border bottom around multiple paragraphs

Question

Hi everyone,

I have about 5 lines separated by hard paragraph breaks. When I select all five lines (paragraphs) and then try to put a border bottom around all of them, Word only puts the border on the bottom most paragraph. If I try to then go and manually apply the border to another paragraph, it applies it but it also removes the border previously applied to the first paragraph.

I'm not sure what I'm doing wrong and wondered if someone could give me some advice?

Thanks in advance.

Answer 1

For the last paragraph, you do need Bottom Border because that isn't covered by "inside."

The method you're using for your table is the easiest and probably the best, but another approach is to apply the bottom border to the text in the cells instead of the cells themselves. If the cell padding (inside margin) alone is not enough separation, you can apply indents to the cell contents.

Answer 2

You need to use "Inside Horizontal Border" to add lines between the paragraphs you have selected.

The "Bottom Border" will be applied the last paragraph in any selection.

Answer 3

Thanks for the replies,

The inside horizontal border has worked but I noticed that it didn't apply the rule to the last paragraph. Is there any way to do that?

Also, just one more related question if that's ok? If I have a 2 column, 5 row table, and I apply a border to the bottom of the cells, the border looks like it's spanning both columns. Ideally, I'd like there to be a gap between the borders of the two columns but I can't figure out a way to get this to work other than inserting a third column in between the two and using this to enforce the gap.

Is there an easier, cleaner way to do this?

Appreciate any further help.

Answer 4

To add to what Dean has said, the "inside horizontal border" option will only display when at least two consecutive paragraphs are selected in the document (this applies even if you are modifying a paragraph style that includes border formatting).