How do I get rid of unwanted horizontal lines in Word 98?

[Gary Goldberg]

I've used a line full of equal signs to separate individual documents I
translate but somehow Word98 creates additional narrow double-line spacers
that I can't erase.

Does anyone know where they come from and how to get rid of them?

 

[Daiya Mitchell]

They are borders. Created by the "borders" setting under AutoFormat As You
Type, so uncheck that (see Tools | AutoCorrect, you probably want to uncheck
a lot of stuff in those 4 tabs); and eliminate by using Format | Borders and
Shading, select None, OK.

 

[Gary Goldberg]

I'm afraid it didn't work for me. Perhaps I haven't described the problem
clearly enough: I'm getting a solid horizontal line between some
paragraphs. If I start at the second paragraph and continually hit "delete"
the line disappears when the blank line between the paragraphs disappears
but it reappears if I insert a line with the return key.

 

[Daiya Mitchell]

No, my fix just wasn't clear enough. To get rid of the line, select the
line and the space/text around it and use Format | Borders and Shading, to
set it to None. Change the AutoCorrect settings to prevent a few equals into
turning into a line again.

 

[Gary Goldberg]

Thanks for your persistence Daiya, but when I selecte several paras surrounding
the offending "pseudoline" it often reappears just above the area I selected.

I think I tried selecting the entire document and doing much the same thing
based on ?your? initial advice but I lost all the line spacing between paras,
which took some time to restore (in a 52-page Word document).

 

[Daiya Mitchell]

Hi Gary,

Now I'm confused. But still persistent! If you type equals a few times,
then hit enter, and Word converts it into a double line that covers the
width of the page, that is a Border. I don't think there's any other
possibility. That's what it sounded like you had done in your initial
message. (Although I have forgotten details about Word 98).

But now I'm not sure what you did, because you are referring to
double-lines, and solid lines. It isn't the dotted line that marks page
breaks in Normal view, I assume.

But I wonder whether you could have added a border to the Normal style.
With the cursor at the problematic line, go to Format | Style. What comes
up in the left column, and what is its definition on the right side?

If you want, you can send me a piece of the doc with the line in it, and I
will play with it. You will have to edit my email address for it to work
(remove caps).

Side note: I have to say, setting Borders to None should not lose your line
spacing, which makes me wonder what your doc formatting is like. If you are
hitting enter twice between paragraph, you should know that you can automate
extra space after each paragraph. If you are writing 52-page documents on a
regular basis, you should be using styles and templates, because using Word
is much easier when you understand how it operates. If you are not familiar
with such things and want to learn to improve your control over Word, post
back for some links.

DM

 

[Gary Goldberg]

Hi Daiya. Thanks for hanging in there with me.

I managed at length to eliminate these "horizontal borders" as this
was a long translation which I'd been working on for weeks.

You might want to replicate the problem, if you can. I used an entire line
of equal signs as dividers between the documents I translate. At some point
additional solid horizontal lines appeared in various places in the text.

 

[Daiya Mitchell]

Meant to reply, and then your post vanished on me! I don't think I would be
able to replicate your problem, but if you have a copy of the doc with the
problematic lines, I'd be interested to take a look at it.

DM