There is a line in my document that I can’t delete because I can’t select it. How did it get there, and what can I do about it?

Article contributed by Suzanne S. Barnhill and Dave Rado

Although there are other possibilities, most likely what you’re dealing with is the paragraph border that Word creates when you type three or more hyphens (-), underscore characters (_), equals signs (=),asterisks (*), tildes (~), or hash signs (#), and press Enter. By default these characters are converted to a thin, thick, double, broken, zigzag, or thick-and-thin border at the bottom of a paragraph.

To make matters more confusing, this border is applied to the paragraph before the one where you typed the hyphens, underscores, or equals signs.

To remove this “line,” select the paragraph above it and remove all the borders from it as follows:

• In Word 2003 and earlier, go to the Format | Borders and Shading dialog, and click the preset picture for “None.” Alternatively, click the down arrow beside theBorders button on the Formatting or Tables and Borders toolbar and choose the last (No Border) option in the palette.
• In Word 2007, on the Home tab, locate the Paragraph group. The bottom right button is the Borders button; click the arrow beside it and select No Border.
• In any version, you can simply click in the offending paragraph and press Ctrl+Q, which resets the paragraph formatting to the default for the style (which doesn’t include borders). This, however, will remove any other direct paragraph formatting as well as the border.

Note: If you’ve pressed Enter several times trying to get rid of the line, you will merely have applied the border formatting to all the paragraphs you added, as well as to the original one. This won’t be obvious, because when several consecutive paragraphs have the same “Bottom Border” formatting applied to them, the border only appears below the last of them (Word takes “bottom” literally). So If you then remove the border formatting from the paragraph that has the line below it, the line will move up one paragraph. The trick is to select all the affected paragraphs and either press Ctrl+Q or choose No Border.

To prevent this from happening again, you need to disable “Automatic borders.”

• In Word 2003 and earlier, go to Tools | AutoCorrect Options | AutoFormat As You Type and clear the check box for “Borders” or “Border lines” under “Apply as you type.”
• In Word 2007, Office Button | Word Options | Proofing | AutoCorrect Options | AutoFormat As You Type and clear the check box for “Border lines” under “Apply as you type.”

It is a good idea to turn off most of the options on the “AutoFormat” and “AutoFormat As You Type” tabs of AutoCorrect Options. For more details, see “Word is always making changes I don’t expect. How can I get more control over my formatting?”