I just cannot remove this horizontal line which word 2003 has inserted in my document. I also can't seem to highlight it.
I have switched off auto format as you type 'border lines' but it doesn't make any difference. I have also tried highlighting it (though it never seems to be selectable) and going to borders and shading ,and clicking no border, but it still doesn't work.

Is there any way of ever removing this line or making sure it never reappears, or is it just a permanent feature in word, therefore I should move to Open Office?

The horizontal line is probably the one that separates the pages in the document. It helps you to know where you are located in the document.

Please try making a document and printing it out and see if the horizontal line is there.

I've checked, no its not the page seperator.

Just out of interest, have you got any formatting marks turned on?

(Tools > Options > View > Formatting Marks)

Quote:

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Originally Posted by zelta2139

I just cannot remove this horizontal line which word 2003 has inserted in my document. I also can't seem to highlight it.
I have switched off auto format as you type 'border lines' but it doesn't make any difference. I have also tried highlighting it (though it never seems to be selectable) and going to borders and shading ,and clicking no border, but it still doesnt work.

Is there any way of ever removing this line or making sure it never reappears, or is it just a permanent feature in word, therefore I should move to Open Office?

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Hi Zelta2139,

You didn’t say if this line is on all new documents also which if it is then you need to modify Normal.dot or it will keep coming back with each new document.

Let’s try the easy solution first.

Open the document with the horizontal line.

Go to Edit, Select All

Then Format, Borders and Shading

On the Borders and Shading Window under Setting: select None

Under Apply to: click the down pointer and choose Text

Now click OK

Another way to select this line is to run the mouse pointer along the white area on the left side of the page and point to the line and press the left mouse button then press Delete on the Keyboard.

Good Luck.

Dale :-)

Hi Dale, tried the first method, switching off borders and shading but unfortunately its still there.

Tried the second, but it 'skips over' it with a paragraph marker above and below, can't seem to select that line.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by zelta2139

Hi Dale, tried the first method, switching off borders and shading but unfortunately its still there.

Tried the second, but it 'skips over' it with a paragraph marker above and below, can't seem to select that line.

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Hi Zelta,

Try this:
1. Place your cursor on the line above your black line.
2. On your Formatting toolbar, look for the icon for Borders (to me, it looks like an old-fashioned windowpane)
3. Click on the drop-down arrow
4. Choose the icon that looks like it's made of all dots.

Your line should be gone now.

Barbarah

Zelta,

Here is what helped for me:

- Place the cursor just below the horizontal line
- Press Backspace

To my surprise this helped, I expected it to never go...

Greets,
DJ

PS: by the way this was a line I created myself by typing '---' and Enter, but nonetheless it started multiplying itself when I typed and Entered near it...

I had this problem as well and it is very annoying. My solution was as follows:

a) Highlight the entire document
b) Go to Format - Styles and formatting
c) Scroll down the list of available styles and choose Normal

That should fix it. The problem (for me at least) was happening because I had somehow chosen a style for the document that included a heavy horizontal line at the end. That was why I couldn't highlight it or delete it like a normal piece of text.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by zelta2139

I just cannot remove this horizontal line which word 2003 has inserted in my document. I also can't seem to highlight it.
I have switched off auto format as you type 'border lines' but it doesn't make any difference. I have also tried highlighting it (though it never seems to be selectable) and going to borders and shading ,and clicking no border, but it still doesnt work.

Is there any way of ever removing this line or making sure it never reappears, or is it just a permanent feature in word, therefore I should move to Open Office?

---

I tried this several times to test it.

You MUST have your insertion point at the end of the line of text above the line you want to remove. SELECT from that spot to the beginning of the paragraph UNDER the horizontal line.

With that selection, click FORMAT, then BORDERS AND SHADING, then NONE.

CAVEAT:

IF, however, NONE is already selected, select the style of line just under the top selection. THEN click NONE.

The line should be gone.

It's this "conditional" success that caused me to put in the caveat.

Had this same problem and "MichDuck" had the answer in their post from Nov 20 2007. Thanks MichDuck. So simple & so logical.

THANKS Barbarah,

This was driving me crazy until I checked that setting!