Thanks for the suggestion Stefan. However the issue remains.
On the Shading tab, "No color" option was already selected. I selected a white color and it removed the black bar for the main text area but it was still black in the margins.
I think this issue may be beyond the scope of Word and something with my Windows OS. When I go to save a document I see the black bar go across the File Directory in the Save As window. This is also happening with other programs besides Word...
