Typing in Boxes

Written by Allen Wyatt (last updated March 13, 2021)
This tip applies to Word 2007, 2010, 2013, 2016, 2019, and 2021

Word is acting strangely all of a sudden. Whenever Laurel creates a new document, a rectangular box appears at the top, every time. She can only type in that box and lines appear when she presses Enter to start a new paragraph. Thinking it was a problem with the Normal template, Laurel replaced it with a friend's, but that didn't work. She wonders what is causing this behavior.

Taking the step to try a new Normal template was good; that ruled out the problem being related to borders being turned on for the Normal style. The next most likely culprit is what Word refers to as Text Boundaries. This feature, if enabled, displays bothersome boxes around your text. Here is how you can control the feature:

Display the Word Options dialog box. (In Word 2007 click the Office button and then click Word Options. In Word 2010 or a later version, display the File tab of the ribbon and then click Options.)
Click Advanced at the left side of the dialog box.
Scroll through the options until you see the Show Document Content section. (You'll need to scroll down a ways.) (See Figure 1.)

Figure 1. The Advanced options of the Word Options dialog box.

Use the Show Text Boundaries check box to control whether Word uses text boundaries or not. Click on the check box to turn the feature on and off; a check in the box means it is enabled.
Click on OK.

Once you turn off the Text Boundaries, the boxes should disappear entirely; they will not remain around anything you previously typed.

WordTips is your source for cost-effective Microsoft Word training. (Microsoft Word is the most popular word processing software in the world.) This tip (13833) applies to Microsoft Word 2007, 2010, 2013, 2016, 2019, and 2021.

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. Learn more about Allen...

MORE FROM ALLEN

Finding Fields

Fields allow you to add simple dynamic content to your document. Here's how you can find the fields when you need to know ...

Discover More

Using Manual Line Breaks with Justified Paragraphs

If you use justified paragraphs, you know that if you press Shift+Enter, it can lead to some odd spacing between words ...

Discover More

Determining a Value of a Cell

Cells can store all sorts of information that can be formatted and displayed in a myriad of ways. If you want to quickly ...

Discover More

Learning Made Easy! Quickly teach yourself how to format, publish, and share your content using Word 2021 or Microsoft 365. With Step by Step, you set the pace, building and practicing the skills you need, just when you need them! Check out Microsoft Word Step by Step today!

More WordTips (ribbon)

Displaying the Ruler

The ubiquitous ruler appears at the top of every Word document. It is so commonplace, that you may forget that it is easy ...

Discover More

Changing the Maximum Undo Levels

Want to change the number of "undo" steps available when editing? You can't, because Word doesn't' really have a maximum. ...

Discover More

Automatically Saving Changes to Defaults

Have you ever started a new document only to find that the settings in Word seem to be different than what you expected? ...

Discover More

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.

Notify me about new comments ONLY FOR THIS TIP

Notify me about new comments ANYWHERE ON THIS SITE

Hide my email address

What is 9 - 3?

2022-11-11 11:23:30

Shade

This is very helpful. It worked for a client I was trying to help. Thank you

2021-03-15 12:00:44

Daniel

I'm having the same trouble.
My Normal blank document has a text box around the cursor.
I tried what is outlined above but it didn't help.

2021-03-15 08:45:31

Lorraine DeCesare

This is happening to me too - it puts the copied text in a text box. This did not fix it. Sometimes, you don’t see it is in a box unless the you pâté at a bottom of a page and the text stays in the box. If I paste as text, lose all formats, the box is gone but I have to reformat.

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.