Deleting those pesky lines in Microsoft Word

Here's something that's annoyed me for years in Microsoft Word and I've finally got to the bottom of it.

In Word, type three hyphens, or three underline characters, then press Enter. With the default setup, Word will replace the characters you typed with a line that stretches across the whole text width on the page. Great if you want a divider to split up sections.

But now try deleting this line. Click below it and delete backwards. The line is immune to deletion. Try to select it. You can't.

The secret to deleting the line is understanding what Word did. The line isn't quite what it seems. In fact it's a border that is applied to the bottom of the previous paragraph.

So to delete it:

1. Click anywhere in the paragraph above where you were when you entered the three hyphens of underscores.
2. Choose Format > Borders and Shading.
3. Select the None border setting.
   
4. Click OK.