Boxes

Boxes are external lines around a rectangular group of cells or paragraphs.

There are several different line styles available for drawing boxes. These are shown in the Line style section of the Box dialogue box; they are invisible (no line), narrow lines, thin solid lines, thick solid lines and dotted lines.

Setting the size of box lines

The width of lines used in boxes is based on the width of line set in the Grid width setting of the Paper dialogue box. The thin and dotted lines are the same as this width, the narrow line half of it and the thick line twice it.

Change the setting of the grid width to the width you want in points. If you do this, and make the measurement much larger, you should check the text at the beginning and end of paragraphs; a large grid width setting could cut into the tops and bottoms of letters if there is insufficient paragraph spacing to cover the grid width.

If you have large text in shallow paragraphs or rows, you may occasionally find that the grid is drawn over the tops or bottoms of the letters, which you will see as the tops or bottoms of letters being clipped off. If you have no grid displayed this will manifest itself as the top or bottom of the first or last lines in paragraphs being missing. This problem usually appears on screen.

There are two possible solutions to this problem if it arises:

Make your rows or paragraphs slightly deeper, by adding spacing above or below in the Spacing section of the style editor for the style affecting the area where text is being clipped.

Creating boxes

To add a box:

  1. Select the area of table you want to box.
  2. Display the Box dialogue box by choosing Box from the Style menu.
  3. Select Outside.
  4. Choose a line style by clicking on its button in the Line style section of the dialogue box.
  5. Choose a colour for the box using the colour selection tools.
  6. Click OK. A box will appear around the edge of the selected area.