Deleting Dotted Lines in Word

I’ve finally figured out the most maddening problem in Microsoft Word. I never could get rid of these lines of small squares that reached from margin to margin.

Nothing would dent them. I couldn’t highlight them, delete them, or overwrite them. The only solution was to erase the whole passage that contained them, and type from scratch. Sometimes that failed. They spread like rabbits.

Here’s the secret. That line is the bottom border on the paragraph immediately above. So you have to attack it in that paragraph. Here’s how.

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Highlight the whole paragraph before the line, even if it’s just one carriage return. Click FORMAT, then BORDERS AND SHADING, then BORDERS (1). Under APPLY TO, click PARAGRAPH (2). Under SETTINGS (3), look at the bottom item: CUSTOM (4). That’s the baddie. See that little line of four dots? You have to kill that. Click NONE (5) at the top of that column, then OK (6). Voila, the line is gone, adios.

Maybe it’s not. It’s still there, but moved up one line. The fiends at Microsoft designed in a defense against us. If there’s more than one dotted line, they stack on top of one another, but you only see one. So you have to repeat the whole process until they’re all gone. Last night, I rooted out seven of them masquerading as one.

By the way, if you want to create that line, type a carriage return, three asterisks, and a carriage return.

Different versions of Word may do this in different ways, but maybe you can figure out how to make the proper changes. I use Microsoft Word 2004 for Mac.

[Do you know different ways to get rid of these little monsters?]

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on October 21, 2010 at 2:38 pm Comments (93)

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On October 26, 2010 at 3:42 pm Frolic said:

This is just another reason I gave up Word. It’s slow, it crashes, and it’s overloaded with features no writer needs.

For a basic, no frills word processor on the Mac I use “Bean.” It’s free.

These days, I started doing my drafting in WriteRoom, which gives me a distraction-free, full-screen interface.

They can noth produce “.doc” format, although neither will do “.docx.”
On October 26, 2010 at 4:31 pm donfry said:

Thanks, Frolic.
Word is wonderful except when it’s awful. It has a mind of its own, esp. on the Mac. Those dotted lines have driven me nuts for years. And docx is its own nightmare.
Don
On June 21, 2011 at 9:41 am Carole Moore said:

This is fabulous advice and it works. After spending hours trying to find a way to rid myself of that awful dotted line, I came across Mr. Fry’s advice. Thank you so much.

Also, if you don’t want to have to repeat the steps over and over, if you do a select all under the edit function and then follow Mr. Fry’s steps, it seems to banish the dotted lines altogether.

I’ve bookmarked your site. Great writing advice!
On June 21, 2011 at 9:48 am donfry said:

Thanks, Carole. Those dotted lines drove me nuts.
On August 11, 2011 at 3:12 pm Melissa Marote said:

Here is another way.
Sounds like they may be paragraph borders. Try this:

1. On the Home tab of the Ribbon, click the ¶ button to display paragraph marks (¶s).
2. Select the paragraph mark above the line you want to delete.
3. In the Paragraph section of the Home Tab, click the Borders and Shading list box button and select No Border.
On August 24, 2011 at 10:29 am Doug said:

You just saved my document again. I have fought this and fought this. Typically I just paste the document into a text file so the formatting is lost. Then I can at least salvage the text.

Thanks once again.
On August 24, 2011 at 5:19 pm donfry said:

Thanks, Melissa and Doug. This solves the deepest and most maddening mystery of Word.
On September 13, 2011 at 1:06 pm Alanna Coca (@AlannaCoca) said:

Thank you! I’m so glad Google found you for me
On November 3, 2011 at 11:42 pm Jan Gallagher said:

Thanks – I was ready to scream – borders you say – but why? why?
On November 23, 2011 at 5:21 pm Lynette said:

Oh my gosh, you cannot imagine how many hours I have spent trying to remove those dashed lines, and instead, they kept multiplying!

After trying Dr. Fry’s suggestion (and repeating it many times) I came to the conclusion that either it was not working for me, or I must have hundreds of those hidden lines. I was glad to see the suggestion by Carole Moore above about trying “select all” and then proceeding as suggested by Dr. Fry and they disappeared!

You guys are geniuses! Thank you both so much for sharing these wonderful secrets with those of us who might otherwise spend the rest of our lives imprisoned by these grids.
On November 23, 2011 at 5:40 pm donfry said:

Thanks, Lynette.
They drove me out of my mind. That’s why I wrote that post. Don
On January 20, 2012 at 3:01 pm Linda said:

Thanks so much. I was afraid I was going to have to resort to some old-school cut, paste and photo copy nonsense.
-Linda
On February 7, 2012 at 3:38 am Patsy said:

Likewise, this has solved a problem that has driven me demented for years. In Word 2010, which I’ve only just acquired and am not finding particularly user friendly, it’s under Page Layout / Borders.

Eureka! Thank you so much Don Fry.
On February 7, 2012 at 8:49 am donfry said:

Thanks, Patsy. You’ve joined the ranks of the dotted-line support group.
Don
On February 11, 2012 at 3:34 pm Ken said:

You just saved me a ton of frustration. I am forever in your debt
On February 11, 2012 at 5:26 pm donfry said:

Thanks, Ken.
Getting rid of those dots is like lifting cannon balls off your neck.
Don
On March 5, 2012 at 3:01 pm Donnalee said:

Hello.
This is still not working for me. I’ve been trying to separate sections of a text with a centered 3 asterisks–looked nice. Suddenly I have dotted lines between every paragraph. Yes, I clicked page break to see if I could undo that way. Nothing you’ve suggested has worked. Please help.

Donna
On March 11, 2012 at 6:06 pm Donnalee said:

I found another way to beat this thing. You can right click over the text, go to Styles, then Clear Format. Donna
On March 11, 2012 at 6:20 pm donfry said:

Thanks, Donna. It’s amazing how many ways there are to undo Word mess. I wish Microsoft would solve the problem.
On March 12, 2012 at 2:05 pm Doreen said:

You have saved me from rewriting an entire chapter of my dissertation because I couldn’t get rid of those lines. Thanks! Now, how do I eliminate page breaks that have appeared where I don’t want them. Word help has not worked!
On March 12, 2012 at 2:21 pm Donnalee said:

Hi Doreen. I tried two other things that helped with page breaks that seemed to pop up too early. Under HOME, there is an icon that looks like an Aa within a box with an eraser under it. That will clear all your formatting from the section, but you have to do over what you want to keep. OR– under REVIEW, click Track Changes or Final Show Markup. You can click on each format box that appears on the right, and then click Reject Change. If you can find the one where you hit a page break (somehow) it will be gone, I played with this for a long time, but that helped. I hope your dissertation is fun. I wrote mine many years ago. Hang in there. Donna
On March 12, 2012 at 6:28 pm donfry said:

Dear all;
This is the most commented-upon blog post in my whole writing life. I never cease to be amazed at how helpful the comment function can become. Thanks to all of you. Don
On March 20, 2012 at 11:02 am Ben said:

Thanks so much for this blog! Saved my document (dissertation no less) I entered ***** (five stars) then hit enter and a dotted line appeared, and I couldnt work out for the life of me what it was. Thanks for pointing out it was a border – What a stupid idea on behalf of the designers of word…
On March 20, 2012 at 2:54 pm donfry said:

Thanks, Ben. Dissertations are hard enough to write without sabotage from Microsoft. Don
On April 10, 2012 at 9:16 pm Jessica Salvatore C. said:

Thanks SO much Don this was EXTREMELY helpful those lines are so pesky! Now I can deal with them easily! Thanks again!
On April 11, 2012 at 8:49 am donfry said:

Thanks, Jessica. They drove me crazy.
On April 11, 2012 at 11:00 am Working as a Writer: What if you get stuck on something stupid? | SAHM Writer said:

[...] Then I remember… you can learn nearly anything about anything by looking on YouTube – and of course, by Googling it. Tried that first, and came across this page: http://donfry.wordpress.com/2010/10/21/deleting-dotted-lines-in-word/ [...]
On April 17, 2012 at 11:11 pm Catherine Therese said:

Thank you, i was going dotty, until i read this, trying to format a manuscript.
On April 18, 2012 at 7:54 am donfry said:

Thanks, Catherine. All writers are dotty, but Word makes us dottier. Don
On May 13, 2012 at 10:47 pm Erin Wilcox said:

Thank you for your post! Helped me figure out a vexing issue. BTW in Word 2007, you find the border control in the Paragraph box of the Home tab, icon w/drop-down menu in the lower-right corner of the box. So simple once you realize what the heck is going on. Thanks again!
On May 15, 2012 at 6:51 am Andrea Wilson said:

I cannot tell you how grateful I am for this advice! Having spent hours trying to remove these horrendous dotted lines from my manuscript I found your page on a desperate google search and followed your instructions. Thank you for saving my sanity!
On May 19, 2012 at 1:07 pm donfry said:

Thanks, Erin and Andrea;
FIguring it out saved my sanity too. Don
On July 4, 2012 at 1:51 pm thekral said:

you are a god, you saved my life. thanks man!
On July 5, 2012 at 8:56 am donfry said:

Thanks, Thekral.
I had the problem myself yesterday, and fixed it.
On July 12, 2012 at 4:10 am Bernadette said:

You’re the best!! Finally got rid of them… you made my day
On July 12, 2012 at 8:35 am donfry said:

Thanks, Bernadette.
Now if I could just get images centered in Kindle….
On August 5, 2012 at 2:32 pm Gerald said:

Thanks….This was about to drive me crazy. Good thing I had the sense to google for an answer before I jumped off a cliff….Geesh!
On August 7, 2012 at 5:02 pm donfry said:

Thanks, Gerald. Google and this post have saved several lives. Don
On August 14, 2012 at 10:24 pm Julie said:

You’ve saved yet another document, Don, all this time after your original post. Thank you so much!
On August 15, 2012 at 10:57 am cp said:

THANK YOU SO MUCH!!!!
On August 15, 2012 at 12:49 pm donfry said:

Thanks, Julie and Cp. I’m thinking of having this post bronzed. Don
On August 25, 2012 at 11:05 pm Ian said:

Thanks! The gloom has lifted.
On August 26, 2012 at 5:56 pm donfry said:

Thanks, Ian.
Every time I struggled with those dots, I was gloomy for a week. Don
On September 8, 2012 at 4:00 pm rubens63 said:

Thank you very much. Those dots were driving me crazy for too long. I really appreciate your time for helping people. Now I’m going to explore your site because I’m sure there must be many more interesting things to learn.
On September 9, 2012 at 11:32 am donfry said:

Thanks, Rubens63. The blog has been reorganized into a book, Writing Your Way, available through Amazon in print and Kindle.

Writing Your Way: Creating a Writing Process That Works for You

Don
On October 4, 2012 at 2:23 pm Pekka said:

Many thanks Mr. Fry, your advice was very helpful and it was
interesting to see that I was not the only one having been struggling for a long time with those awful uninvited visitors within my text.
On October 4, 2012 at 9:07 pm donfry said:

Thanks, Pekka. This is the most maddening problem in Word. Don
On October 14, 2012 at 2:33 pm Andre said:

Thank you thank you thank you. So simple yet so elusive. I had always assumed it was some odd page break I could not get rid of.
On October 14, 2012 at 3:42 pm donfry said:

Thanks, Andre. Our assumptions defeat us with this one, since we assume that the problem is where it shows, not above it. Don
On October 24, 2012 at 9:15 am Victoria Chadwick said:

Thank You!Thank You!Thank You!Thank You!Thank You! It truly was maddening!

I’m guessing you are like me…..you started your “word processing” endeavors in that long lost Typewriterosaurus era, when we could only make that dashed line by repeating the “period” key.

Maybe you also sometimes say “Ice Box” instead of “Refridgerator,” “Pocket Book,” instead of “Purse,” “Bathing Suit,” instead of “Swim Suit” and “Felt Tip,” instead of “Porous Point.” ; )

Thanks again ~ you saved me a whole lot of retyping!

Victoria
On October 24, 2012 at 9:26 am donfry said:

Thanks, Victoria. I wrote my first piece in cuneiform, using a stylus made of reed. And nothing in the intervening years drove me as crazy as that line of dots. Don
On November 2, 2012 at 1:45 pm Steve said:

Thank you, thank you, thank you!!! Steve
On November 2, 2012 at 7:49 pm donfry said:

Thanks, Steve. This post is so popular that I ought to have it bronzed. Don
On November 10, 2012 at 6:30 pm s caylor said:

OMG, thank you!
On November 11, 2012 at 4:19 pm donfry said:

Thanks, Caylor. This is everybody’s favorite post. Don
On November 11, 2012 at 5:36 pm Abby said:

I love you, Man!
On November 18, 2012 at 7:27 am Greg Hansen said:

Thanks! This saved me a ton of time. BTW, in MS Word 2010, select the paragraph and then select “No Borders”.
On November 18, 2012 at 11:28 am donfry said:

Thanks, Greg. This post’s comment section has become a collector for solving this problem in multiple versions of Word. Don
On November 23, 2012 at 2:01 pm Dani said:

Oh my goodness- those were making me crazy. Your suggestion saved me from endless cutting and pasting into a new document, with no guarantee they weren’t going to follow. Thank you.
On November 23, 2012 at 9:27 pm donfry said:

Thanks, Dani,
I once decided they were some sort of infection, because they popped up even when you cut and pasted. Don
On November 29, 2012 at 8:16 am Shani said:

Thank you and you made me laugh out loud with your descriptions!
On November 29, 2012 at 9:01 am donfry said:

Thanks, Shani. It ain’t funny when you’re struggling with it. Don
On December 28, 2012 at 4:00 pm Sabrina said:

Oh THANK YOU. The line I had would not disappear and I could not copy and paste the 14 page paper to get rid of it. I tried for hours. Then, I googled and found your help!
On December 29, 2012 at 8:19 pm donfry said:

Thanks, Sabrina. I once had 14 lines at the same time! Don
On January 11, 2013 at 10:42 pm Vlad said:

Thank you for this. Those lines are maddening. In fact I hadn’t expected to find a solution so quickly. God bless you!
On January 12, 2013 at 6:43 pm donfry said:

Thanks, Vlad. I get blessed every time I get feedback on this post. Don
On January 25, 2013 at 6:50 pm Heloyse said:

Thank you so much for this article! I was in despair over those dotted lines. You’ve saved me from having to re-type a 120k novel from scratch. I will be much more careful when I use asterisks in future …
On January 26, 2013 at 6:06 pm FryingPan9 said:

This helped me too. Thanks very much. It was the first thing I found in a Google search. Years ago I learned how to make that dotted line appear but not how to get rid of them.

I mainly write stand-up and used the long dotted lines to separate different ideas. But sometimes I copy/paste the ideas into a new doc so I can basically write out an entire set and word chop it and otherwise customize the material for whatever gig I’m doing. That’s when I found I didn’t want the dotted lines because in that context they were annoying.
On January 28, 2013 at 9:43 am Stoffel (out of Africa) said:

Thanks – After a lot of frustration I hit on your advice. It worked like a charm, Even up to the point where I had to delete several lines that were stacked. Thanks again – I feel much better now!
On January 28, 2013 at 8:10 pm donfry said:

Thanks, Heloyse, Frying Pan 9, and Stoffel. I think I’ll get this post bronzed. Don
On February 5, 2013 at 1:29 am Jean Hohl said:

I’m using a Windows 7 platform. Thanks to this posting, I figured out how to do it: go to the Home tab, select the Change Styles pull-down menu on the far right, and select Clear All. FANTASTIC. I’ve avoided having to figure this out for years. Thanks, everyone. Jean
On February 5, 2013 at 8:39 am donfry said:

Thanks, Jean. This post has become a nexus for sharing ways to do this on different platforms. Don
On February 14, 2013 at 6:45 am s said:

thanks, that was starting to annoy me
On February 14, 2013 at 8:49 am donfry said:

Thanks, s. I got beyond annoyance to fury pretty fast. Don.
On March 2, 2013 at 11:40 pm Helen M. said:

Can’t thank you, enough! This was so mysterious and frustrating! Sure do appreciate your taking the time to document a solution. It was a little bit different on Windows 7, but you gave enough hints for me to figure it out!
On March 3, 2013 at 10:08 am Sharon said:

It’s like I have been cured of some horrible disease that no doctor can diagnose. I was going to give up on my PhD thesis until I found this site. Thanks!
On March 3, 2013 at 11:50 am donfry said:

Thanks, Helen and Sharon.
Helene, please add a comment on how to do this in Windows 7 so others can use it. And Sharon, good luck with your thesis.
Don
On March 15, 2013 at 1:16 pm Paul MD said:

I knew I could not be the only person to encounter this virus-like feature. I spent at least an hour trying to figure it out, then decided to google it.

thx Don
On March 15, 2013 at 3:02 pm donfry said:

Thanks, Paul.
This “virus-like feature” has sickened thousands.
Don
On April 3, 2013 at 9:46 am allsmiles said:

Thank you so much for this!
On April 4, 2013 at 12:47 pm DAG said:

Another idea is to Select all, then right click, and under “styles” then “clear formatting”. This is super easy and takes you back to square one. If you have this dotted line issue, you very may have other weird things going on. This will generally take care of everything.
On April 4, 2013 at 1:02 pm donfry said:

Thanks, DAG.
There are lots of ways to solve this. Don
On April 5, 2013 at 2:37 pm Vidhya said:

God bless you Don for giving me this solution!
On April 5, 2013 at 4:53 pm donfry said:

Thanks, Vidhya.
Bless God for saving me from this awful feature.
Don
On April 9, 2013 at 3:10 am lipo slender weight loss said:

I like the helpful info you provide in your articles.
I will bookmark your weblog and check again here regularly.
I’m quite certain I’ll learn lots of new stuff right here!

Best of luck for the next!
On April 22, 2013 at 12:12 pm Dagne said:

Thank You Obi Wan!!! I wish I had found your blog before the hours I spent trying to get rid of that cursed thing. And just as you said, there were a bunch of them hiding in the document. I feel like a goblin slayer!
On April 22, 2013 at 1:21 pm donfry said:

Thanks, Dagne.
This one blog post has slain more goblins than anything I ever wrote.
Don
On April 30, 2013 at 8:40 am Heather DeShong said:

THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU! That stupid line was driving me insane! You have saved me!
On May 1, 2013 at 1:26 am Ruik said:

This stupid function can be turned off: 1) go to the “Office” button (i.e. that red/blue/orange/green thing, often in the top left of the screen); 2) Choose “Word Options”; 3) Choose “Proofing”; 4) Choose “AutoCorrect Options”; 5) find the “AutoFormat As You Type” tag; 6) look for the “Apply As You Type” option; and 7) unclick the box that says “Border lines”. And hopefully, that will work. Different versions of Word might have this in different places, but “AutoFormat As You Type” is probably the thing to look for. Good luck.
On May 1, 2013 at 7:44 am Don Fry said:

Dear readers of this blog,

If you know a different way to undo this horrible feature, please comment on this blog. Thanks.
Don
On May 20, 2013 at 12:54 am free microsoft points codes for xbox 360 live said:

Oh my goodness! Awesome article dude! Thank you,
However I am encountering problems with your RSS. I don’t understand why I cannot subscribe to it. Is there anybody having similar RSS problems? Anyone who knows the answer can you kindly respond? Thanks!!
On May 21, 2013 at 1:10 pm Ben said:

You, good sir, just saved me BIG time at work. I’ll sign the document with my name and add you as a co-author.
On May 21, 2013 at 6:37 pm donfry said:

Thanks, Ben. It cost me hours before I figured it out.
Don

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