Word text box border color

Text boxes in an MS Word document are a very useful feature. Text within a box acts as a highlight for the reader. Here, we will show you how to:

1. Add a Text Box
2. Remove a Text Box
3. Customize a Text Box Border
4. Change Border Color
5. Create Dashed Border
6. Change Border Thickness

Let us begin.

Step #1: Open the Word document.

Open the Word document where you want to add the text box.

Step #2: Add the Text Box

Position the cursor where you want the text box to appear.

In the top menu bar, click on the Insert tab to change the ribbon.

In the section Text, click on the Text Box icon to open a dialog box for Built-In text boxes.

Click on the text box you find suitable. We select the Simple Text Box.

Word adds the text box in the document.

Remove a Text Box

Step #1: Open the Word document.

Open the Word document that has at least one text box.

Step #2: Remove the text box

Click on the text box boundary to select it.

Press the Delete button on your keyboard.

Word will delete the text box from your document.

Customize a Text Box Border

Step #1: Open the Word document.

Open the Word document that has at least one text box.

Step #2: Customize the text box border

Click on the text box boundary to select it.

Right-click on the text box boundary to open a menu.

Click on Format AutoShape/Picture.

This opens a dialog box for Format Text Box.

Click on the Colors and Lines tab.

Change Border Color

Under Line, click on the down arrow on the right-hand side of Color:.

This opens a dialog box for Theme Colors and Standard Colors.

Click on the color of your choice.

The chosen color will appear against the Color: tab under Line.

Note: At this point, you can click on OK at the bottom of the dialog box to exit. Word will change the color of the box to your chosen color. Else, move to the next step to make more changes.

Create Dashed Border

In the Format Text Box dialog box, under Line, click on the down arrow on the right side of Dashed:.

This opens a choice for different dashed lines.

Select the most suitable dashed line.

The chosen dashed line will appear against the Dashed: tab under Line.

Note: At this point, you can click on OK at the bottom of the dialog box to exit. Word will make the changes to the text box as per your choices above. Else, move to the next step to make more changes.

Change Border Thickness

In the Format Text Box dialog box, under Line, click on the down arrow on the right side of Style:.

This opens a choice for lines of a different style.

Each line style has its weight in points on its left.

Select the line most suitable to you.

The chosen line style will appear against the Style: tab.

The weight of the chosen line style will appear against the Weight: tab under Style:.

The choice of line styles offers only a few discrete weights.

To change the line weight, select the number next to Weight:.

Change the number as you like.

Click on OK at the bottom of the Format Text Box dialog box to exit.

Word will make the changes to the text box according to all your choices.

Conclusion

Follow our step-by-step instructions to add or delete text boxes in your Word document. Beautify your text boxes with our instructions. We have shown you how to change the border color, style of the border line, and the thickness of the border.

Reading
a lengthy text document can make anyone bored in minutes. However, there are
few simple ways to make your documents more attractive and appealing to the
reader. One such option is to add colorful text boxes in-between paragraphs.
This is a useful way to show important action points on full text based
documents. In this article, let us explore how to create text box in Word
document.

Related: How to quickly add dividers in Word?

We
will discuss the following options based on Word 2016 or later version.

• Create text box from existing text
• Creating empty text box
• Changing text box size and position
• Changing text direction
• Deleting borders

Creating
Text Box from Existing Text

You can convert any of the existing text paragraph and list to a text box in Word. Let’s see how to do that.

• First open your document and select the paragraph you want to convert to a text box.
• Switch to the “Insert” tab from the ribbon menu.
• Open the “Text Box” menu.
• Word offers a selection of predefined text boxes, for example for creating sidebars with quotes.
• However, for converting the existing text, select the entry “Draw Text Box” in the lower pane.

This will instantly add a bordered text box around
the selected text. Word treats text boxes as a drawing and you can design the
box as per your need using the “Drawing Tools” menu. You can move the text
boxes anywhere in the document, depending on the layout. This can be useful for
the design of flyers and brochure.

Creating
Empty Text Box

Of course, you do not necessarily need existing text to
create a new text box. Alternatively, you can also create empty text boxes and
enter the text into them later.

• Place the cursor where you want to insert a text box.
• Reopen the “Insert” menu and select “Text Box” option.
• Click the “Draw Text Box” menu item. You will see the cursor now changed to cross hair shape.
• Draw out the text box while holding down the left mouse button.
• Then enter the text into the text box.
• You can look at the various options in the context menu of your text box for designing your text box.

Changing
Text Box Size and Position

When
you have created a text box out, you have various options for editing. You can
design it, change the size and place it anywhere in your document.

• You can change the size of the box using the handles on the edges of it. Word will automatically adjust the text content inside the box.
• It is also possible to freely move the box using the mouse. You can hover over the mouse to change the cursor into a star shape, allowing you to drag the box.
• Formatting is also possible as usual, for example, right-click on the selected text to use the Mini toolbar and format the text in bold or change the alignment.
• You can click on the “Layout Options” button on the side of the text box to wrap text box with the content on your document.

Changing
Text Direction

Within
a text box, you can also influence the text direction. Besides the default
horizontal alignment the text can also run vertically.

• What about if you want to rotate the text inside text box? This is also
  very easy. Open the “Text Direction”.
• Double click on the text box to open “Drawing Tools” menu. Click on the
  “Text Direction” menu and select the entry, “Rotate all text 270°”.
• The text is now set vertically in the text box and you can adjust the
  format and position of the box.

• You can move the text box between paragraphs or columns by dragging the
  box while keeping the left mouse button pressed.

Related: How to embed Excel table in Word document?

Deleting
Borders and Content

By
default, text boxes are displayed with borders, but you do not have to keep
them. You can easily remove the borders.

• Click on the text box to open the “Drawing Tools” and select “Shape Outline”
  button under “Format” menu.
• Now, select the entry “No Outline” to remove the borders from the box.

• You can also apply different colors, weight and styles to the border if
  you want.
• In order to delete a text box content, simply click inside the box and
  edit or delete the content. Alternatively, select the text box by clicking on
  the border and press delete to completely delete the box.
• In this respect, text boxes behave in the same way as other drawing
  objects.

Using Text Box Templates

The best and easy way to use text box in Word is to
select one of the predefined text box template. You can select from one of the good-looking
templates from the “Text Box” menu dropdown.

For example, you can use text box in a sidebar
format or choose one of the colorful formats. You can adjust the layout
positions to align the content beside the box.

You can also customize the text box and create a
custom template as a Quick Parts.

• First, select the box you want to use as templates.
• Go to “Insert > Text Box” and choose “Save Selection to Text Box Gallery” option.
• Fill up the details to create a new building block.
• You can view the saved template under “Text Box” menu dropdown from next time onwards.

Other Formatting Options

The “Formatting Tools” menu offers various
additional options for customizing your text box content. You can double click
on any text box to view the menus applicable for drawing object. Below are some
of the activities you can do with the formatting tools:

• Apply shape styles like fill, effects and borders.
• Create WordArt inside text box.
• Change text direction.
• Position and wrap the content around the text box.

/en/word2003/formatting/content/

/en/word2003/working-with-columns/content/

Here is my complete Flat TextBox control that supports themes including custom border colors in normal and focused states.

The control uses the same concept mentioned by Reza Aghaei https://stackoverflow.com/a/38405319/5514131 ,however the FlatTextBox control is more customizable and flicker-free.

The control handles the WM_NCPAINT window message in a better way to help eliminate flicker.

Protected Overrides Sub WndProc(ByRef m As Message)

    If m.Msg = WindowMessage.WM_NCPAINT AndAlso _drawBorder AndAlso Not DesignMode Then 'Draw the control border

        Dim w As Integer
        Dim h As Integer
        Dim clip As Rectangle
        Dim hdc As IntPtr

        Dim clientRect As RECT = Nothing
        GetClientRect(Handle, clientRect)

        Dim windowRect As RECT = Nothing
        GetWindowRect(Handle, windowRect)

        w = windowRect.Right - windowRect.Left
        h = windowRect.Bottom - windowRect.Top

        clip = New Rectangle(CInt((w - clientRect.Right) / 2), CInt((h - clientRect.Bottom) / 2), clientRect.Right, clientRect.Bottom)

        hdc = GetWindowDC(Handle)

        Using g As Graphics = Graphics.FromHdc(hdc)

            g.SetClip(clip, CombineMode.Exclude)

            Using sb = New SolidBrush(BackColor)
                g.FillRectangle(sb, 0, 0, w, h)
            End Using

            Using p = New Pen(If(Focused, _borderActiveColor, _borderNormalColor), BORDER_WIDTH)
                g.DrawRectangle(p, 0, 0, w - 1, h - 1)
            End Using

        End Using

        ReleaseDC(Handle, hdc)

        Return

    End If

    MyBase.WndProc(m)

End Sub

I have removed the default BorderStyle property and replaced it with a simple boolean DrawBorder property that controls whether to draw a border around the control or not.

Use the BorderNormalColor property to specify the border color when the TextBox has no focus, and the BorderActiveColor property to specify the border color when the control receives focus.

The FlatTextBox comes with two themes VS2019 Dark and VS2019 Light, use the Theme property to switch between them.

Complete FlatTextBox control code written in VB.NET
https://gist.github.com/ahmedosama007/37fe2004183a51a4ea0b4a6dcb554176

A text box is a movable, resizable container for storing text or images. In Word documents, you can insert text boxes as sidebars or to bring focus to some important text, such as headings or quotes. Occasionally, you may also need to delete some mistakenly added text boxes. In this article, you will learn how to programmatically insert or remove a text box in a Word document using Spire.Doc for .NET.

• Insert a Text Box in a Word Document
• Remove a Text Box from a Word Document

Install Spire.Doc for .NET

To begin with, you need to add the DLL files included in the Spire.Doc for .NET package as references in your .NET project. The DLLs files can be either downloaded from this link or installed via NuGet.

PM> Install-Package Spire.Doc

Insert a Text Box in a Word Document

Spire.Doc for .NET provides the Paragraph.AppendTextBox(float width, float height) method to insert a text box in a specified paragraph. After the text box is inserted, Spire.Doc for .NET also provides the TextBox class for users to format the text box by setting its properties, such as Format, Body etc. The detailed steps are as follows.

• Create a Document instance, and then load a sample Word document using Document.LoadFromFile() method.
• Get the first section using Document.Sections[] property, and then add a paragraph to the section using Section.AddParagraph() method.
• Add a text box to the paragraph using Paragraph.AppendTextBox(float width, float height) method.
• Get the format of the text box using TextBox.Format property, and then set the text box’s wrapping type, position, border color and fill color using the properties of TextBoxFormat Class.
• Add a paragraph to the text box using TextBox.Body.AddParagraph() method, and then set its alignment.
• Insert an image to the paragraph using Paragraph.AppendPicture() method, and then set the size of the inserted image.
• Insert text to the text box using Paragraph.AppendText() method, and then set the text font.
• Save the document to another file using Document.SaveToFile() method.

using Spire.Doc;
using Spire.Doc.Documents;
using Spire.Doc.Fields;
using System.Drawing;

namespace InsertTextbox
{
    class Program
    {
        static void Main(string[] args)
        {
            //Create a Document instance
            Document document = new Document();

            //Load a sample Word document
            document.LoadFromFile("Ralph.docx");

            //Insert a textbox and set its wrapping style
            TextBox TB = document.Sections[0].AddParagraph().AppendTextBox(130, 320);
            TB.Format.TextWrappingStyle = TextWrappingStyle.Square;

            //Set the position of the textbox
            TB.Format.HorizontalOrigin = HorizontalOrigin.RightMarginArea;
            TB.Format.HorizontalPosition = -100;
            TB.Format.VerticalOrigin = VerticalOrigin.Page;
            TB.Format.VerticalPosition = 130f;

            //Set the border style and fill color of the textbox
            TB.Format.LineColor = Color.DarkBlue;
            TB.Format.FillColor = Color.LightCyan;

            //Insert an image to textbox as a paragraph
            Paragraph para = TB.Body.AddParagraph();
            DocPicture picture = para.AppendPicture(@"C:UsersAdministratorDesktopRalph.jpg");

            //Set alignment for the paragraph
            para.Format.HorizontalAlignment = HorizontalAlignment.Center;

            //Set the size of the inserted image
            picture.Height = 90;
            picture.Width = 90;


            //Insert text to textbox as the second paragraph
            TextRange TR = para.AppendText("Emerson is truly the center of the American transcendental movement, "
                + "setting out most of its ideas and values in a little book, Nature, published in 1836, "
                + "that represented at least ten years of intense study in philosophy, religion, and literature.");

            //Set alignment for the paragraph
            para.Format.HorizontalAlignment = HorizontalAlignment.Center;

            //Set the font of the text
            TR.CharacterFormat.FontName = "Times New Roman";
            TR.CharacterFormat.FontSize = 12;
            TR.CharacterFormat.Italic = true;

            //Save the result file
            document.SaveToFile("AddTextBox.docx", FileFormat.Docx);
        }
    }
}

Remove a Text Box from a Word Document

Spire.Doc for .NET provides the Document.TextBoxes.RemoveAt(int index) method to delete a specified text box. If you want to delete all text boxes from a Word document, you can use the Document.TextBoxes.Clear() method. The below example shows how to remove the first text box from a Word document.

• Create a Document instance.
• Load a sample Word document using Document.LoadFromFile() method.
• Remove the first text box using Document.TextBoxes.RemoveAt(int index) method.
• Save the document to another file using Document.SaveToFile() method.

using Spire.Doc;

namespace Removetextbox
{
    class Program
    {
        static void Main(string[] args)
        {
            //Create a Document instance
            Document Doc = new Document();

            //Load a sample Word document 
            Doc.LoadFromFile("TextBox.docx");

            //Remove the first text box
            Doc.TextBoxes.RemoveAt(0);

            //Remove all text boxes
            //Doc.TextBoxes.Clear();

            //Save the result document
            Doc.SaveToFile("RemoveTextbox.docx", FileFormat.Docx);
        }
    }
}

Apply for a Temporary License

If you’d like to remove the evaluation message from the generated documents, or to get rid of the function limitations, please request a 30-day trial license for yourself.