Columns 'line between' problem

J

Jim

Hello I have a problem with the line between columns option.

I have a page with a header, footer and 2 columns. The header has a
line border at the bottom of it and the footer has one at the top so
that they are offset from the text. In the columns dialog box I have
the check box for "Line Between" checked.

The line starts at the top attached to the border of the header like I
want, but the bottom does not meet the top of the footer. How do I
make this line go all the way down to the footer line? I have enough
text that it is spilling into the second column and I have the 2
columns set to whole document not to selecton.

Is there any way I can make the line go the way I want it? It looks
stupid with a gap in there. If it's not clear what i'm trying to do I
want the lines to make sort of a rotated "H" with my columns text in
the to blank spots.

I can attach the document if needed.

Thanks in advance
Jim
 
D

Doug Robbins - Word MVP

You can force the position of the lines in the header and footer by
adjusting the From edge setting of the headers and footers under the Layout
tab of the File>Page Setup dialog. You can also get the lines to meet by
varying the top/bottom margin settings. What you will end up with however
is not much space between the horizontal lines and the text and personally,
the adjustment that I would make would be to increase the top margin to
prevent the vertical line from meeting the horizontal line to give the same
gap that you have at the bottom.



--
Please post any further questions or followup to the newsgroups for the
benefit of others who may be interested. Unsolicited questions forwarded
directly to me will only be answered on a paid consulting basis.

Hope this helps
Doug Robbins - Word MVP
 
G

garfield-n-odie

Hi, Jim. To add to what MVP Doug Robbins wrote, you might consider
using a two-column table instead of two-column page layout. You can
turn the left and right gridlines off in the table, and the center
gridline will always meet the top and bottom gridlines. What you lose
with a table is the ability to automatically wrap text from the first
column to the second column and then back to the first column on the
next page, etc. If this ability isn't particularly necessary for what
you're doing, a table might work better for you. HTH. garfield-n-odie
 
J

Jim

Thank you both for the replies. Here is the thing I don't think a gap
looks good on the top and/or bottom. The automatically wraped text
from the first column to the second column is something I dont wan't
to loose either.

I did find what I thought was an acceptable work around. I put a line
object over the line then turned off the "line between columns"
option. After some tweaking, it would not only stay in the middle of
the column and touch the header AND footer lines but it would resize
if i changed the margins either manually in page setup or by just
selecting another printer.

I was happy and excited...However I then ran into two problems that I
just can't seem to fix. Also let me add that this is a template
(.dot)

1) The Line is only on the first page and never any other pages. I
had seen in other posts that people had trouble with having a picture
on only one page and they were told to mess around with the "different
odd and even" and or "different first page" options. I couldn't seem
to fix it with those options

2) Even more horrible when I select everything (ctrl-A or even
highlight the text) and then delete it the line dissappears and will
not re-appear when I add new text. I eventually found out about
anchors thats to some websites (started at http://word.mvps.org/) but
even if I lock the anchor it will still be deleted. I couldn't find a
way to anchor anywhere else and still keep the position and size the
way I wanted. I was hoping I could find a way to lock the anchor in
the header and that way I thought it would only delete the anchor if I
deleted wat was in the heading which would have been a very rare
occurance.

For now I guess I will just have to accept that missing chunk of line
at the bottom. I can technically live with it since this document is
only for me and two others instead of or a professional end. However
I was trying to design it as if it were a professional doc, I even
made styles and all. Hehe I got that carried away.
 
S

Suzanne S. Barnhill

If you anchor the line to the header (that is, create it while you have the
header pane open using View | Header and Footer), it will (a) appear on
every page and (b) be protected from accidental deletion.
 
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