The bottom line is that if the Normal style is formatted to have a box around it, then there is a good chance that all your paragraphs will have boxes around them. It is the 'root' style for almost all other built-in styles, and even for many custom styles. (How you modify styles has been discussed frequently in other WordTips.) In the universe of styles, the Normal style holds preeminence.

If that does not fix your problem (or if you are not using Word 2013 or a later version), then check the style formatting for the Normal paragraph style. Make sure the Show Text Boundaries check box is cleared.Advanced options in the Word Options dialog box. Scroll through the options until you see the Show Document Content section.At the left side of the screen click Advanced.In Word 2010 or a later version, display the File tab of the ribbon and then click Options.) (In Word 2007 click the Office button and then click Word Options. If this is your problem, you can turn off the display of text boundaries in this manner:

Text boundaries appear around individual paragraphs. In Word 2013 or a later version, the text boundaries are displayed around each paragraph on the page. In older versions of Word, turning on text boundaries displayed a border on the page corresponding to the margins. If this problem crops up and you are using Word 2013 or a later version, it is very possible that you've inadvertently turned on the display of text boundaries. If Timothy just knew what to call it, he's sure he could find the answer, but he's stumped as to why this is happening. Selecting the paragraphs and formatting for 'no border' does not make the boxes go away. It is as if there is a one-cell table, but there isn't. The boxes do not print (thankfully), but they appear in new blank documents. The box enlarges with long sentences pressing Enter begins a new box. Timothy apparently hit some control key that caused paragraphs in his document to appear in a box.

Blue border around screen