Please Note: This article is written for users of the following Microsoft Word versions: 2007, 2010, 2013, 2016, 2019, 2021, 2024, and Word in Microsoft 365. 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 Underlines.

Understanding Underlines

Written by Allen Wyatt (last updated June 7, 2025)
This tip applies to Word 2007, 2010, 2013, 2016, 2019, 2021, 2024, and Word in Microsoft 365


1

The easiest way to underline text is to select the text and then press Ctrl+U. Word adds a simple underline. If you want more types of underlines, display the Home tab of the ribbon and use the down-arrow next to the Underline tool in the Font group. This allows you to select 8 or 9 different underlining styles.

If you want the greatest control over underlines, however, you need to display the Font dialog box, which is most easily displayed by pressing Ctrl+D. The dialog box allows you to select from a wide variety of underline types, using the Underline Style drop-down list. The following are the major types of underlines available:

Underline Type Meaning
None Removes any underlining from the selected text
Single Adds a single underline, the entire length of the selected text
Words Only Underlines only the words (not spaces or tabs) in the selected text
Double Adds a double-line underline, the entire length of the selected text
Dots Same as Single, but uses a line of dots instead
Dashes Same as Dots, but uses dashes instead of dots

Remember that these are only the major types of underlines; there are actually many more. In fact, Word offers 18 different types of underlines using the Underline Style drop-down list. Most of these options represent variations on the Single, Dots, and Dashes options mentioned above.

WordTips is your source for cost-effective Microsoft Word training. (Microsoft Word is the most popular word processing software in the world.) This tip (11188) applies to Microsoft Word 2007, 2010, 2013, 2016, 2019, 2021, 2024, and Word in Microsoft 365. You can find a version of this tip for the older menu interface of Word here: Understanding Underlines.

Author Bio

Allen Wyatt

With more than 50 non-fiction books and numerous magazine articles to his credit, Allen Wyatt is an internationally recognized author. He is president of Sharon Parq Associates, a computer and publishing services company. ...

MORE FROM ALLEN

Saving Changes when Closing

If you write a macro that makes changes to a document, you may want that macro to save those changes. There are several ...

Discover More

Grabbing a User's Name from Excel

One of the settings you can make in Excel is to specify a user's name. This name is accessible through macros, and can ...

Discover More

Understanding Monospace Fonts

Information in a worksheet needs to be displayed using fonts. If you understand the two different types of fonts ...

Discover More

Do More in Less Time! An easy-to-understand guide to the more advanced features available in the Microsoft 365 version of Word. Enhance the quality of your documents and boost productivity in any field with this in-depth resource. Complete your Word-related tasks more efficiently as you unlock lesser-known tools and learn to quickly access the features you need. Check out Microsoft 365 Word For Professionals For Dummies today!

More WordTips (ribbon)

Creating a Drop Cap

Drop caps can be a nice finishing touch for some types of documents. Word allows you to create three types of drop caps, ...

Discover More

Automatically Formatting Text within Quotes

Some people use quote marks around text to make it stand out. At some point you may want to treat the quoted text ...

Discover More

Changing the Color of a Tab's Leader Character

When you set tab stops for a paragraph, you can also specify leader characters to be used with the tab stop. If you want ...

Discover More
Subscribe

FREE SERVICE: Get tips like this every week in WordTips, a free productivity newsletter. Enter your address and click "Subscribe."

View most recent newsletter.

Comments

If you would like to add an image to your comment (not an avatar, but an image to help in making the point of your comment), include the characters [{fig}] (all 7 characters, in the sequence shown) in your comment text. You’ll be prompted to upload your image when you submit the comment. Maximum image size is 6Mpixels. Images larger than 600px wide or 1000px tall will be reduced. Up to three images may be included in a comment. All images are subject to review. Commenting privileges may be curtailed if inappropriate images are posted.

What is eight more than 9?

2025-06-16 17:43:04

Paula

Underline now signals a link, so underlining anything else is likely to result in unrequited clicking :)


This Site

Got a version of Word that uses the ribbon interface (Word 2007 or later)? This site is for you! If you use an earlier version of Word, visit our WordTips site focusing on the menu interface.

Videos
Subscribe

FREE SERVICE: Get tips like this every week in WordTips, a free productivity newsletter. Enter your address and click "Subscribe."

(Your e-mail address is not shared with anyone, ever.)

View the most recent newsletter.