoFormat Help
Provided it's switched on, Word's AutoFormat feature makes it possible for you to add a line with just four key presses. Type three hyphens in a row on an otherwise blank line and then press 'Enter' to create a thin, solid line; using three underscores instead will result in a thicker solid line, while using three equal signs will result in a double line. Three asterisks will turn into a dotted line and three tildes into a wavy line, while three pound signs will result in a triple line. To check if AutoFormat is on, click the 'File' tab, 'Options' and then select the 'Proofing' tab. Click the 'AutoCorrect Options' button, the 'AutoFormat as You Type' tab and enable the 'Border Lines' option.
Select a Horizontal Line
Probably the most straightforward way of creating a horizontal line is to select it from the Borders menu. On the Home tab, click the arrow on the Borders button and select 'Horizontal Line.' By default, a horizontal line created in this manner is a thin gray rectangle, although it can be customized in terms of height, width, color and alignment by right-clicking on the line and selecting 'Format Horizontal Line.' You can also choose from a variety of more elaborate lines. To do this, click the arrow on the Borders button, select 'Borders and Shading' and then click the 'Horizontal Line' button.
Use a Paragraph Border
A bottom border applied to a paragraph isn't quite a horizontal line but can simulate it. On the Home tab, click the arrow on the Borders button and select 'Bottom Border' to apply a border to the paragraph in which your text cursor is currently placed. By default, the border is a solid, thin line, but if you've previously applied a custom border to any part of your document it'll use the same options. To customize border settings, click the arrow on the Borders button and select 'Borders and Shading.'
Create a Line With Shapes
To create a line using the Shapes tool, click the 'Insert' tab, the 'Shapes' button, and then select the shape you want to use and click and drag to draw it in your document. The shapes in the lines category are the obvious choice, but any shape can work as a line if drawn sufficiently thin. Once you've created the line, you can change its color and apply various effects using the tools on the Format tab that becomes available whenever you select the line.
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About the Author
Laurel Storm has been writing since 2001, and helping people with technology for far longer than that. Some of her articles have been published in 'Messaggero dei Ragazzi', an Italian magazine for teenagers. She holds a Master of Arts in writing for television and new media from the University of Turin.
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Storm, Laurel. 'How to Make a Solid Line in a Microsoft Word Document.' Small Business - Chron.com, http://smallbusiness.chron.com/make-solid-line-microsoft-word-document-75303.html. Accessed 10 November 2019.
Storm, Laurel. (n.d.). How to Make a Solid Line in a Microsoft Word Document. Small Business - Chron.com. Retrieved from http://smallbusiness.chron.com/make-solid-line-microsoft-word-document-75303.html
Storm, Laurel. 'How to Make a Solid Line in a Microsoft Word Document' accessed November 10, 2019. http://smallbusiness.chron.com/make-solid-line-microsoft-word-document-75303.html
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Susan, like many people, needs to create a form in a Word document. The form needs to contain lines in it, with each line showing where someone should type something. Susan is wondering how to create the lines so that they remain looking the same after someone actually types something where the lines are located.
There are a couple of things you can do. The first is to try using tabs to indicate where you want people to enter information. For instance, let's say you want a line to begin 1.5 inches from the left margin and then have that line extend for 3 inches from that point. You can do this by setting two tab stops: one at 1.5 inches and the other at 4.5 inches. The first tab stop should be left aligned and the second should be right aligned.
Then, select the second tab stop and apply the underline attribute. You now have a line exactly 3 inches wide. If someone positions the insertion point at the beginning of the line and starts typing, their typing is also underlined, so it looks natural. As long as what is being typed does not extend beyond the 3 inches, you are fine.
Another approach is to draw underlines where you want information to be entered. Since the underlines are graphical, they are not affected by what you type and will remain visible on the document. (Their visibility, of course, can be affected by how they are placed in relation to other drawing objects or to the text itself, so you may need to do a bit of experimentation to get lines exactly as you want.)
The way that most people approach the problem of underlines in forms, however, is to use tables. Just set up a table that is as simple or complex as necessary to accommodate what you need. The cells in the table can be selected and borders applied, as necessary, to create the lines you need. When someone needs to enter information, all they need to do is click in the table cell and start typing. The line (which is really the cell border) is not affected by what is typed.
For a good discussion about how to set up lines in forms, see this page at the Word MVP site: