Issue with word for organizing data - technical difficulty

[Adelaide9216]

Hello everyone,

I am so sorry because this will probably come across as off-topic. But I've asked and looked everywhere and I don't know how to get help with this and it is driving me crazy.

Does anyone know how to make frames around paragraphs in Word (like one frame with one paragraph and then another frame with another paragraph following it) without it looking all messy and all over the place. I've been watching tutorials online to do it and it's not working, the result is not user friendly. I've been trying to do this for days, literally and I am ripping my hair out because it doesn't look right.

I am trying to do some "cards" with information on different programs for a research project. But this is what it gives me everytime I try to do it. 

http://i68.tinypic.com/27zbrpc.png

And I have more than a hundred pages like this, I cannot do it on a seperate document for each one of these programs. I have a table of content that I've been able to put up. I can click on an element in the table of content that would redirect me to the specific "card" in the word document. Do you see what I mean? And some programs are being described on more than one page.

I have to give this to a professor and I don't want to give it to her now because it's just a mess. I want it to be user-friendly for her because there are tons of pages in this document.

Thanks for anyone who will help. I find this so frustrating. 

 

[fuzzylogician]

You mean something like the attached pic? 

Simplest way I know: Create a textbox. Format "line" to black. Reshape to the right width, copy-paste your paragraph into it. Copy-paste to create a new box, drag it so it's right under your previous box, copy-paste the next paragraph into there. Rinse, repeat. Not exactly high-tech, but does the job. 

Or, much better: Latex, use package mdframed. Or \fbox{} for short texts. 

[Adelaide9216]

I will try this. Thank you so much!!!

[Sigaba]

I recommend the instructions offered here.

https://wordribbon.tips.net/T008698_Adding_Borders_to_Paragraphs.html

And then the liberal use of the format painter for additional paragraphs.

If you use text boxes, I recommend that you draw them over your paragraphs and then set the boxes to have no fill. I do not recommend pasting type into the text boxes. (I work with Microsoft Office almost exclusively for my job and text boxes can end up being an incredible headache. YMMV.)

Edited September 25, 2017 by Sigaba

[Adelaide9216]

Hello everyone,

 

sorry for the late response. I am working on this at this very moment with all of your advice. Will tell you if it works. Thanks again!

[Adelaide9216]

Hello everyone,

just tried it and I get the same issue. I want to create a border all around this text but whenever I try to do it, I get multiple boxes that aren't aligned.

[Sigaba]

@Adelaide9216 are you using the method @fuzzylogician recommended or the one I recommend or another method? (Either/or/or display the ruler and the display paragraph marks so you can see if you have some different tabs / margins.)

Eventually, @TakeruK or another tech savvy hand is going to show up and repeat FL's advice to use more sophisticated software ending in Tex. I will chime in and say something like "What about Microsoft Visio?" and a coworker will laugh at me when I mention my recommendation on Monday.

[Adelaide9216]

I just downloaded the latest version of Word and for some reason I don't see the ruler. I guess that's where my problem comes from. 

[Adelaide9216]

I found the ruler, will work on this asap!