In: Categories » Computers and technology » Microsoft office » Decorating a Page with a Border in Office Word 2003
Word offers a means of decorating title pages, certificates, menus, and similar documents with a page border. Besides lines, you can decorate the sides of a page with stars, pieces of cake, and other artwork. If you want to place a border around a page in the middle of the document, you must create a section break where the page is. Here’s how to put borders around a page:
1. Place the cursor on the page where the border is to appear. Place the cursor on the first page of a document if you want to put a border around only the first page. If your document is divided into sections and you want to put borders around certain pages in a section, place the cursor in the section either in the first page, if you want the borders to go around it, or in a subsequent page.
2. Choose Format -> Borders and Shading.
3. Select the Page Border tab in the Borders and Shading dialog box
4. Under Setting, choose which kind of border you want. The Custom setting is for putting borders on one, two, or three sides of the page, not four. Use the None setting to remove borders. 5. Under Apply To, tell Word which page or pages in the document get borders.
6. Select options to construct the border you want and then click OK. The Page Border tab offers a bunch of tools for fashioning a border:
- Line for borders: Under Style, scroll down the list and choose a line for the borders. You will find interesting choices at the bottom of the list. Be sure to look in the Preview window to see what your choices in this dialog box add up to.
- Color for borders: Open the Color drop-down list and choose a color for the border lines if you want a color border and you have a color printer.
- Width of borders: If you chose artwork for the borders, use the Width drop-down list to tell Word how wide the lines or artwork should be.
- Artwork for borders: Open the Art drop-down list and choose a symbol, illustration, star, piece of cake, or other artwork, if that is what you want for the borders. You will find some amusing choices on this long list, including ice cream cones, bats, and umbrellas.
- Borders on different sides of the page: Use the four buttons in the Preview window to tell Word on which sides of the page you want borders. Click these buttons to remove or add borders, as you wish.
- Distance from edge of page: Click the Options button and fill in the Border and Shading Options dialog box if you want to get specific about how close the borders can come to the edge of the page or pages.
Dropping in a Drop Cap
A drop cap is a large capital letter that “drops” into the text. Drop caps appear at the start of articles in many articles, this article included, and you can find other uses for them, too. Follow these steps to create a drop cap:
1. Click anywhere in the paragraph whose first letter you want to “drop.” If you want to “drop” more than one letter, select the letters.
2. Choose Format -> Drop Cap. You see the Drop Cap dialog box.
3. Choose which kind of drop cap you want by clicking a box. The None setting is for removing drop caps.
4. Choose a font from the Font drop-down list. Choose one that’s different from the text in the paragraph. You can come back to this dialog box and get a different font later, if you want.
5. In the Lines to Drop text box, enter the number of text lines that the letter should “drop on.”
6. Keep the 0 setting in the Distance from Text text box unless you’re dropping an I, 1, or other skinny letter or number.
7. Click OK. You see your drop cap in Print Layout View. The drop cap appears in a text frame. To change the size of the drop cap, choose Format -> Drop Cap again and play with the settings in the Drop Cap dialog box.
Word Styles
Styles can save a ridiculous amount of time that you would otherwise spend formatting and wrestling with text. And many Word features rely on styles. You can’t create a table of contents or use the Document Map unless each heading in your document has been assigned a heading style. Nor can you take advantage of Outline view and the commands on the Outline toolbar, or cross-reference headings or number the headings in a document. If you want to be stylish, at least where Word is concerned, you have to know about styles.
All about Styles
A style is a collection of commands and formats that have been bundled under one name. With styles, you don’t have to visit a bunch of dialog boxes to change the formatting of text or paragraphs. Instead, you simply choose a style from the Styles and Formatting task pane or the Style dropdown list. You can be certain that all parts of the document that were assigned the same style look the same. In short, you can fool everybody into thinking your documents were created by a pro. Which styles are available depends on which template you used to create your document. Each template comes with its own set of styles, and you can create your own styles, too. A simple document created with the Normal template a document that you created by clicking the New Blank Document button or pressing Ctrl+N has but a few basic styles, but a document that was created with an advanced template comes with many styles. (Later in this article, “Creating Templates” explains templates.) To see which styles are available in the document you’re working on, choose Format -> Styles and Formatting or click the Styles and Formatting button to open the Styles and Formatting task pane. Want to know which style has been assigned to text or a paragraph? Click the text or paragraph and glance at the Style drop-down list or the Styles and Formatting task pane. On the Style drop-down list and the task pane, each style name is formatted to give you an idea of what it does when you apply it in your document. Word offers four types of styles:
- Paragraph styles: Determine the formatting of entire paragraphs. A paragraph style can include these settings: font, paragraph, tab, border, language, and bullets and numbering. Paragraph styles are marked with the paragraph symbol (¶). By far, the majority of styles are paragraph styles.
- Character styles: Apply to text, not to paragraphs. You select text before you apply a character style. Create a character style for text that is hard to lay out and for foreign-language text. A character style can include these settings: font, border, and language. When you apply a character style to text, the character-style settings override the paragraph-style settings. If the paragraph style calls for a 14-point Arial text but the character style calls for 12-point Times Roman font, the character style wins. Character styles are marked with an underlined a.
- Table styles: Apply to tables. Table styles are marked with a grid icon.
- List styles: Apply to lists. List styles are marked with a list icon. The beauty of styles is this: After you modify a style, all paragraphs or text to which the style has been assigned are instantly changed. You don’t have to go back and format text and paragraphs throughout your document.
Applying a Style to Text and Paragraphs
Follow these steps to apply a style:
1. Click the paragraph you want to apply the style to, or, to apply a style to several paragraphs, select all or part of them; if you’re applying a character style, select the letters whose formatting you want to change.
2. Apply the style. Word offers two ways to apply a style: • Open the Style drop-down list on the Formatting toolbar and select a style. To make all styles in the template appear on the Style dropdown list, hold down the Shift key as you click to open the list. • Click the Styles and Formatting button to open the Style and Formatting task pane; then select a style there.
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