Troubleshoot borders, shading, and graphic effects

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.

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

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 view the edges of the page, verify that you are viewing the document in print layout view, move the insertion point to the top or bottom of the page, and then click the Show White Space button.

• Check your border margins You might have positioned your border too close to the edge of a page. Most printers cannot print to the edge of a page— especially to the bottom of the page. The minimum amount of space needed between the margin and the edge of the page varies by printer. To adjust the page border margin, click Borders and Shading (Format menu), click the Page Border tab, and then click Options. Under Margin, adjust the settings you want.

• Check the distance between the page border and the text The distance between the page border and the text might place the border outside the page margin width. To adjust the distance, click Borders and Shading (Format menu), click the Page Border tab, and then click Options. Click Text under Measure from. Under Margin, adjust the settings you want.

• Check your page margins You might have set the page margins too close to the edge of the page. Adjust the page margins. (On the File menu, click Page Setup and then click the Margins tab).

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.

You may be seeing a watermark or background.

1. On the Format menu, point to Background.

2. Do one of the following:

   • To remove a background, click No Fill.

   • To remove a watermark, click Printed Watermark, and then click No watermark.

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.

• Adding a 3-D effect to a drawing object turns off its outlines.
• The outlines have been turned off, the outlines are the same color as the background, or an embossed or engraved effect has been added to the drawing object. To add visible outlines, select the object. On the Drawing toolbar, click the arrow next to Line Color , and then click a color for the outines.

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 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.

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