Creating a style with a large first letter

Brian Bagnall · External Since: Aug 02, 2005 Posts: 4

Does anyone know how to create a new Style in Word that automatically
makes the first character in the paragraph bold and larger than the
regular font? I've seen a lot of books do this effect and I'd like to
duplicate it.

Thanks.

Daiya Mitchell · External Since: Oct 07, 2004 Posts: 1071

The formatting effect is called Drop Cap, and if you select the first letter
in the paragraph and go to Format | Drop Cap, you can replicate it and make
adjustments as desired.

I'm not sure whether you can get a Style to apply that automatically or not.

On 8/2/05 7:51 PM, "Brian Bagnall" wrote:

> Does anyone know how to create a new Style in Word that automatically
> makes the first character in the paragraph bold and larger than the
> regular font? I've seen a lot of books do this effect and I'd like to
> duplicate it.
>
> Thanks.
>
>

--
Daiya Mitchell, MVP Mac/Word
Word FAQ: http://www.word.mvps.org/
MacWord Tips: <http://www.word.mvps.org/MacWordNew/>
What's an MVP? A volunteer! Read the FAQ: http://mvp.support.microsoft.com/

Stefan Blom · External Since: Jul 01, 2004 Posts: 3392

No, unfortunately, a drop cap cannot be stored in a style.

--
Stefan Blom
Microsoft Word MVP

"Daiya Mitchell" wrote in message

> The formatting effect is called Drop Cap, and if you select the
first letter
> in the paragraph and go to Format | Drop Cap, you can replicate it
and make
> adjustments as desired.
>
> I'm not sure whether you can get a Style to apply that automatically
or not.
>
> On 8/2/05 7:51 PM, "Brian Bagnall" wrote:
>
> > Does anyone know how to create a new Style in Word that
automatically
> > makes the first character in the paragraph bold and larger than
the
> > regular font? I've seen a lot of books do this effect and I'd like
to
> > duplicate it.
> >
> > Thanks.
> >
> >
>
> --
> Daiya Mitchell, MVP Mac/Word
> Word FAQ: http://www.word.mvps.org/
> MacWord Tips: <http://www.word.mvps.org/MacWordNew/>
> What's an MVP? A volunteer! Read the FAQ:
http://mvp.support.microsoft.com/
>

CyberTaz · External Since: Jul 20, 2005 Posts: 666

But you can record a macro to apply a Style & add a Drop Cap and assign a
keystroke to it or add it as a button on a toolbar.

You can also just add the drop cap feature, itself, to a toolbar for
convenience.

Regards |:>)

On 8/2/05 10:51 PM, in article XiWHe.337$ps5.3239@news1.mts.net, "Brian
Bagnall" wrote:

> Does anyone know how to create a new Style in Word that automatically
> makes the first character in the paragraph bold and larger than the
> regular font? I've seen a lot of books do this effect and I'd like to
> duplicate it.
>
> Thanks.
>
>

"Robert M. Franz · External Since: Jun 16, 2005 Posts: 983

Hi Taz

CyberTaz wrote:
> But you can record a macro to apply a Style & add a Drop Cap and assign a
> keystroke to it or add it as a button on a toolbar.

If we're talking about long and structured documents, I'd rather use VBA
to go through the document, search for a given style (or for the first
paragraph _after_ a given style), and "dropcap" each occurrence.

2cents
Robert
--
/"\ ASCII Ribbon Campaign | MS
\ / | MVP
X Against HTML | for
/ \ in e-mail & news | Word

CyberTaz · External Since: Jul 20, 2005 Posts: 666

Hello Robert-

re: I'd rather use VBA

No doubt a preferred method where there is a significant number of drop caps
to be applied. Especially if there are multiple docs involved. I just didn't
get the impression that the OP was a VBA coder.

Regards |:>)

jay m · External Since: Jun 08, 2005 Posts: 19

I was going to ask if a character style could be a drop cap, but
conducted a test first-
Wierd!
MS W(ie/o)rd moves the dropped char into a text box (or frame, or
whatever).
That sure explains why it can't happen in a style.
What a grotesque kludge...

jay m · External Since: Jun 08, 2005 Posts: 19

Well, some apps can understand that kind of style formatting.
Anyway, as some are known to say-
"it is what it is"

cheers
Jay

"Robert M. Franz · External Since: Jun 16, 2005 Posts: 983

Hi Jay

jay m wrote:
> I was going to ask if a character style could be a drop cap, but
> conducted a test first-
> Wierd!
> MS W(ie/o)rd moves the dropped char into a text box (or frame, or
> whatever).
> That sure explains why it can't happen in a style.
> What a grotesque kludge...

Well, that's probably the most sensible way Word can handle a character
that runs into more than one line of text. But since it actually is a
frame, you could assign it to a paragraph style, technically. But it
will position the whole paragraph in it, so you'd end up typing the
first letter in one paragraph, the rest in another paragraph, and assign
the new style to the first letter only.

A character style, while beeing feasible on first sight, would not gain
you anything: you'd still have to assign it to the first character. The
only real practical thing would be if you could make "drop cap" a
property of a paragraph style so that the whole text fits into one and
not two paragraphs.

2cents
Robert
--
/"\ ASCII Ribbon Campaign | MS
\ / | MVP
X Against HTML | for
/ \ in e-mail & news | Word