Are there any Microsoft Word gurus in the house?

[Hawkmoon]

I have a question, and I can't find an answer on the Internet. (Which may mean either that I'm not asking correctly, or else that the answer is, "No, you can't do that."

I'm working with narrative text, and I want to use a double line in the left margin to indicate paragraphs that have changed since the previous version of a document. I know how to apply the standard paragraph borders, and how to turn it on for only the left margin rather than boxing the entire paragraph. My problem is that the Word default for a double-line border has the lines so close together that when viewed on a small screen -- such as a tablet or a cell phone -- the two single lines look like one thick line.

I'm trying to find a way to adjust (increase) the spacing between the two lines, and I'm coming up blank. Not the space between the text and the border -- I need to customize the double line spacing. Does anyone know if this can be done?

[230RN]

MICROSOFT VERSUS STETSON HATS

Du villst haff deez lines dis vide apart und nein uther.  

Und like it.

Arbeit macht Frei !  

Word über alles !  

Für ein tousand jahren!

I believe the last time somebody asked this, I offered the difficult, but feasible, workaround:  Put your text in MS-Paint or other imaging software, draw the lines the way you want them, and print from the imaging software.

Actually, every little software tailoring / enhancement, like allowing a change of line spacing in this case, probably involves another 5 MB of program.  It might be possible, but I suspect it's scaled to the font size.

I stick with WordPad and Notepad.  If I can't customize stuff in those, I fukget about it and change my mind about doing it just for sheer frillworthiness.

It's like they used to say about a new Stetson hat...

Sooner or later your head will shape itself to fit the hat.

Terry, Troglodyte IV, 230RN

[K Frame]

Which version of Word do you have?

You're talking about change (revision) bars. As far as I know, there is no way to adjust the spacing in those change bars -- it's hard coded into the program.

[Hawkmoon]

I appreciate the suggestion, but it's unworkable. The text I'm working on is about 175 pages of the 2012 edition of the International Mechanical Code. My state adopted it, with numerous local amendments scattered throughout, but they didn't pay the ICC to print an edition with our changes edited in. (They did for the Building Code and the Residential Code, but not for Plumbing, Mechanical, or Energy Conservation.) There are too many books and they're too heavy to carry around, so I put them all on a tablet computer. I can't mess around with trying to fix 175 pages in Paint. I transfer the entire code into a Word document, go into that and make the state changes, mark each paragraph that gets changed, and then save the whole mess to a new PDF file that I can put on the computer and read with Adobe reader.

MICROSOFT VERSUS STETSON HATS

Du villst haff deez lines dis vide apart und nein uther.  

Und like it.

Arbeit macht Frei !  

Word über alles !  

Für ein tousand jahren!

I believe the last time somebody asked this, I offered the difficult, but feasible, workaround:  Put your text in MS-Paint or other imaging software, draw the lines the way you want them, and print from the imaging software.

Actually, every little software tailoring / enhancement, like allowing a change of line spacing in this case, probably involves another 5 MB of program.  It might be possible, but I suspect it's scaled to the font size.

I stick with WordPad and Notepad.  If I can't customize stuff in those, I fukget about it and change my mind about doing it just for sheer frillworthiness.

It's like they used to say about a new Stetson hat...

Sooner or later your head will shape itself to fit the hat.

Terry, Troglodyte IV, 230RN

[Hawkmoon]

Which version of Word do you have?

You're talking about change (revision) bars. As far as I know, there is no way to adjust the spacing in those change bars -- it's hard coded into the program.

I'm doing my editing in Word 2003 because that's the version I know, but I have 2010 and 2016.

[dogmush]

I appreciate the suggestion, but it's unworkable. The text I'm working on is about 175 pages of the 2012 edition of the International Mechanical Code. My state adopted it, with numerous local amendments scattered throughout, but they didn't pay the ICC to print an edition with our changes edited in. (They did for the Building Code and the Residential Code, but not for Plumbing, Mechanical, or Energy Conservation.) There are too many books and they're too heavy to carry around, so I put them all on a tablet computer. I can't mess around with trying to fix 175 pages in Paint. I transfer the entire code into a Word document, go into that and make the state changes, mark each paragraph that gets changed, and then save the whole mess to a new PDF file that I can put on the computer and read with Adobe reader.

No idea about Word 2003, but in my current word (2016) and the 2007 version I still have there is a "Track Changes" function.  Review Tab -> Track changes.  Then any changed paragraph will get a colored line of your choice on the outside border.  I don't see a double line option but you can set the color by who changed it and it will do it automatically so you don't have to mark each paragraph.

If you stick with the paragraph border idea there is some adjustability.  Page Layout tab->Page Borders-Borders tab->width drop down.   That menu is dependent on the style you chose first, so you might have to first pick a wider style, then max the width. Picture is Word 2007

[Hawkmoon]

If you stick with the paragraph border idea there is some adjustability.  Page Layout tab->Page Borders-Borders tab->width drop down.   That menu is dependent on the style you chose first, so you might have to first pick a wider style, then max the width. Picture is Word 2007

Yes, I'm using the paragraph borders approach, using a double line. I know how to select a heavier line, which does also add space between the [heavy] lines, but what I really want to do is stay with a 1/2-point or 3/4-point line thinkness but space the paired lines farther apart than the default.

And it very much appears that's not possible.