Mysterious Line

[Poz]

I have a MS Word 2003 document that has a horizontal line embedded in a table
that I cannot remove. I stripped the doc of everything except the table then
saved it as a new doc to try to discover what it is. I removed all borders
from the table and all rows except the one remaining with the line.

It is not an underlined spacebar. I opened "Reveal Formatting" and the only
clue is that under "Borders" it says "Bottom: (Single solid line, Auto,
0.5pt)". However, when I select the table and go to Borders and Shading...
there are no borders shown.

The only other hint is that the length of the line can be adjusted by
sliding the Tab mark that's in the horizontal ruler.

 

[Poz]

I neglected to add that it is also not a tab with a leader, nor is it a
"hand" drawn line.

 

[PamC via OfficeKB.com]

The tricky part when using the borders and shading dialog is that you must
first select just the right thing and then in the dialog make sure just the
right thing is identified. In your case, you need to select the text with
the underline and then to be sure that the apply to box has either paragraph
or text inside.

But since this is very likely manual formatting, you can select the
underlined text and press Crtl+[space] to clear it.

HTH,
PamC

I neglected to add that it is also not a tab with a leader, nor is it a
"hand" drawn line.

I have a MS Word 2003 document that has a horizontal line embedded in a table
that I cannot remove. I stripped the doc of everything except the table then

[quoted text clipped - 8 lines]

The only other hint is that the length of the line can be adjusted by
sliding the Tab mark that's in the horizontal ruler.

 

[Poz]

Thanks for your reply Pam. I removed everything, including the text. All that
remains is the line and I cannot select the line. This was in the document
when I received it and I'm at a loss as to how it was put there in the
beginning. I don't even know who the orginal writer was. The orignal document
has a lot of these examples and I want to leave the text and remove the
lines, but don't know how to.

The tricky part when using the borders and shading dialog is that you must
first select just the right thing and then in the dialog make sure just the
right thing is identified. In your case, you need to select the text with
the underline and then to be sure that the apply to box has either paragraph
or text inside.

But since this is very likely manual formatting, you can select the
underlined text and press Crtl+[space] to clear it.

HTH,
PamC

I neglected to add that it is also not a tab with a leader, nor is it a
"hand" drawn line.

I have a MS Word 2003 document that has a horizontal line embedded in a table
that I cannot remove. I stripped the doc of everything except the table then

[quoted text clipped - 8 lines]

The only other hint is that the length of the line can be adjusted by
sliding the Tab mark that's in the horizontal ruler.

 

[grammatim]

What do you mean by "embedded in the table"? If it's a cell border,
you should have been able to get rid of it by the methods you tried.

Maybe it's a border on a _paragraph_ in the cell -- select just the
contents of the cell (turn on Show Non-Printing Characters and you'll
see a circly thing), then go to Format > Paragrah > Borders & Shading
(don't go directly to B&S, it might think you're still talking about
the table), and see if it's a bottom border there.

 

[Suzanne S. Barnhill]

Even if you go directly to Borders and Shading, you can change the "Apply
to" setting. But if it's applied to the paragraph, Ctrl+Q should remove it
(since it's unlikely to be part of the style).

OTOH, depending on what "the Tab mark that's in the horizontal ruler" means,
it could be a leader tab (displaying nonprinting characters would show a tab
character), but since this could surely be deleted by selecting and
deleting, it seems even more likely to be a paragraph border (assuming that
by "Tab mark" the OP means the indent slider).

--
Suzanne S. Barnhill
Microsoft MVP (Word)
Words into Type
Fairhope, Alabama USA

What do you mean by "embedded in the table"? If it's a cell border,
you should have been able to get rid of it by the methods you tried.

Maybe it's a border on a _paragraph_ in the cell -- select just the
contents of the cell (turn on Show Non-Printing Characters and you'll
see a circly thing), then go to Format > Paragrah > Borders & Shading
(don't go directly to B&S, it might think you're still talking about
the table), and see if it's a bottom border there.

 

[PamC via OfficeKB.com]

Try this: click the show/hide button so the paragraph marks are showing,
select the paragraph mark with the line, and press ctrl+[space]. Let us know
what happens.

Pam

Thanks for your reply Pam. I removed everything, including the text. All that
remains is the line and I cannot select the line. This was in the document
when I received it and I'm at a loss as to how it was put there in the
beginning. I don't even know who the orginal writer was. The orignal document
has a lot of these examples and I want to leave the text and remove the
lines, but don't know how to.

The tricky part when using the borders and shading dialog is that you must
first select just the right thing and then in the dialog make sure just the

[quoted text clipped - 16 lines]

 

[Suzanne S. Barnhill]

Ctrl+Spacebar won't do it if it's a border; Ctrl+Q might.

--
Suzanne S. Barnhill
Microsoft MVP (Word)
Words into Type
Fairhope, Alabama USA

Try this: click the show/hide button so the paragraph marks are showing,
select the paragraph mark with the line, and press ctrl+[space]. Let us
know
what happens.

Pam

Thanks for your reply Pam. I removed everything, including the text. All
that
remains is the line and I cannot select the line. This was in the document
when I received it and I'm at a loss as to how it was put there in the
beginning. I don't even know who the orginal writer was. The orignal
document
has a lot of these examples and I want to leave the text and remove the
lines, but don't know how to.

The tricky part when using the borders and shading dialog is that you
must
first select just the right thing and then in the dialog make sure just
the

[quoted text clipped - 16 lines]

The only other hint is that the length of the line can be adjusted by
sliding the Tab mark that's in the horizontal ruler.

 

[PamC via OfficeKB.com]

I did check this before I sent the message, but in W2007. Turns out this
is another little difference between W2007 and W2003. I think W2003's
behavior is the odd one because the border is manually formatted, not a
character style.

...How long do you think these things will keep cropping up?

Pam

 

[Suzanne S. Barnhill]

The border is never a character format; it is a paragraph format, which is
why Ctrl+Spacebar (ResetChar) would not remove it, while Ctrl+Q (ResetPara)
would.