17.3.1.42 top

This element specifies the border which shall be displayed above a set of paragraphs which have the same set of paragraph border settings.

To determine if any two adjoining paragraphs shall have an individual top and bottom border or a between border, the set of borders on the two adjoining paragraphs are compared. If the border information on those two paragraphs is identical for all possible paragraphs borders, then the between border is displayed. Otherwise, the final paragraph shall use its bottom border and the following paragraph shall use its top border, respectively. If this border specifies a space attribute, that value determines the space above the text (ignoring any spacing above) which should be left before this border is drawn, specified in points.

If this element is omitted on a given paragraph, its value is determined by the setting previously set at any level of the style hierarchy (i.e. that previous setting remains unchanged). If this setting is never specified in the style hierarchy, then no between border shall be applied above identical paragraphs.

[Example: Consider the following two paragraphs’ WordprocessingML definition:

<w:p>
  <w:pPr>
    <w:pBdr>
      <w:top w:val="single" w:sz="24" w:space="1" w:color="F2DCDB"
w:themeColor="accent2" w:themeTint="33" />
      <w:left w:val="single" w:sz="24" w:space="4" w:color="B97034"
w:themeColor="accent6" w:themeShade="BF" />
      <w:bottom w:val="single" w:sz="24" w:space="1" w:color="F2DCDB"
w:themeColor="accent2" w:themeTint="33" />
      <w:right w:val="single" w:sz="24" w:space="4" w:color="C3D69B"
w:themeColor="accent3" w:themeTint="99" />
      <w:between w:val="single" w:sz="24" w:space="1" w:color="4F81BD"
w:themeColor="accent1" />
    </w:pBdr>
  </w:pPr>
  <w:r>
    <w:t>First paragraph.</w:t>
  </w:r>
</w:p>
<w:p>
  <w:pPr>
    <w:pBdr>
      <w:top w:val="single" w:sz="24" w:space="1" w:color="F2DCDB"
w:themeColor="accent2" w:themeTint="33" />
      <w:left w:val="single" w:sz="24" w:space="4" w:color="B97034"
w:themeColor="accent6" w:themeShade="BF" />
      <w:bottom w:val="single" w:sz="24" w:space="0" w:color="F2DCDB"
w:themeColor="accent2" w:themeTint="33" />
      <w:right w:val="single" w:sz="24" w:space="4" w:color="C3D69B"
w:themeColor="accent3" w:themeTint="99" />
      <w:between w:val="single" w:sz="24" w:space="1" w:color="4F81BD"
w:themeColor="accent1" />
    </w:pBdr>
  </w:pPr>
  <w:r>
    <w:t>Second paragraph.</w:t>
  </w:r>
</w:p>

Since the paragraph border is different between the two paragraphs (the bottom space value goes from 1 to 0), paragraph two uses its top border, which is located one point above the text in that paragraph. end example]

This element’s content model is defined by the common border properties definition in 17.3.4.