How do I create right-justified underscores?

[Ann Onymous]

I'm creating a document in Word X for Mac that will be saved as a PDF
for users to print out and fill in by hand. I want to be able to create
lines for user answers that extend neatly to the right margin, but can't
find a feature that does this simply. Typing shift-hyphen underscores
results in printed lines of inconsistent length, and setting a paragraph
bottom border underlines the text as well as the blank space, and I
don't want the text underlined.

To clarify, I want something like

Name _______________

Address ____________

and so forth, where every horizontal line extends exactly to the right
margin.

I have figured out that this can be clumsily accomplished by putting
everything in tables, but there must be a better way. Tell me there's a
better way...please...

 

[matt neuburg]

I'm creating a document in Word X for Mac that will be saved as a PDF
for users to print out and fill in by hand. I want to be able to create
lines for user answers that extend neatly to the right margin, but can't
find a feature that does this simply. Typing shift-hyphen underscores
results in printed lines of inconsistent length, and setting a paragraph
bottom border underlines the text as well as the blank space, and I
don't want the text underlined.

To clarify, I want something like

Name _______________

Address ____________

and so forth, where every horizontal line extends exactly to the right
margin.

I have figured out that this can be clumsily accomplished by putting
everything in tables, but there must be a better way. Tell me there's a
better way...please...

Insert a right-justified tab and set its leader to be underscores. Now
type "Name", hit space, hit tab, and you're done. m.

 

[Ann Onymous]

Insert a right-justified tab and set its leader to be underscores. Now
type "Name", hit space, hit tab, and you're done. m.

Thanks! That takes care of the uniform right justification, but the
leader prints as a series of underscores with tiny (1 px) white spaces
between them, and I need an unbroken line to match other lines that I
create by manually typing underscores. It seems that Word will only
allow me to choose from the three leader characters it offers. Why does
MS insist on restricting the user's flexibility? It's so un-Maclike...

Any ideas of how I can specify the leader character length, thickness,
etc?

 

[matt neuburg]

Thanks! That takes care of the uniform right justification, but the
leader prints as a series of underscores with tiny (1 px) white spaces
between them, and I need an unbroken line

On my machine it *is* an unbroken line, both on screen and when printed.
I can't explain the difference in our results, sorry. (I'm using Word
2004 but I can hardly believe that explains it.) m.

 

[Bill Weylock]

Instead of worrying about this, build a table to deal with it. You can
specify solid line borders as thin as .25 for the bottom of the cell.

 

[Phillip M. Jones, CE.T.]

I'm creating a document in Word X for Mac that will be saved as a PDF
for users to print out and fill in by hand. I want to be able to create
lines for user answers that extend neatly to the right margin, but can't
find a feature that does this simply. Typing shift-hyphen underscores
results in printed lines of inconsistent length, and setting a paragraph
bottom border underlines the text as well as the blank space, and I
don't want the text underlined.

To clarify, I want something like

Name _______________

Address ____________

and so forth, where every horizontal line extends exactly to the right
margin.

I have figured out that this can be clumsily accomplished by putting
everything in tables, but there must be a better way. Tell me there's a
better way...please...

Try creating tabs (click in the ruler then slide to desired point.
Next go to edit menu and tab. Next remove all tabs except the one you just created.
Next highlight the tab you just created.
Now locate the desired line type you want. dotted, slotted, or solid line, click on
its radio button (dot). Click to save changes.

Next click type in your text, then imediately hit tab. Voila! you have a line
created that will end at the exact same spot on the page. any thing below this point
will tab to the same point with a line. Until you go into tab edit and change it.

This is a common feature that has been around since word 6.0 on Mac.

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[Phillip M. Jones, CE.T.]

On my machine it *is* an unbroken line, both on screen and when printed.
I can't explain the difference in our results, sorry. (I'm using Word
2004 but I can hardly believe that explains it.) m.

Its been the way the poster above has stated since word 6.

go back to the tab edit menu and check again there should be 4 choices.
Blank
Dots .....
Slots ------
Lines ______ (solid lines)

Go to Edit menu > Tabs.

Choose the tab you created (highlight by clicking on it. Look and see what radio
button you active - filled in - choose the correct one.

Note if you are making PDF's from this you might see breaks in the lines but that
has to do with acrobat or Reader not Word.
--
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Phillip M. Jones, CET |MEMBER:VPEA (LIFE) ETA-I, NESDA,ISCET, Sterling
616 Liberty Street |Who's Who. PHONE:276-632-5045, FAX:276-632-0868
Martinsville Va 24112-1809 |[email protected], ICQ11269732, AIM pjonescet
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

If it's "fixed", don't "break it"!

mailto[email protected]

<http://www.kimbanet.com/~pjones/default.htm>
<http://home.kimbanet.com/~pjones/birthday/index.htm>
<http://vpea.exis.net>

 

[Ann Onymous]

Thanks, all. I think I'll have to go with tables, which is clumsy, but
offers the greatest degree of final control over appearance.

The other two posters describe how the Format>Tabs dialog *should* work,
but sadly, it doesn't. The four options are None, Dotted underline,
Hyphens (not a dashed underscore, but a mid-height separated dashed
line) and Underscore. This appears on screen as a solid thin underscore
when viewed at 100%, but at 500% you see that the line is indeed a
series of separate underscore characters, and at printer resolution the
spaces between the lines are visible (I'm talking about the Word
document itself; I haven't created a PDF, so Preview/Reader aren't
relevant here).

Yes, I'm being anal, but isn't that what a powerful word processing app
is supposed to allow the user to be?

Anyway, thanks again to all who helped me investigate this matter.

 

[Bill Weylock]

Once you get used to using tables, I think you will wonder why this mattered
to you. They are a great solution. The problems of course occur when you
need a lot of blanks of varying lengths within a fair bit of text.

Even then, I think you will find you can make tables work well for you.

I use a single cell table for a horizontal rule whenever I want one.


Best,


- Bill

 

[Dayo Mitchell]

Have you checked to make sure there isn't a more recent printer driver
available for your printer? Or that you are not printing in draft mode or
anything? Since Matt Neuberg doesn't see this problem, conceivably there is
something about your setup causing it.... Actually, do test it in PDF, as
that uses a different "printer driver" and may produce different results.

Sorry, can't test myself. I think general advice on creating forms *is* to
use tables, both in WinWord and MacWord, on the offchance that info makes
the situation less annoying.

DM

 

[Bill Weylock]

Even if you can get the underlining to work as the leader (which of course
it should do), the lines look lousy by comparison to what you can do with
table borders.

 

[JeffMaxwell]

Try this: Set up a right-justify tab just slightly left of your right
margin. Type option-space, then tab, then option-space. Now highlight
all three and turn on underline.