Word - Dotted line to remove

Asked By Marcus M

08-Feb-10 05:26 AM

I have just been editing a multi-page word document and something I did has
made a dotted line appear. It goes across the page from margin to margin.
Whatever I do to try to remove it does not seem to work. The line was not in
the original so some I assume some key or setting I have touched has done it.

The Word I am using is MS Office Word 2007 - something I find is a lot more
fiddly than the older version I have used for years.

Any help would be appreciated.

Thank You.

08-Feb-10 05:30 AM

See http://word.mvps.org/FAQs/Formatting/CantGetRidOfLine.htm

--
Graham Mayor -  Word MVP

My web site www.gmayor.com
Word MVP web site http://word.mvps.org

08-Feb-10 09:29 AM

That's assuming it is not just a page break.

--
Suzanne S. Barnhill
Microsoft MVP (Word)
Words into Type
Fairhope, Alabama USA
http://word.mvps.org

08-Feb-10 11:37 AM

Thank you both for your prompt response.

Graham: I have followed the link you sent - it does not work for me.

Suzanne: I see you as one of the co-authors. I recall I was looking at page
breaks when the line first appeared.  Does that help?

Regards

Marcus

08-Feb-10 01:31 PM

have nonprinting characters displayed. "Hard" (manual) page breaks are
displayed in all views as a dotted line with the words "Page Break" in the
center.

But if this dotted line is a border, you may have to remove it from several
successive paragraphs before you get rid of it entirely.

--
Suzanne S. Barnhill
Microsoft MVP (Word)
Words into Type
Fairhope, Alabama USA
http://word.mvps.org

09-Feb-10 02:14 PM

Hello again,

The position now is this.

I tried again and followed all your recommendations and also went through
all the Help answers in Word. No success so I did it the hard way, by saving
what I could, retyping the faulty bits and merged them so I now have a 30
page story that is as I wrote it.

However, doing this I stumbled across what caused the problem.

At one point I inserted *** between paragraphs as a marker denoting a scene
change in what I wrote. I centred (UK spelling) the break and immediately a
dotted line appeared. I was able to remove it by clicking on the 'undo
typing' icon.

I experimented further and found that anytime I put in 3 or more * asterisks
- left, right or centre made no difference - the line appeared.

That may help you both in future with some other questioner.

So, my problem is solved by a combination of re-doing and by stumbling on
the cause.

Many thanks for your help.

Regards to you both.

Marcus.

09-Feb-10 04:25 PM

If you had actually read the article Graham referred you to
(http://word.mvps.org/FAQs/Formatting/CantGetRidOfLine.htm) and followed the
directions there, then you would already have known this and would long
since have solved the problem.

--
Suzanne S. Barnhill
Microsoft MVP (Word)
Words into Type
Fairhope, Alabama USA
http://word.mvps.org

09-Feb-10 04:50 PM

the
gh
30
ly
on
n
at

09-Feb-10 05:25 PM

Works OK here...

09-Feb-10 06:09 PM

Works here too...

--
Terry Farrell - MSWord MVP

09-Feb-10 07:05 PM

The site was down earlier today; it is back up now.

--
Suzanne S. Barnhill
Microsoft MVP (Word)
Words into Type
Fairhope, Alabama USA
http://word.mvps.org

25-Mar-10 08:34 PM

I am getting those dotted lines as well after using an asterik to make a line.  However, I am not able to get rid of them.  Any suggestions?



Thank you,

Vickie Tuck

12-Apr-10 07:09 AM

I've had this annoying problem with other word software as well as 2007 and each time it's because I've tried to include a section break with an asterix between paragraphs to denote change of scene in my story and once the dotted line menance appears there seems no way to remove it.



Now I have discovered the solution:



1. If the problem occurs, highlight the whole document and click on 'Normal' this will reset the line spacing etc. to the default setting and the annoying dotted lines will disappear.

2. Then reclick on the spacing and formatting options you want and all is well again.



3. Now instead of breaking up paragraphs with a symbol I insert a small image.

Hope all this works for you.

Madeleine

12-Apr-10 08:25 AM

The method you describe is quite unnecessary. Just selecting the paragraph
below which the border appears and pressing Ctrl+Q will remove the border
from that paragraph. See
http://word.mvps.org/FAQs/Formatting/CantGetRidOfLine.htm. And you can still
use asterisks as scene separators if you disable automatic borders.

--
Suzanne S. Barnhill
Microsoft MVP (Word)
Words into Type
Fairhope, Alabama USA
http://word.mvps.org

13-Apr-10 11:29 AM

Thanks for your comments however, the method you describe seems to be for borders.

It isn't a border that appears within the document it's a weird file corruption that contaminates the text even when parts of it or all of it are cut and pasted into a new document.



The method I suggest is actually quite simple and extremely effective.;O)

17-Apr-10 08:35 PM

I highlighted the entire text and used "Ctrl Q" as recmmended at (http://word.mvps.org/FAQs/Formatting/CantGetRidOfLine.htm)



It worked great.