How to Add a Page Border in Microsoft Word

Adding a page border in Word is one of those features that looks impressive but takes less than a minute once you know where to find it. Whether you're designing a certificate, a flyer, a newsletter, or just want to give a document a polished frame, Word's border tools give you a surprising range of options.

Where the Page Border Setting Actually Lives

This trips up a lot of people because page borders are not in the same place as paragraph or text borders. They have their own dedicated dialog.

Here's the path:

Open your Word document
Go to the Design tab (in Word 2013 and later)
Click Page Borders on the right side of the ribbon
The Borders and Shading dialog box will open, already on the Page Border tab

Using an older version of Word? In Word 2010 and earlier, find this under the Page Layout tab instead of Design.

Once that dialog is open, you have full control over what the border looks like and where it appears.

What You Can Actually Customize

The Borders and Shading dialog gives you several distinct controls:

Setting

The Setting column on the left is the first decision:

None — removes any existing border
Box — a uniform border on all four sides
Shadow — adds a subtle drop shadow effect
3-D — gives the border a raised appearance
Custom — lets you apply different styles to individual sides

Style, Color, and Width

These three options work together to define the look of the line itself:

Style — solid, dashed, dotted, double-line, wavy, and more
Color — any color from Word's palette or a custom hex/RGB value
Width — measured in points; ranges from hairline (¼ pt) to thick (6 pt or more)

Art Borders 🎨

This is the feature most people don't know exists. The Art dropdown replaces the line style with a repeating graphic pattern — things like stars, trees, hearts, geometric shapes, and seasonal motifs. These are baked into Word and require no internet connection or add-ins. They work well for invitations, school projects, or holiday documents, but tend to look out of place in professional or business contexts.

Apply To

This dropdown controls which pages in your document receive the border:

Whole document — every page gets the border
This section — only the current section (relevant if you've used section breaks)
This section – first page only — useful for cover pages
This section – all except first page — handy when the first page is a title page you want left clean

Fine-Tuning the Border Position

Inside the same dialog, click Options to control exactly how far the border sits from the edge of the page or from the text.

Two key settings here:

Measure from: Edge of page — the border is positioned relative to the physical paper edge
Measure from: Text — the border is positioned relative to your text margins

The default is usually "Edge of page," which can cause the border to get clipped when printing if your printer has a non-printable margin zone. Switching to "Text" and adjusting the margin values often solves border-cutoff issues.

Applying a Border to One Side Only

If you want a border only on the top, bottom, left, or right — not a full frame — use the Custom setting and then click the individual edge buttons in the preview diagram on the right side of the dialog. Click an edge to add a border there; click again to remove it. This gives you full per-side control.

Common Issues and Why They Happen

Problem	Likely Cause	Fix
Border gets cut off when printing	Border set to "Edge of page" too close to printer's limit	Change "Measure from" to Text, or increase margin values
Border only appears on one page	Document has multiple sections with different settings	Check "Apply to" dropdown and section breaks
Art border looks pixelated	High zoom level or low-res display scaling	Normal in print preview; check actual print output
Border disappears after editing	Header/footer editing mode may have been active	Recheck via Design → Page Borders

How Page Borders Differ from Paragraph Borders

It's worth being clear on this distinction because the controls look similar but work completely differently:

Page borders (via Design → Page Borders) frame the entire page and appear on every page you specify
Paragraph borders (via Home → Borders dropdown) apply only to a selected paragraph or text block and move with the text

Using a paragraph border when you wanted a page border — or vice versa — is a very common source of confusion, especially when copying formatting between documents.

Variables That Shape Your Experience 🖥️

A few factors determine how predictable page borders are in practice:

Word version — the Design tab path applies to Word 2013 through Microsoft 365; older versions use Page Layout
Printer model and drivers — non-printable margins vary significantly between printers, affecting whether borders near the page edge actually appear on paper
Paper size and orientation — borders set with specific margin values may need adjustment if the document switches between portrait and landscape
Section structure — documents with multiple sections require per-section decisions about whether the border should appear, be inherited, or be excluded

Documents that start as simple single-section files usually behave predictably. Multi-section documents — reports, books, or anything built from a template — introduce more variables around which sections receive the border and whether section breaks interrupt the formatting.

The right approach to page borders depends on what your document is, how it's structured, and whether it's destined for the printer or screen — and those are details only your own file can answer.