creating vertical line?

[jtdog]

I am trying to draw a vertical line, essentially to enclose a paragraph of text with a bottom horizontal line and a vertical line to the right to the text. Is there a way to do this?

Thanks, Jeff

[Robert]

Hi Jeff,
You can do this with paragraph tabulations and a bit of font spacing wherever necessary.
Please have a look at the files attached to this posting.
“Lines in Atlantis (1).docx” is a document with a raw paragraph.
“Lines in Atlantis (2).docx” is a document with the same paragraph, but with lines added to the right and underneath.
“Lines in Atlantis (3).docx” is a similar document, but its paragraphs are completely framed within horizontal and vertical lines.

Let’s suppose that you open “Lines in Atlantis (1).docx” in Atlantis in the “View | Print Layout” mode.
Here is how to recreate the lines found in “Lines in Atlantis (2).docx”:

1. Place the insertion cursor within the target paragraph.
2. Click “Format | Tabs…”
3. In the “Tabs” dialog, press the “Add…” button, and specify “15.5cm” for the tab position (you might need to adjust these values depending on your document and measurement units). OK out of the “Tab position” dialog.
4. Select the “Bar” alignment in the “Tabs” dialog. OK out of the “Tabs” dialog.
5. Click “Format | Paragraph…”
6. In the “Paragraph” dialog, specify a right indent with a value of “1cm”. OK out of the dialog.
7. Place the insertion cursor at the end of the paragraph (after “easier.”)
8. Press the “Enter” key on your keyboard.
9. Leave the insertion cursor within the newly created paragraph.
10. Click “Format | Tabs…”
11. In the “Tabs” dialog, select the “Right” alignment and the “Leader” type number “4” (dash). OK out of the “Tabs” dialog.
12. Press the “Tab” key on your keyboard.
13. Select the whole second paragraph (the one with the horizontal line).
14. Click “Format | Font…”
15. In the “Font Format” dialog, click to display the “Spacing” tab.
16. Use the “Location” drop-down to select “Upper”. Give it a “3pts” value.
17. Click “OK” to validate the new font format settings for the paragraph.

“Lines in Atlantis (3).docx” was created using the same tricks, with different values wherever necessary.

Note that you could save either “Lines in Atlantis (2).docx” or “Lines in Atlantis (3).docx” as templates. You could then create any new document from these templates and replace/add text within their frames.
You could also copy/paste these framed paragraphs from one document to the next, and replace their text with a different one.
HTH.
Cheers,
Robert

[jtdog]

Robert,

My gosh, what work you put into that solution! Thanks so much. I'll give it a try. I know I could do it in Word using tables, but I avoid Word as much as possible. Atlantis is such a better tool.

Best regards,

Jeff

[Robert]

Hi Jeff,
If you put attached “Frame.rtf” into one of your Atlantis Clip Library sub-folders (by default “Mes documents\Atlantis\Clip Library”), you’ll be able to double-click “Frame” in the Clip Library panel, and Atlantis will automatically insert a frame with some sample text into the document window. You can replace that text with any of your own.
HTH.
Cheers,
Robert