September 2, 2010

Inoweb Marketing » Removing the HR Line from Word

Removing the HR Line from Word

It was an annoying bugger that I couldn’t figure out – I was having a problem removing what I thought was the horizontal rule <hr> tag from Microsoft Word. Try as I would… I couldn’t get it to go away; I couldn’t delete it with the delete key nor the backspace key, I couldn’t select it with the cursor… it was driving me mad.

The Problem:

I was using some auto-correct (actually auto-format) feature of Microsoft Word that I really didn’t understand, I would type three underscores (_) and then hit the enter key – the ensuing output seemed to be a horizontal rule.

I’ve come to find out that this auto-format feature actually creates a border for the document, not just a mere horizontal line. I have also come to find out that the instant horizontal line (border) will show up if you use 3 hyphens (-), 3 tildes (~), 3 pound signs (#) or 3 equal signs (=) in a row followed by the enter key. At the time, I was just trying to get rid of it.

The Fix

In earlier versions of Word (maybe 2003 or earlier), several websites state that you must:

  1. Place your cursor right above the horizontal line
  2. From your menu choose Format >> Borders and Shading >> None >> Ok

I personally have Word 2007 – and it’s not quite the same… so I cannot verify that the above is 100% correct – but I would imagine it’s spot-on.


Here’s how to do this when you have Microsoft Office Word 2007 (or Word 2007) screenshots:

  1. Place your cursor directly above the offending line
  3. From your menu, choose Page Layout
  4. Once you click on Page Layout, click on Page Borders
  5. Choose the Borders Tab, in the upper left select None, then hit Ok
  6. The line should disappear

How to turn off the auto-format feature for borders
If you’ve accidentally created one of these horizontal lines, you can fix it so that this mistake doesn’t happen again. I’ve created screenshots of how to shut this auto-format feature off.

Step 1
Click on the lightning-bolt box near the newly created horizontal line:

Select Box to modify Autoformatting for Word - Image

Step 2
Choose “Control AutoFormat Options”:

Changing Word Autoformatting Options - Image


Step 3
Untick the “Border Lines” checkbox:

Uncheck Border Lines Selection - Image


Hit “OK” – you’re done!


Remove the horizontal line in Word 2007 screenshots
These screenshots follow the steps above..

Step 1
Place your cursor directly above the problematic line:
Cursor above horizontal line - Image


Step 2
Choose “Page Layout” from your menu:
Choose Page Layout - Image


Step 3
Choose the “Page Borders” sub-heading under Page Layout:
Choose Page Borders sub-heading - Image /><br /> <br style=
Step 4
Select the “Borders” tab:
Select Borders Tab - Image


Step 5
Under “setting”, select “None”:
Click on None Option - Image


Hit “OK” – You’re done!

I hope that this little tutorial has helped some of you – I know that this problem was quite a pain for me… and using the above steps is how I fixed it.

Update May, 2009

This “removing the line from MS word” tutorial has been viewed 10s of thousands of times since I wrote it last year, and it has helped hundreds at least, I’m assuming, to fix what appears to be a very common problem for Word users. Based on the enormous amount of traffic this page receives, a lot of people struggle with this nagging line/border/table thing.

Now, I ask nothing in return — this is here for you to benefit from. However, if you would like to visit Amazon.com and purchase something via this link – I certainly wouldn’t be opposed to it. :)

If this tutorial helped you out, feel free to leave a comment, and thanks for stopping by.

January 14, 2008 | Tags: , , ,

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comments

106 Responses to “Removing the HR Line from Word”

  1. Sam on May 9th, 2008

    Thank you so much for that tip! I was so annoyed by that stupid line!

  2. LeAna on May 29th, 2008

    I have the ‘horizontal line’ problem in using Word 2007 in compatibility mode – but neither the suggestion for Word 97 or 2007 works for me. My line happens to be in a cell within a table – just to complicate matters, so when I try your suggestion – all the borders of my table disappear but my unwanted line is still there – bold as ever. Any suggestions?

  3. unruled on June 26th, 2008

    thanks, I needed that tip! it had been driving me nuts!

  4. John on June 30th, 2008

    Thank you so much for sharing the info, that line was driving me crazy

  5. majid on July 2nd, 2008

    Thanks… I was really helpful for me while spending a lot of time with this stupid Microsoft word :)

  6. justie on July 6th, 2008

    HUGE THANKSSSSSSSS!!!!!! :)

  7. CG on July 10th, 2008

    I love you

  8. james on July 23rd, 2008

    THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU!!!! I spent hours trying to figure out that stupid line in microsoft word!

  9. mwgrigs on July 30th, 2008

    Thanks a bunch! That line was driving me nuts and ended up retyping half a page into another document. I also highlighted the offending row and clicking the [Borders] button from the [Paragraph] group on the [Home] tab and selecting [None]. That might do the trick for lines showing up inside of tables–have not proven it though. Thanks again!

  10. Eva on August 7th, 2008

    Thank you. Very helpful.

  11. Beth on August 10th, 2008

    This fix of clicking “none” on the borders and shading menu worked for a few of the lines on my Word document, however, now it just seems to be shifting the line up one line of text higher. For some reason, I also appear to have a line at the bottom of most of my pages. Any suggestions for permanently remove these lines from my document?
    Thanks

  12. robin on August 13th, 2008

    thanks. It was also driving me nuts. It isn’t very practical and easy to remove a simple line…

  13. Jacki on August 22nd, 2008

    Thank you! That was driving me nuts.

  14. dmizer on September 19th, 2008

    Thanks for this.

  15. thej on September 25th, 2008

    This is excellent information!!!
    However, Microsoft (Word especially) has ways of challenging users in new ways.
    This sticky line has somehow entered the footer section. Any suggestions on how to get rid of that?

  16. Rob (5 comments.) on September 26th, 2008

    I have Word 2007 and I’m not quite sure what type of line you have in your footer, but you can try this:

    Double click in the footer area of your Word document. When the footer “opens”, on the menu bar area above, you’ll see ‘header’ and ‘footer’ to the left. Click on ‘footer’, then look at the bottom when the new window pops up and click on ‘remove footer’.

    At this point, you can either add a different footer or just click somewhere within the body of the document to close the footer editor.

    If this doesn’t work for you, I’m not sure what else to suggest. I use Word every single day, but like a lot of other people – I have to rely on search engines to find the answers to my problems for these quirks… I’m glad you found the post on my site helpful, though.

  17. tasha on October 1st, 2008

    thank you sooo much!! i had started writing a story, and these stupid little things kept popping up all over the place. Now I can correct it all to look like it makes sense!

  18. Tara on October 2nd, 2008

    Didn’t work for me. Not sure what kind of line mine is, but Word won’t even let me put my curser right above it. Any suggestions?

  19. Yanssel Delgado on October 2nd, 2008

    Thank you so very much!!!!! I was about to take a hammer to my monitor here. I couldn’t take it anymore. What an annoying thing to see those lines and not be able to erase them. Thank you once again.

  20. Word user on October 26th, 2008

    Yeap, thanks for the tip, just had an annoying line removed !

  21. SS on October 28th, 2008

    That was driving me crazy, thank you so much!

  22. Jen on November 4th, 2008

    Not working for me either, and my stupid lines are made up of a bunch of little squares.

  23. Lena on November 9th, 2008

    Three words. I love you :) . You made me so happy! Oh my god, I’d really hot tempered and that thing was driving me crazy. Thanks a ton!

  24. Garrett on November 9th, 2008

    Thanks a bunch! This has been a pain in my butt for awhile now! Figured it was something stupid like this too!

  25. Jib on November 24th, 2008

    Thank you guy! 5 more minutes trying to figure out how to remove this stupid line and I thought I would be able to thow my computer out of the window! =D

  26. Kjetil on November 25th, 2008

    Thank you very much. It was driving me insane.

  27. o on November 26th, 2008

    Thanks so much!!!

  28. Cat on November 30th, 2008

    You saved my life!

  29. blew on December 7th, 2008

    Great tip! I had to put cursor BELOW the line to make it work, but then it did.

  30. Jennifer on December 22nd, 2008

    Thought I was going crazy — some of these tips worked for me, some didn’t. Some made my line just dance around the page. What ultimately worked for me was selecting the line and a paragraph of text, then selecting the Borders button from the Paragraph section in the Home ribbon and then selecting ‘No Borders.’

    Now I plan to ban the use of horizontal lines in the office.

  31. Susan Kridler (1 comments.) on December 23rd, 2008

    THANK YOU! I sure could not find anything in Word help about this problem. What a relief!

  32. Frank on January 3rd, 2009

    Great tip!
    Thanks so much

  33. AB on January 6th, 2009

    LIFE SAVER!

  34. Ben on January 8th, 2009

    Those lines have been annoying me for ages. Thank you so much.

  35. ohm on January 10th, 2009

    THANK YOUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU. That’s a problem for me for a year!!!!

  36. Dory on January 23rd, 2009

    THANKS SO MUCH omigosh i thought i’d never get rid of offending lines! you rock my socks! facebook me!

  37. Jose D. Montero on January 23rd, 2009

    Thanks a lot for sharing the solution!! This bug is really annoying.

  38. Luiza on January 29th, 2009

    THANK you so so so so much. This thing was driving me insane. Only your “put the cursor above the line” tip could save me. Word 2007 is a pain.

    Again, thank you!

  39. John on February 3rd, 2009

    Muchas gracias

  40. Thanks on February 22nd, 2009

    Thank you very much. Office 2007 sucks!

  41. Pissed Off on February 23rd, 2009

    Huge thanks! I was getting really aggravated!

  42. James on February 25th, 2009

    Many thanks!! I just get done with my paper and then there’s a line I can’t delete. I’ve been up all night working on my paper and now a little line thinks it can stop me from finishing???

    I THINK NOT!!

    Thanks again!! :)

  43. kara on February 25th, 2009

    thank you thank you thank!!!! i spent hours trying to figure this out!!!!!!

  44. Jacki on February 27th, 2009

    THANK YOU!!! Word is soooo eeeevillllll.

  45. Marc on March 5th, 2009

    Thank you!!!

  46. Sared on March 16th, 2009

    THANK YOU!!!!!!!!

  47. Dean on March 18th, 2009

    fantastic – great help thanks…

  48. Jenny on March 18th, 2009

    Thank you so much, i’m the one who spent time around one hour to remove this line..

  49. Donna(new comment) on March 20th, 2009

    Thanks you so much. I have sat here all day fussing with the silly lines. Word 2007 is not user friendly.

  50. Radek(new comment) on March 22nd, 2009

    Whoever put this info together, You are the best! Thanks very much!!!

  51. Lost Soul(new comment) on March 23rd, 2009

    Thanks a lot mate, saved me heaps

  52. Victoria(new comment) on April 5th, 2009

    OMIGOD! I can’t believe I finally found the answer to this. THANK YOU! THANK YOU! THANK YOU! I have a manuscript I’m trying to get ready to submit and when I edited anything, and wanted to remove one it wouldn’t go away. Stray ones were lurking everywhere! It’ll be a pain in the butt to remove them all this way but at least it works!!!

    Thanks again!

    Victoria…

  53. John Hallaway(new comment) on April 19th, 2009

    Thankyou!!! How I wish I’d never “upgraded” to 2007.

  54. Isaiah(new comment) on April 21st, 2009

    Thank you so much. This also works for Word 2008 for Mac. Very similar procedure.

    1-Place the cursor before the Border Line.
    2-Select Format –> Borders and Shading …
    3-In pop-up window select Borders button, and then select the None icon, as pictured on this website.

  55. Natalie(new comment) on April 27th, 2009

    You’re the messiah

  56. Lia(new comment) on April 27th, 2009

    Thank you so much! I had random lines all over my dissertation that’s due in today and none of the other guides how to tell you to get rid of it in Word 2007.

  57. Stephan(new comment) on May 13th, 2009

    Many many thanks. This has been driving me insane for quite a while now. Thanks!

  58. Menghapus Garis di MS Word 2003 « Chaqiel’s Logs(new comment) on May 14th, 2009

    [...] Sumber : http://www.inowebmarketing.com/2008/01/removing-the-hr-line-from-word/ [...]

  59. Chris(new comment) on May 18th, 2009

    Thank you so much. You saved me a great amount of time. I appreciate your clear writing style and the screenshots. Perfect!

  60. jason(new comment) on May 24th, 2009

    Thanks a lot for this tip…:)

  61. t bone(new comment) on June 8th, 2009

    oh god, finally, FINALLY, i managed to get rid of the horizontal line. Thanks to you.

    I chose built-in features of 2007 to enter footer with page number but did not want the stupid ass line in certain sections.

    You are genious, my friend. Gold star for you!

  62. Ken(new comment) on June 11th, 2009

    I love you.

    Do you have any idea the amount of hours I could have back in my life – had I known this in 2000?

  63. Jonathan(new comment) on June 12th, 2009

    You are a lifesaver thank you.

    I am currently working on an extremely important document and this ‘line/border’ had brought me close to breaking point.

    I wil certainly make a purchase from Amazon via your link.

    Write a book – it will sell millions!

  64. fred(new comment) on June 19th, 2009

    Bless your beautiful brain…. Thanks for posting.

  65. Adrian(new comment) on July 3rd, 2009

    Thank you.

    Worked like a dream.

  66. Dr.P(new comment) on July 23rd, 2009

    No help at all. The line is IN the header – and i cannot get it to go away

  67. manjhunath(new comment) on July 31st, 2009

    thank you guys… . ur postings really helped to solve the problem which was driving me nuts…. gr888 … keep going….

  68. Alan Gilbertson from Good Looking Documents(new comment) on August 4th, 2009

    The very quick and simple way to handle ANY Auto-correct or Auto-format change you didn’t want is to use Control-Z (Command-Z on the Mac) as soon as it happens. Rules change back into dashes, capitalizations you didn’t want revert to the way you typed them, magic numbered lists that format themselves when you hit “Enter,” smiley characters when you wanted the plain :-) … They all switch back with Control-Z. Edit < Undo also works, but why waste the time. :-)

    Asa designer, I spend a fair amount of time helping people create good looking Word docs: not the keystroke by keystroke tutorials, but the things that make a document look good or look amateur. Microsoft spent a lot of time putting these automated features into Office, but no time at all on when and why you should use them (or not!). So I decided to fill the gap.

  69. DHM(new comment) on August 6th, 2009

    I was at my wit’s end! Thank you so much for this site! I tried to copy and transfer my text to another document, but the line would follow.

    I do make purchases on Amazon and I will go through your site to make them.

    Again, a million thanks!

  70. ad(new comment) on August 10th, 2009

    thank you soooooooooo much! especially for providing 2007 instructions too!

  71. max kleemann(new comment) on August 10th, 2009

    A million thanks!

  72. Michael Dolby(new comment) on August 15th, 2009

    Oh my god … I didn’t know how many people had the same problem like me.
    Despite some very annoying things like the stubborn line, I’m a big fan of Word 2007.
    Thanks to inowebmarketing.com we all found the solution within 1 minute instead of spending hours of digging through tons of info first.

    Thank you !!

  73. Oh so pleased(new comment) on August 18th, 2009

    Thank you so very, very much.

  74. mebo(new comment) on August 20th, 2009

    Oh, yeah. That works. So simple, yet so dumb. Thanks for the help.

  75. Suzi(new comment) on August 24th, 2009

    You SO ROCK!!!

  76. Macca(new comment) on August 30th, 2009

    Made my day! thanks mate!

  77. Mark(new comment) on September 1st, 2009

    Thank you so much. This was driving me completely crazy.

  78. Geoffrey Long(new comment) on September 13th, 2009

    Thank you so much
    I had a dealine to make and had ths annoying line
    Your explananation was very clear and worked!

    Thanks a lot again
    i

  79. Ira(new comment) on September 14th, 2009

    Great tip…that line was so annoying…it was easy to fix this that I’m quite embarrassed I couldn’t figure it out…Thanks!

  80. Eric(new comment) on September 15th, 2009

    Thank you so very much for the detailed guide. Excellent job.

  81. Chris(new comment) on September 15th, 2009

    Awesome, this is exactly what I was looking for. Thanks for improving the Internet’s SNR. Good Work

  82. KingKong(new comment) on September 16th, 2009

    Man u Rock.. thanks..saved my life

  83. bjawnie(new comment) on September 18th, 2009

    Hi, thanks a ton for the tip. This is more of a MS bug than it is a feature.

  84. Lisa(new comment) on September 23rd, 2009

    Thanks so much for showing me how to get rid of that annoying borderline; it was driving me borderline insane!!! lol thanks=)

  85. KCP100(new comment) on September 23rd, 2009

    Thanks A Lot!!! I really didn’t want to retype my entire essay just cuz of one +>K1^G line. Its people like you that make the internet a good place
    _____________________________________________

    ^^stupid line, LOL

  86. Hennie Jonker(new comment) on September 30th, 2009

    Hi everyone,
    Thanks for the tip. It only worked for me by selecting all and then changing the Border option.

  87. Micper(new comment) on October 3rd, 2009

    Thanks Buddy.

  88. Bob(new comment) on October 4th, 2009

    Thnak you so much. Google search: “word can’t remove horizontal rule”, you appear first, one-click, one instant-fix. Bliss.

  89. Adia(new comment) on October 7th, 2009

    Thank you very much for your big help
    Adia´s last blog ..Tip to improve local targeting with online ads My ComLuv Profile

  90. ???????(new comment) on October 8th, 2009

    Thanks, saved me 10 minutes of searching

  91. Raed(new comment) on October 20th, 2009

    I love you man :D

  92. pat(new comment) on October 21st, 2009

    Thanks so much!

  93. Bob(new comment) on October 22nd, 2009

    Great stuff. To remove all lines in the document select all text (CTRL-A), and do the same trick as described above. Initially the line just jumped up a row when I tried to remove it.

    Thanks, Bob

  94. vi(new comment) on October 22nd, 2009

    thank you so much! this was very helpful! you saved me from further frustration,my friend!

    cheers!

  95. Pradeep(new comment) on October 25th, 2009

    Thanks a lot… This is a good piece of information!

  96. Ema(new comment) on November 6th, 2009

    THANK YOU VERY MUCH!

    EXCELLENT FROM YOUR PART…

    HAVE A WONDERFUL TIME

  97. Todd Snyder(new comment) on November 23rd, 2009

    Finally! You do good anger-therapy work. It was such a relief to delete those lines!

  98. postscripter(new comment) on November 28th, 2009

    Thanks a lot! I spent more than half an hour trying to remove that line!
    postscripter´s last blog ..Theremin – The Untouchable Instrument My ComLuv Profile

  99. Woofmeow(new comment) on November 30th, 2009

    I love you .<

  100. Sam Douglass(new comment) on December 2nd, 2009

    Thanks! I was about to lose it with this auto-format feature…. your solution worked as stated, much appreciated!

  101. Doug(new comment) on December 3rd, 2009

    Bless you!

  102. Mark Reeves(new comment) on December 4th, 2009

    Wow!!! I have dealt with this many times over the years and finally decided to Google for an answer…LOL! Thank you sooooo much!

  103. Jack(new comment) on December 5th, 2009

    Thank a lot.
    Useful guide.

  104. Bob Barker(new comment) on December 5th, 2009

    It did not work for me until I used Ctrl A to select the entire document. Then your very helpful solution was successful.

    To prevent future occurrences I followed a more involved route than your suggestion. If the thunderbolt is not applicable the following will do it.

    Tools, Auto correct options, Auto format as you type, unchk the Borders box

  105. Clark(new comment) on December 7th, 2009

    after reprinting my essay 8 times and copy and pasting back and forth notepad and word to remove that annoying line, here’s the solution. -sigh-
    now i know what to do. =D thanks.

  106. Ben(new comment) on December 9th, 2009

    This was a wonderful help. I had the same problem after I cut and paste the line I created and the original line stayed while the new one was created. This is a big help when I did a Google search. Thank you!

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