Troubleshoot borders, shading, and graphic fills

I added borders to my document, but they don't appear on every page.

If your document contains sections, Microsoft Word applies the border you specified to the current section only. To apply borders that appear on every page of the document, click Borders and Shading (Format menu), and then click the Page Border tab. Under Apply to, click Whole document.

I can't see my page border.

Make sure you are viewing your document in print layout view. You might be viewing your document in normal view  ù which does not display some graphic items such as AutoShapes or page borders ù or in Web layout view ù which treats the document as a single long page and does not display page breaks, page borders, or other page-specific items.

I can't see the top or bottom page borders on my screen.

If you are viewing your document in print layout view with the White Space Between Pages option turned off, the top and bottom page border will disappear on your screen.

To turn off this setting, verify that you are in print layout view, move the insertion point to the top or bottom of the page, and then click the Hide White Space Show or Hide White Space symbol button.

A part of the page border is not printing.

The page border doesn't move when I change page margins.

Change the page border measurement to be in relation to the text rather than the edge of the page.

  1. On the Format menu, click Borders and Shading, and then click the Page Border tab.

  2. Click Options, and then click Text on the Measure from list.

I can't remove the shading from my page.

You may be seeing a watermark or background.

  1. On the Format menu, point to Background.

  2. Do one of the following:

I changed the fill, border, shadow, or 3-D effect, but when I create a drawing object, I get the old settings.

The default style is being applied to the new drawing object.

To change the default settings for new drawing objects, select an object that has the attributes you want. On the Drawing toolbar, click Draw, and then click Set AutoShape Defaults.

I can't see the border around a drawing object.

I can't remove all the borders from my Web page.

Your borders may have been created with the DIV HTML element. Select all the text that the border surrounds. On the Format menu, click Borders and Shading, and then click the Borders tab. If multiple border levels appear under Apply to, select each border that you want to remove, and then click None.

The border around my paragraph appears cut off.

The paragraph with the border might fall across a page break. A border is a paragraph property that flows with the paragraph. When a paragraph with a border splits across a page break, the border splits as well. To keep the paragraph border in one piece, reposition the entire paragraph the border surrounds on one page.

I can't add, change, or remove a border or shading to specific table cells.

You may not have selected the end-of-cell marks. To select a cell, click the left edge of the cell.

Cell selection