Full-width color behind line in word?

Microsoft Word themes have styles like this:

With color behind a line of text that spans the width of the page.

How do I do this myself with custom colours?

3 Answers

In Office 365:

1. Put the cursor on the line/paragraph you want to change. Note: Do not highlight or select text, just put the cursor there with no text selected.
2. Click "Design" tab.
3. Click "Page Borders" (far right), which opens the "Borders and Shading" options dialog(*).
4. Click the shading tab and use the "Fill" drop-box to change the colour of the border which will be full width of the page.

You can also use this on a text selection to change just the selected text (not full width).

(*) Why Microsoft think naming this "Page Borders" on the ribbon and then "Borders and Shading" in the dialog is beyond me.

Use the "shading" dialogue to set a shading for the paragraph in question:

Menu --> Borders --> Borders and Shading --> Shading

Here, select a colour, and pay attention that the "Apply to" field is set to "Paragraph".

(This is for MS Word 2010, but I suppose it has not changed in later versions; it was the same also in earlier ones.)

@Gavin Thornton answer is very good. But if you need more styling like padding around the text then you need to use table. Create a table with only 1 cell and then format the cell according to your need. The process is below-

Insert table:

Go to Insert -> Table -> Select only 1 cell

Remove Border:

Go to Table Design -> Borders -> No Border

Add Background Shedding:

Select the table cell -> Got to Table Design -> Shedding -> Select color

Add Padding:

Select the table cell -> Go to Home -> On the paragraph section go to Line Spacing -> Line Spacing Options -> Now you can add Indentaion (Left / Right) or Spacing (Top / Bottom)

Finally you will get a cool heading design. Sample is attached here.