Unwanted border when pasting into Writer document

[ocorlett]

Sometimes when I copy text from, say, a webpage, and paste it into my Writer document, it appears with lines around the paragraphs. I prefer this not to happen. First let me say I’ve searched all over the place for solutions, including in this community, and the only thing that’s been any help still doesn’t solve the problem is this (in Open Office), which describes a very similar situation:

https://forum.openoffice.org/en/forum/viewtopic.php?f=5&t=45421

Just to avoid suggestions that I know won’t work, please note:

(1) The pasted text is not a table. Highlighting the text and going to Table… Convert… gives me greyed out options for Table to Text (I’m assuming because it isn’t a table)

(2) In Format… Paragraph… Borders I have tried:

Line arrangement presets: Set no borders
Line style: None (and it just reverts to single line every time I come back to it)
Line color: White (and it reverts to Black when I close and come back)
Line width: manually changed to 0.00 pt (can’t do it with the toggle)
Merge with next paragraph: unchecked

(3) In Format… Page
Same choices as for Format… Paragraph above, none of the choices works

None of these things gets rid of the unwanted lines around each paragraph.

Since it usually happens when I copy something from the web (but not always) I suspect it may have to do with the source formatting (eg the source text is formatted in the webpage as part of a table). But that doesn’t help me solve the problem.

I would appreciate any help anyone could give me with this.

Thanks!

[ajlittoz]

Pasting from the web also imports HTML formatting. Since you didn’t attach a sample, we can’t guess what’s happening. You didn’t even mention your OS name, nor LO version.
Does the problem still happen if you paste as unformatted text? (Either Edit>Paste Special>Paste Unformatted Text or Ctrl+Alt+Shift+C).

Never trust what you copy from the web or other apps. Data format is not the same as Writer and is frequently misinterpreted.

[ocorlett]

Thanks for your reply.

I’m using WIndows 10 and LO 7.2.6.2 (x64).

I’m sorry I didn’t attach a sample: I tried uploading a jpg snip but for some reason it just pasted some kind of link that probably isn’t very useful:

You are right, though, when I pasted it as unformatted text there were no unwanted borders.

I would like to get rid of the borders in documents where I have done this, though. Any suggestions?

Thanks again for your help.

[ajlittoz]

Unfortunately your screenshot was taken without View>Formatting Marks enabled (this is not as good as a real sample but it is already better than a simple screenshot).

There are two possibilities (to be cleared by document close examination):

• text lies in a table and the “borders” are simply visual hints to show cell boundaries (hint controlled by View>Table Boundaries)
  These visual clues don’t print. So if you don’t mind seeing them and have good reason to keep a table, keep the View setting (which is always a good thing to have an idea of what’s going on).
  On the other hand, tables put some stress on Writer and make formatting a bit more difficult (but not that much when you master underlying Writer principles). So if this portion of text in your document is not tabular by essence (you insert it in a single column and all cells form a logical uni-directional sequence), convert the table into common text.
• text doesn’t lie in a table and lines are real borders
  You must first identify which paragraph has borders. Chances are high that copying from the web has imported many empty paragraphs. Consequently a horizontal line may be a bottom border of the upper paragraph, a top border of the lower paragraph or both. It may have been created as part of some paragraph style or as direct formatting.
  The first thing to do is to get rid of direct formatting (which always causes formatting nightmare). Next thing is to apply dedicated paragraph styles to your text to put it into a “canonical” formatting state.

[ocorlett]

Thanks, you have been very helpful.

Just for the record, here’s a screenshot with View Formatting:

[ajlittoz]

As you can see, copy/paste has brought in empty paragraphs. I suspect you have a table (borders are light gray like the common visual clues, but you can tell only by examination of the document). In this case, there is no reason to keep a table (single column sequential text). You’ll have more versatility formatting outside table (and it is far easier).

[PKG]

Open the navigator F5 and you will see what you are dealing with.