Microsoft KB Archive/46425

Creating a Drop Cap

PSS ID Number: Q46425 Article last modified on 03-07-1997

====================================================================== 3.00 3.01 3.02 4.00 MACINTOSH kbusage

The information in this article applies to:

- Microsoft Word for the Macintosh, versions 3.0 , 3.01, 3.02, 4.0

SUMMARY

This article discusses creating a “drop cap” – a large initial-capped letter at the beginning of a paragraph – in Word.

For more detailed information on creating a drop cap, see the application note titled “Positioned Objects.” For more information about obtaining application notes, query on “MW0159” in the Microsoft Knowledge Base.

MORE INFORMATION

Creating a Drop Cap in Word 4.00

In Word 4.00, you can create a drop cap easily by using the Position command. In addition, Microsoft provides a number of ready-to-use styles for creating drop caps on the Utilities 1 disk shipped with Word 4.00. You can copy these styles into documents in which you want to use drop caps.

To create a drop cap from scratch in Word 4.00, do the following:

1. Type the capital letter by itself in a new paragraph before the main paragraph that you want the drop cap to appear beside. Set a larger font size for the capital letter.
2. With the insertion point in the drop cap paragraph, choose Position from the Format menu.
3. Type “.5in” (or the approximate width of the character in the drop cap) in the Paragraph Width box. Click OK.
4. View the effect in Page View or Print Preview.

Creating a Drop Cap in Word Versions 3.0x

To create a drop cap from scratch in Word 3.0x, do the following:

1. Type the capital letter by itself in a new paragraph before the main paragraph that you want the drop cap to appear beside. Set a larger font size for the capital letter.

2. Select both the drop cap paragraph and the paragraph you want the drop cap to appear beside. Choose Paragraph from the Format menu and select the Side-by-Side option. Click OK.

3. Move the left indents for the drop cap paragraph to the left at least .25 inch. This makes the main paragraph begin on the same line as the drop cap paragraph when the side-by-side formatting is interpreted.

4. Insert tab characters at the beginning of the first few lines of the main paragraph to create a space for the capital, and insert a tab before the capital to position it flush left with respect to the left indent of the main paragraph.

   The results should resemble the following:

    ---
     |
     |
        ext text text text text text text text text text text
        text text text text text text text text text text text
        text text text text text text text text text text text
   text text text text text text text text text text text text
   text text text text text text text text text text

5. Use Page Preview to view the effect. The drop cap can be lowered or raised by adding space before or after in the Paragraph dialog box.

For more information on positioning paragraphs and using styles, see “Page Layout” (pages 235-255), “Position Command” (pages 279-284), and “Styles: Formatting the Easy Way” (pages 341-354) in the “Reference to Microsoft Word” manual for version 4.00.

For more information about side-by-side formatting in Word versions 3.0x, see pages 25-26 of the “Reference to Microsoft Word” version 3.0 manual.

KBCategory: kbusage KBSubCategory: kbformat Additional reference words: macword macword5

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Copyright Microsoft Corporation 1997.