Paragraph borders (Word 2002 SP3)

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Hi

I have an annoying problem with borders. Let me explain with an example:

Paragraph 1
Paragraph 2
Paragraph 3
Paragraph 4

If I click anywhere in paragraph 3, and apply a top border to this paragraph. A border appears above paragraph 3. If I click in paragraph 1, a border appears above paragraph 1. If I click in paragraph 2, and do the same, the border above paragraph 3 disappears and no border appears above paragraph 2. I am left with just a border above paragraph 1. Then if I click in paragraph 3 once again, and re-apply the border than disappeared, I am left with no border for any of the paragraph. Seems like the border monster ate my borders.

Can anybody shed some light on this!

Gilles

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There is a feature called the format painter which might be able to do what you’re describing, but it is normally turned off. It’s difficult to think of any other tool that transfer formatting settings on a single click. But that said, I turn off all the checkboxes after the first one under Tools>AutoCorrect…, AutoFormat as You Type tab, and many under Tools>Options…, Edit tab, so that the least number of unpredictable things happens when I’m working.

One other random thought: could the paragraph breaks be melting down into something else? If, after your borders shift around, you do a Find for ^p, does it stop at each one or does it pass them by?

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The format painter does not work in this instance… Plus most of the features are turn off in AutoCorrect.

The paragraph markers at all there, but they seem to behave as if they were a “text wrapping breaking”.

Thanks anyway for your suggestions.

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When you apply a top border to multiple successive paragraphs, Word only puts a border above all of them, not a border above each single one. If you select three paragraphs at once and apply a top border, you’ll see how it does this. You’re applying the top border to each one separately, but the end result is the same.

To get a border above each of the three paragraphs, what you need is both a top border and an “in-between” border (I don’t know if there’s an actual name for that, sorry!) If you select your three paragraphs, and then use the two buttons shown in the picture, it should give you what you’re expecting to see.

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Thanks Cris,

This worked beautifully… But you would think that you could apply a border above each paragraph at your leisure. I’m guessing that the top border of a paragraph is the same as the bottom border of the previous paragraph, and since I did not ask for a bottom border to the previous paragraph, Word gets confused.

Anyhow, I now have a solution.

Thanks again,

Gilles

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I think it makes a little more sense if you consider the “top” border as the “top of a box” border, not necessarily the “top of this paragraph border”. For example, if you select three paragraphs and tell Word to put a box border around them, you get a single border above the first paragraph, not a border above all three of the paragraphs. But when you select the three paragraphs and apply only the top border, Word still treats the “top border” as if you were putting in a complete box. Hence also needing to use the in-between borders to get a border above each individual paragraph.

One of those features that isn’t completely intuitive, except in “Word-logic”, which doesn’t always measure up to real-logic

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