Produce a Quick Line of Dots, Dashes or a Border – Without Leaving the Keyboard

I usually enhance my memos with borders—lines and dashes—but it’s a tedious job clicking all those keys. I know I can do it by going to the Format menu and clicking on Borders and Shading, but that’s even more cumbersome. Is there an easier way to do it?

Yes, there’s a really neat way to produce border dashes, bold single or even double or heavy dotted lines—and all that without removing your fingers from the keyboard.

To create a thin line, type three dashes and press Enter. For a bold single line, type three underlines and Enter. For a double line, use three equal signs and Enter. And for a heavy dotted line, type three asterisks and Enter (see screenshot below).

Since each line is actually an entire paragraph, not a link of type, be sure you start at the left margin. You can actually type more than three characters, if you wish, but not less.

The technique works equally well in Word 2007. But if it doesn’t, you’ll need to make these adjustments: Click the Button and Word Options. Then click on Proofing, AutoCorrect Options, opening the AutoCorrect dialog screen. Click on the tab AutoFormat As You Type and then select Border lines (see screenshot below).