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Add lines, borders and shading

You can enhance the appearance of your document by adding horizontal lines, borders and shading to columns of text, cells, individual paragraphs, or the entire page.

To add a horizontal line:

  1. Ensure you are working in Design Mode.
  2. In the document, place your cursor where you want to add the line.
  3. On the ribbon, click Insert | Line Style.
  4. In the Line Style dialog, define the appearance, location, and extent of the line as required. Click OK.

A horizontal line is added to the page at your cursor location. To edit an existing line, double-click the line, or right-click the line and select Edit Line Style.

To add a border to a page:

  1. Ensure you are working in Design Mode.
  2. On the ribbon, click File | Print | Page Setup.
  3. In the Page Setup dialog under the Scope group, select whether to apply the border to the current page, the current page and all following pages, or the whole document.
  4. Click Borders....
  5. In the Borders and Shading dialog under the Borders group, select Enabled.
  6. In the margin fields, define the distance from the edge of the page to display the border. Click OK, then OK.

A border is added to the page or pages. To preview the border, click File | Print | Print Preview.

To add shading to a page:

  1. Ensure you are working in Design Mode.
  2. On the ribbon, click File | Print | Page Setup.
  3. In the Page Setup dialog under the Scope group, select whether to apply shading to the current page, the current page and all following pages, or the whole document.
  4. Click Borders....
  5. In the Borders and Shading dialog under the Shading group, select Enabled.
  6. In the Shade intensity field, set the percentage of opacity for the shading.
  7. In the margin fields, define the distance from the edge of the page to display the shading. Click OK, then OK.

Shading is added to the page or pages. To preview the shading, click File | Print | Print Preview.