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How to add border in word (for Pages/Images/Text Boxes)

What is a border in Word?

A border in MS Word is a line, a set of lines, or designed shapes that appear around the boundaries of pages/images/shapes/textboxes.

Page borders are mostly used to design flyers and brochures, and sometimes book covers. Borders can be lines of different styles and weights or colorful graphics as illustrated in the picture below.

Illustration of a page border in Word

How to add page border in word

To add a page border in Word:

  • Launch Microsoft Word.
  • Click on the Design tab for Word 2013, 2016 and 2019.
  • Click on the Page Layout tab for Word 2010 and older.
  • In the Page Background group, click on Page Borders.
Click on the Design tab

The Borders and Shading dialog box will appear. This dialog box offers options for you to choose the style or size of border for your page or pages.

  • Select the Box option. This will give you a square border around your pages.
  • In the Style section, select the type of line you want if you want to use a line or group of lines as your border.
  • You can also change the color and width of the line.
Set all your border settings
  • Instead of using a line, you can also use some designed shapes or art as borders in your Word document.
Use Art shapes for borders in Word

NOTE: By default, Word adds the borders to all the pages in the document. If you don’t want this behavior, in the Apply to drop-down, select the first page only to add borders to only the first page. You can also break your pages into sections so that you can add borders to those sections alone.

Adding page border to one page only

How to make a custom border in word

It is very simple to make a custom border in Word.

  • First, click to activate the Design tab.
  • In the Page Background group, click the Page Border command to display the Borders and Shading dialog.
  • Under the Settings group, select the Custom option from the list of choices. Now set the border styles and widths.
Select Custom from the Settings at the left
  • Also, go to the Apply to box to decide whether you want the border to be applied to the entire document. Word will apply borders to every page in the document by default.

How to remove border in word

To remove border in Word:

  • Click on the Design tab.
  • In the Page Background group, click on Page Borders. The Borders and Shading window will appear.
  • Click on None under Setting at the left.
How to remove borders in Word

The none option will remove all the borders on all the pages in your Word document.

How to add a Christmas border in word

To add a Christmas border in Word:

  • Click on the Design tab.
  • In the Page Background group, click on Page Borders. The Borders and Shading window will appear.
  • Click on Box option under Settings at the left.
  • Click on the Art dropdown, scroll up and down until you see the Christmas tree, click on it.
  • Now click OK to add a Christmas border into Your Word document.
how to add a christmas border in word

How to add a paragraph border in word

Aside from adding page borders in Word, you can also add paragraph borders.

As a page border surrounds the entire page, a paragraph border surrounds only the selected paragraph.

Thus, to add a paragraph border in Word:

  • Click anywhere inside the paragraph to which the border will be added.
  • Click on the Home tab.
  • In the Paragraph group, click on the Borders command
  • A list of border options appears, click on Outside Borders.
  • A line border will now surround the entire paragraph.
add a border to a paragraph in Word

How to add border to picture in word

Pictures in your document look fancier when framed.  

There are different preset styles of borders you can add to a picture to make it look nicer in your document. This feature is called Picture Styles in MS Word.

The quickest way to add a border to a picture is to choose a preset style from the Styles gallery.

Obey the instructions below:

  • Click to select the picture to add the border.
add border to picture in word
  • Upon selecting the picture, a Picture Tool Format will appear on the ribbon. Click on this tab.
  • In the Picture Style group, select the picture style that you like.
  • The selected border will be added to the picture.
add picture border in word

how to remove text box border in word

To remove text box border in Word:

  • Click to select the text box.
Click to select the text box
  • The Format tab will appear. If you don’t see the Format tab, make sure the text box is selected.
  • Click on the Format tab.
  • Click Shape Outline in the Shape Styles category.
  • Then click on No Outline.
Go to Shape Outline>No Outline

The No Outline command will remove the text box border from your Word document.