Drop Caps in MS Word–Things To Remember
What is Drop Cap?
Drop cap is the first character of text (often paragraph) that is large and dropped below the current base line. It is traditional to set off the first letter of a story, section or paragraph with a capital letter larger than the remaining text. You can find drop caps used in novels and magazines.
The image blow shows an example of Drop Cap:
How can you apply Drop Caps in MS Word?
In MS Word, you can access Format menu and Drop Cap to open Drop Cap dialog box.
After you click the menu, it will open the dialog box as show in right image.
What are the available positions for Drop Cap in MS Word?
MS Word supports two different positioning styles namely, Dropped and In Margin. Dropped drop cap will stay inside paragraph area and will drop below the current line. The In Margin drop cap will be positioned on the left margin out of paragraph area.
What is the maximum number of lines you can drop for a Drop Cap letter?
You can drop a maximum of 10 lines for the drop cap letter whether for dropped or in margin position.
What is the maximum distance you can specify between the drop cap and text?
Having good spacing between the dropped character and other text is required for the text layout to appear attractive. Anyway, if you require, MS Word supports a maximum of 22 inches distance between text and drop cap letter. But I wonder how you would provide 22 inches on 11 inch wide paper 
What is the default lines to drop for a Drop Cap character?
By default MS Word sets 3 lines to drop for any drop cap character. This applies when you go to the dialog box and clicked OK without changing the lines to drop down box.
What is the default font for drop cap character in MS Word 2003?
This is just a tricky question. Drop Cap allows you to choose font for the Drop Cap character but it does not allow you to set any font as default font. Drop Cap uses the font from the document default font itself.
3 Responses to “Drop Caps in MS Word–Things To Remember”
Christina on April 26, 2011
I was always wondering how to do this. Ive looked several times in Word and couldnt find any solution other than WordArt. Very informational!
Sonny on April 30, 2011
I’d just like to ask what version of Microsoft Word you’re running. My version (2007) doesn’t have that main (top) menu, nor access to a “Drop Cap” submenu item…
essay writers on May 25, 2011
This really helped me because I’m doing a project and your blog is so informative. Thanks and keep up the good work..