how do I keep thin lines to turn into thick ones automatically?

[Janine at ASH]

I am a teacher and often type quizzes with blanks. I use the underscore key
to draw the blanks. Most of them are 2 to 4 inches long. Occasionally they
are a whole line. Sometimes--I do not know how or why--the lines
automatically turn into thick lines I cannot remove at all. How can I erase
them?

 

[Pesach Shelnitz]

Hi Janine,

By default, Word automatically creates six different types of border lines
that stretch across the page when you type a hyphen (-), the underscrore
character (_), an equal sign (=), a tilde (~), the pound sign (#), or an
asterisk (*) three or more times at the beginning of a new line with nothing
before, between, or after them and then press Enter.

You can avoid the automatic generation of these lines in your case by always
typing a space (or any other text) at the beginning of the line before you
start typing your underscores or typing a space after them before you press
Enter. If you forget to insert the spaces and a line appears, you can remove
it immediately by pressing Alt+Backspace or Ctrl+Z. You can remove them later
on by selecting text from a point before before the line to a point somewhere
after the line and pressing Del.

You can also disable the automatic generation of these lines by performing
the following steps. In Word 2007, click the Microsoft Office Button, click
Word Options, click Proofreading, click Autocorrect Options, and then on the
AutoFormat As You Type tab clear the Border Lines check box. After you
disable this feature, you can enable it again by selecting the Border Lines
check box.

To disable this feature in Word 2003, on the Tools menu, click Autocorrect
Options. Then in the Autocorrect Options dialog box, on the AutoFormat As You
Type tab, clear the Border Lines check box, which is located in the Apply As
You Type Options section. After you disable this feature, you can enable it
again by selecting the Border Lines check box.