How to Create Borders in Word 2013

Word 2010 For Dummies

To create borders around your text in Word 2013, you can use either the Borders command button from the ribbon or you can summon the Borders and Shadings dialogue box.

How to use the Borders command button

Word 2013 places its basic text decoration doodlings on the Borders command button menu. It’s found in the Home tab's Paragraph group. Clicking that button immediately applies the indicated border to your text, or removes the borders, as is the case with the No Border button.

The Border command button can also be used to display a menu full of border choices. Choosing a border from the menu not only applies that border to your text but also changes the Border command button to reflect the new border style.

You can use only one border style at a time from the Border menu. Choosing another style replaces the first style.
If you want a combination of borders, you must use the Borders and Shading dialog box. This dialog box also allows you to change the line style, color, and thickness of the border.

Summon the Borders and Shading dialog box

For true control over borders, you summon the Borders and Shading dialog box. Choosing the Borders and Shading command from the bottom of the Border menu does the job.

Unlike on the Border menu, several options are available in the Borders and Shading dialog box for setting borders. Most notably, you can set the border line style, thickness, and color.

You can also use the Borders and Shading dialog box to create a page border and apply background color (shading).

Click the OK button to apply your border settings and close the dialog box, or press Cancel, to give up and quit.

About This Article

About the book author:

Dan Gookin has been writing about technology for 20 years. He has contributed articles to numerous high-tech magazines and written more than 90 books about personal computing technology, many of them accurate.
He combines his love of writing with his interest in technology to create books that are informative and entertaining, but not boring. Having sold more than 14 million titles translated into more than 30 languages, Dan can attest that his method of crafting computer tomes does seem to work.
Perhaps Dan’s most famous title is the original DOS For Dummies, published in 1991. It became the world’s fastest-selling computer book, at one time moving more copies per week than the New York Times number-one best seller (although, because it’s a reference book, it could not be listed on the NYT best seller list). That book spawned the entire line of For Dummies books, which remains a publishing phenomenon to this day.
Dan’s most recent titles include PCs For Dummies, 9th Edition; Buying a Computer For Dummies, 2005 Edition; Troubleshooting Your PC For Dummies; Dan Gookin’s Naked Windows XP; and Dan Gookin’s Naked Office. He publishes a free weekly computer newsletter, “Weekly Wambooli Salad,” and also maintains the vast and helpful Web site www.wambooli.com.