How To Add Text Lines In Word

I'one thousand designing a form that needs to accept "fill-in-the-blanks" lines. What is the all-time style to create them?

If you are using Word 2007 or a newer version of Word: Notation that the article Blank Lines for Word Forms (published 2020) is more advisable for Word 2007 and above than this article.

I of the most powerful but also the near disruptive aspects of Discussion is that there are so many different means to accomplish the aforementioned task. For example, well-nigh commands may exist accessed from menus, using toolbar buttons, or via keyboard shortcuts. "Cartoon lines" in Word is one of the tasks that can be washed in many ways, and the way you choose will depend partly on the finish result needed and partly on personal preference.

Ane important signal to take into account is that in a business concern environment, if yous design a form to be printed, and if it's probable to accept whatsoever shelf-life to speak of, then sooner or later your users are likely to want to make full it in on screen. Unless you lot pattern your class with this in mind, they will ane twenty-four hour period waste a great deal of time redesigning your form so they tin can do so; and what's worse, 100 different users will individually waste material their fourth dimension creating 100 different versions of your class! (Conversely, a form which you design for filling in on screen volition inevitably be printed and filled in by hand by someone, sooner or later, and then your design should allow for this also.)

In a business environment, therefore, regardless of the brusk-term requirement, it is usually best if you design all your forms and so they can be both printed and filled in by mitt, and filled in on screen. One-off printed forms are a very different matter, of course.

On-screen forms are covered in Word'southward Help, nether the rather misleading title of "online forms" (misleading because they have nothing whatsoever to exercise with web forms).

Here are a few means to "draw a line":

1.	A paragraph border can be a line (select Format + Borders and Shading to apply a line below a paragraph). If the bordered paragraph is an "empty paragraph," the result will be a blank line all the way across the page (the width tin can be adjusted past dragging the paragraph's left and/or right indent markers). Since a paragraph border can be formatted to have different weights (from 1/four bespeak to half-dozen points) and several dissimilar styles (even unlike colors), such "lines" can be very fancy indeed. This selection can be used only when there will be no form text on the same line, as everything in the paragraph volition be "underlined." Figure i:  Paragraph borders
two.	Similarly, private table cells can take borders. If your form is set up in a table (maybe using form fields to exist filled out on screen), you tin have a bottom border on the cell where the answer will go. This is the technique used in many of the templates supplied with Word, such as the Invoice and Purchase Society, which may usefully be studied to learn more about this approach. Using table cell borders is about always the best method for any forms that may – always – exist filled in on screen. You frequently demand to separate adjacent lines from each other; and if using prison cell borders, the simplest style to achieve this is to create "dummy" cells with no borders, as shown in Figures 2 and three. Ane common error class designers make is to create a single table for the entire course. In full general, forms look and work much better if you lot create several smaller tables, separated past headings (for which y'all should utilise Heading styles). Figure 2:  "Fill in the blanks" lines created using cell borders Figure 3: With Table Gridlines visible, you tin run into how borderless cells were used to create the effect You could also use paragraph borders rather than table borders for this scenario; and this would obviate the need for the empty column shown in Figure 3 – you could give the paragraph a correct-indent instead. The only disadvantage with this method is that if y'all use styles (which it is recommended that you do), and if the amount of right-indent you lot need in order to create this effect varies a good deal within the tabular array, you would demand to create many more styles if using paragraph borders than you would if using cell borders. When y'all select Format + Borders & Shading, "Employ to tabular array" will be selected; change it to "Paragraph"; ready your bottom border as you want information technology, using the Preview pane, and so click the "Options" push, and nether "Distance from Text", fix the "Bottom" measurement to two or 3 points (otherwise your line volition overlap with the descenders in the text). If yous do utilize paragraph borders, it'southward best y'all do it using styles; become one border right, highlight the paragraph, type a stylename in the styles box on the Formatting Toolbar, and printing Return, to create (or redefine) a style "by instance". You tin then apply the aforementioned style elsewhere. Using paragraph borders would as well allow you to manipulate with the empty row at the bottom, used in Figure 3 – you could give the paragraphs in the final row a Space After setting sufficient to push the lesser border of the tabular array down far enough not to look cluttered. The disadvantage of this method is that it could crusade y'all issues if you add together more than rows after; you would take to think to remove the increased Infinite Afterwards setting from any rows that were once the bottom row but no longer are – so both methods have pros and cons. Figure 4 shows a similar table to Effigy 3, just this time using paragraph borders to create the text lines: Figure four:A similar table to the one in Figures 2-3 but this time using paragraph borders to produce the lines beneath the text; first shown without and so with Table Gridlines visible
3.	Yous can describe a line using the Line tool on the Drawing toolbar. If yous hold down the Shift primal while you are cartoon information technology, it will exist constrained to the horizontal or vertical. Although drawn lines can be rather labor-intensive, they tin can exist useful for a form that volition be filled out online so printed because the "fill-in-the-blanks" lines are not affected by users' typing in answers. On the other hand, nor are cell borders, and they avoid all the "gotchas" associated with using floating objects. However, Drawing lines tin can be formatted even more flexibly than paragraph and tabular array borders, since the line weight can be typed in (not just called from a listing); and in the case of Word 97 there is a much greater range of colors (Discussion 2000 borders can be formatted in any colour). The position of the line can be specified relative to the paragraph to which it is anchored; one time you lot figure out the correct relation of your "fill-in-the-blanks" line to the answer you want to type into information technology, it's but a matter of formatting subsequent lines the same. (For example, for a line of 12-point text with 12 points of Space Before, a line position of 0.35" – 0.89cm – relative to the paragraph is merely well-nigh right.)
4.	Ane of the well-nigh common ways of making a "fill-in-the-blanks" line in a form to be printed (but not suitable if it is to be filled out on screen) is to use a correct tab with an underline leader (in the Format Tabs dialog, choose the fourth option under "Leader"). Since the leader graphic symbol is the aforementioned underline that you tin type from the keyboard (shifted hyphen), you lot tin mix and match these leader tabs with short lines typed in direct. 1 disadvantage of this type of line is that, because it is created with stock-still-width characters, although the catastrophe point will be precise (the point where the tab is set), the kickoff betoken can be rather unpredictable. Figure 5:  A line created using a tab leader – note the positions of the tabs on the ruler
five.	A subtly unlike approach from the leader tab is an underlined tab character (that is, printing the Tab key, select the tab character, and format it as underlined). The ii features that make this different are that (a) the tab does not have to be a right tab – any kind volition practice – and (b) the underline is not the same weight as the underline grapheme; information technology is the same weight as the underline of underlined text. The underlined tab is easier to align with text than the leader tab, and it can be used (with some care) in a course to be filled out on screen because the underline will match that of underlined text (although table cells are mostly simpler for on screen forms). So if a user enters underlined text, the result will exist the appearance of text typed on the line. On the other paw, typed underlines volition not match the underlined tab, though underlined spaces tin be used instead (em spaces are good for covering space more efficiently). Notation that underlined spaces tin be used only if followed by text; underlines are not displayed on trailing spaces unless they are non-breaking spaces. Note, too that the terminate points of underlined tabs will non be uniform unless the beginning signal is; if you lot need to have a number of lines showtime at different points and ending at the right margin, you will take to use a right tab with an underline leader. Experimentation will show which is the more appropriate tool for a given application.

The weight of both underline leader tabs and underlined tab characters can be adjusted somewhat by irresolute the font size (the line meridian can be set to an verbal measurement to preserve the line spacing), but this will be a more trial-and-error process than specifying the line weight of a border or drawn line.

In a complex printed class you may wish to employ more than ane of the above techniques, just if y'all proceed them all in mind, yous will be able to select the most appropriate for whatever given application. (In a circuitous form that may need to be filled in on screen, sticking to table borders keeps things unproblematic).

How To Add Text Lines In Word,

Source: https://wordmvp.com/FAQs/TblsFldsFms/LinesInForms.htm

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