Thanks for the reply... but even if I'm not within a frame, having the
table "wrap" does not solve the problem - the borders and shading of
the surrounding paragraphs are still lost when you get to the table.

I also just tried out the frame solution on the larger document and but
found more problems.

1) Some of my boxes span multiple pages. And I think frames cannot
span multiple pages. Is there any way around this, or is floating
objects now out of the question?

2) In addition, the frames ignore the footnotes at the bottom of the
page and cover them up, and there doesn't seem to be an option to place
the frame just above the footnotes.

I think I'll go back to having this as an inline style not within a
frame, but it still doesn't solve my table problem. Any ideas on how
to get a table to have borders and shading like the paragraphs around
it, especially if the table is not as wide as those paragraphs?
Or do I have to take a screenshot of the table and reinsert it as an
image? Any other work-arounds?



One more quick question: Where is the help for MS word located? I
found the following on Office Online help:
--
You can position, or place, a frame (frame: A container that you can
resize and position anywhere on the page. To position text or graphics
that contain comments, footnotes, endnotes, or certain fields, you must
use a frame instead of a text box.) by dragging it, or you can align it
with a reference point, such as a paragraph, page, margin, or newspaper
column. A frame pushes the surrounding text aside. The frame is always
anchored to the closest paragraph and appears on the same page as the
paragraph it's anchored to.

Select the frame, right-click, and then click Format Frame.
In the Horizontal and Vertical sections, click the options you want.
--

I love that. "click the options you want". What if I want to know
what the options mean? For example, for vertical placement, what does
inside relative to margin mean?
Is there a more detailed reference guide provided with Word 2003, or do
I have to buy a 3rd party book?

thanks for any help you can give!