Adjust line spacing for more attractive borders

Did you ever wonder why it looks like you need to insert a blank line between the top border of your paragraph and the paragraph text? By default, Word leaves only one point of line spacing between your top border and the text, which can look a little crowded (Figure A).

Figure A

You could click before the first word in the paragraph and press Enter, but that might not give you the exact spacing you want. Let’s say, for example, you would like 6-point line spacing between the border and the paragraph. To achieve that formatting, follow these steps:

1. Click anywhere in the paragraph.
2. Go to Format | Borders And Shading. (In Word 2007, click the Borders tool drop-down arrow in the Paragraph group of the Home tab. Then, click Borders And Shading from the drop-down list.)
3. Click the Options button on the Borders tab (Figure B).

Figure B

1. In the From Text section, click the up arrow of the Top box until 6 pt is displayed.
2. Click OK twice (Figure C).

Figure C

Now your text will be situated six points below the top border, as shown in Figure D.

Figure D

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