Horizontal Line Word 97

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I’m a novice Word user and have run into a problem. I hit “enter” within a document hoping to create more space between two lines of text and a thick horizontal line appeared. I can drag it between the two lines but can’t delete it. I’ve tried everything I can think of and been through Help but to no avail. Can anyone tell me how to get rid of it? Thanks.

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What view are you in: Normal, Print Layout, or Outline? Check View on the main menu bar.

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The horizontal line appears in Normal and Print Layout views but not in Outline.

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This may help
Click on Tools > Auto Correct and select the Auto Format as you Type Tab
Remove the tick from the box marked Borders Click OK.

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Thanks for your response. I did as you suggested and it appears that nothing has changed. As I recall, the cursor was near the center of the page when the line was generated by the “enter” key if that’s a factor. It’s very strange. I can’t seem to recreate the conditions that produced the line.

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You can drag the line?? If you click it, does it get “handles” like a picture would in a drawing program? If so, just press delete. If not, it’s probably a border on one of the two paragraphs. Assuming you don’t want any borders, select both paragraphs, open Format|Borders and Shading…, click the box to the left of None, and then Okay. (I’m looking at a Word 2000 dialog, but I think they were very similar.) Does that clear it?

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That took care of it. I had tried Borders and Shading before but I wasn’t selecting anything. Why would using the enter key create the line anyway? Thanks alot for your help.

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It sounds like you inadvertently created the line by typing either 3 or more hyphens, or 3 or more underscores, followed by the Enter key. These combinations automatically insert a border line if you have the following setting checked:

Tools > Autocorrect > AutoFormat As You Type (tab) > Apply as you type (Borders checkbox)

George Tipton

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The three underscores would apply here I think. Thanks.

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Since you are new to word… There are plenty of ways other than hitting “enter” to add space. Where are you looking to add space? Are you looking to add space between paragraphs? There is a wonderful tool in Word that is “Format Paragraph.” Either go to Format and then to Paragraph or just right click anywhere in the paragraph and play a bit with the dialog box that comes up. Lots of neat stuff you can do with the dialog box that comes up. There is even a preview pane so you can see what you are doing. And while you’re playing, go to Format Font, or right click and go to Font or highlight some text and hit Control+D and play a bit with that dialog box. Word is a fun program (at least I think it’s fun). Enjoy your exploration. I believe that the best way to learn a program is to play with it. Make a play document (one that you care not about – one that you can run amok with). Then right click everywhere and just see what happens when you do stuff. Neat – real neat.

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Thanks for the suggestion. I will take a look.

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