Office Settings & Configuration

How to Remove Wavy Lines Between Paragraphs in Microsoft Word

WPS Editor Oct 10, 2026 871 views

Question details

The user wants to remove unexpected wavy lines that are displaying between paragraphs in their document.

How to Remove Wavy Lines Between Paragraphs in Microsoft Word

Product: Microsoft Word
Device & OS: Windows
Scenario: Opening or editing a document where horizontal layout lines are visibly cluttering the screen.
Observed behavior: Wavy lines appear between paragraphs on screen. These are caused by the Text boundaries display setting being active on that specific computer.

Before you start

Verify that the lines appear across the page between paragraphs. If you see red or blue wavy lines directly under specific words, those are spelling or grammar checks, not text boundaries.

Solution 1Recommended

Disable the Text Boundaries Setting

Turn off the text boundaries option in Word's Advanced settings to remove the paragraph divider lines.

In newer versions of Microsoft Word, the text boundaries feature draws a box around every single paragraph rather than just the page margins. Disabling this setting will return your document to a clean, white background.

Open Word Options

Click on the 'File' tab in the top-left corner of Microsoft Word, then select 'Options' at the bottom of the left-hand menu.

Navigate to Advanced Settings

In the Word Options dialog box, click on 'Advanced' in the left navigation pane.

Locate Document Content Settings

Scroll down through the Advanced settings until you find the section labeled 'Show document content'.

Clear the Text Boundaries Checkbox

Uncheck the box next to 'Show text boundaries', then click the 'OK' button at the bottom of the window to apply your changes.

Document View Restored: The wavy lines should immediately disappear. Because this is a local software setting, it only affects your view on this specific computer and does not alter the actual document formatting.

WPS Office Solution

Easily Manage Document Views with WPS Writer

WPS Office provides an intuitive and free word processor with clean, easy-to-find view settings. If you want a seamless editing experience without confusing paragraph boundaries, WPS Writer is an excellent choice.

1. Open your document in WPS Writer: Launch WPS Office and open the Word document you want to edit or read.
2. Access the Options menu: Click the 'Menu' button in the top-left corner and select 'Options' from the drop-down list.
3. Navigate to View settings: In the Options dialog box, select 'View' from the left-hand panel.
4. Customize Text Boundaries: Under the formatting marks section, uncheck 'Text boundaries' and click 'OK' for a perfectly clean layout.

Free and lightweight word processing softwareFully compatible with Microsoft Word documents (.doc, .docx)Clean, intuitive user interface without cluttered default view settingsSeamless migration from Microsoft Office

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Frequently Asked Questions

Why do text boundaries look like wavy lines between paragraphs?

In older versions of Word, text boundaries appeared as a single dotted rectangle around the entire page margin. In newer versions, Microsoft updated the feature to display boundaries around every individual paragraph, resulting in horizontal lines between text blocks.

Will these wavy lines print if I leave them on?

No, text boundaries are strictly a visual guide for on-screen layout and editing. They will not appear when you print the document or export it as a PDF.

Are wavy lines between paragraphs the same as spelling errors?

No. Red or blue wavy lines directly underneath specific words indicate spelling or grammar errors. The gray wavy or dotted lines between your paragraphs represent layout text boundaries.

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