Word Tip - Use Hyphens to Auto-create Lines

It’s July, the weather is miserable, we need something to lift our spirits, so bring on the ‘Keep it Simple’ tip!

This month it is a Word tip showing how to quickly create lines using hyphens!

You can view the video or follow the step-by-step shown underneath.

Enjoy and remember: Keep it Simple!

Hello!

Today, we’re looking at Word!

Many people visually section off part of a document by putting in a line. There is  shortcut to do this – which is to use 3 hyphens.

Step 1

• I’ll click after the second paragraph and press Enter to position the cursor where I want the line to be.
• I’ll type in 3 hyphens using the SHIFT + Hyphen keys.

• When I press Enter – the line will appear.

• If that’s what I want, then it’s done!

But if I’d rather keep the 3 hyphens, then you might notice that a Smart Tag has also appeared.

• If I click on the Smart Tag you will see I have a number of choices.

• • Particularly note the choice called ‘Stop Automatically Creating Border Lines‘.
  • You can click on this if you regularly want to use 3 or more hyphens and find this shortcut annoying.

• However, I’m just going to click on ‘Undo Border Line‘ – and I get my 3 hyphens back.

NOTE: You can also click on the UNDO button or press CTRL + Z on the keyboard.

Then, there is a quicker way to undo the line, which I’ll show you next!

Step 2

• I’ll pretend I’m going to sign off a letter and click at the end of the document, pressing Enter a few times.
• Then I’ll hold down the SHIFT key and the hyphen button to create the longer amount of hyphens I need for a signature.

• When I press Enter, not only do I get a line – but it is a Bold line!

• No problem, I just press the BACKSPACE key once – and it reverts back!

Easy!

Thank you for watching and I’ll be back with another useful ‘Keep it Simple‘ tip – next month!