Please Note: This article is written for users of the following Microsoft Word versions: 2007, 2010, and 2013. If you are using an earlier version (Word 2003 or earlier), this tip may not work for you. For a version of this tip written specifically for earlier versions of Word, click here: Understanding Page Border Art.
If you add page borders to your document, you already know that you can use special artistic treatments for the borders. For instance, you may want the page border to be comprised of a line of apples, stars, candles, or some other object. Word provides a wide array of artwork that you can use for borders.
The artwork used for borders is stored in a proprietary file format. The artwork is not in a normal format, such as GIF, JPG, or TIF. Instead, the artwork is in files that end in .BDR. You can find them on your hard drive by using the Find feature from the Start menu, and searching for any file ending with a .BDR extension. There are 15 such files, typically stored in the \Program Files\Microsoft Office\Office\Borders folder. The actual path may vary, depending on the version of Word installed on your system. For instance, on my Office 2010 system running under Windows 7, the path is \Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Office\Office14\BORDERS.
Because the border artwork is stored in a proprietary format, you cannot add your own custom artwork for borders, nor can you use any artwork stored in a different format for borders.
WordTips is your source for cost-effective Microsoft Word training. (Microsoft Word is the most popular word processing software in the world.) This tip (8555) applies to Microsoft Word 2007, 2010, and 2013. You can find a version of this tip for the older menu interface of Word here: Understanding Page Border Art.
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2020-07-09 13:21:32
Allan
David,
I agree. Instructions should have been included.
Here they are:
Page Layout>Page Background>Page Borders>Border tab>Select options>Try a few for practice
2020-07-08 07:54:47
David in Mississippi
This article does great at telling us we CAN use border art - but gives no clue as to HOW to do so. REALLY??
2019-03-30 20:20:49
Maxine Gray
I'm using word 2010 and need to know if there is a key (F5 as earlier versions) to go to where you left off previously instead of hunting through the doc. F5 was so very good.
2016-04-28 16:13:21
Peter Kirkpatrick
I assume this is about creating a border using the proprietary process. You can of course create custom borders manually without much trouble. Here's a good site (remove spaces):
http ://wordfaqs .mvps .org /borderart .htm#Word20072010
2016-04-28 15:34:39
David Goldberg
I'm glad I didn't know earlier that I couldn't use my own artwork for a border. In my ignorance I went ahead and created several pieces of my own artwork from scratch and used them as borders very successfully. :) I simply called them pictures and laid them on several dozen pages of a client's book.
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Please Note:
This article is written for users of the following Microsoft Word versions: 2007, 2010, and 2013. If you are using an earlier version (Word 2003 or earlier), this tip may not work for you. For a version of this tip written specifically for earlier versions of Word, click here: 
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