Please Note: This article is written for users of the following Microsoft Word versions: 2007, 2010, 2013, and 2016. If you are using an earlier version (Word 2003 or earlier), this tip may not work for you. For a version of this tip written specifically for earlier versions of Word, click here: Creating a Drop Cap.
Drop caps are a decorative touch, done through typographical means, that you can apply to your document. Drop caps are traditionally done with the first letter of a chapter or some other major section of a document. To create drop caps, do the following:
Figure 1. The Drop Cap dialog box.
WordTips is your source for cost-effective Microsoft Word training. (Microsoft Word is the most popular word processing software in the world.) This tip (6023) applies to Microsoft Word 2007, 2010, 2013, and 2016. You can find a version of this tip for the older menu interface of Word here: Creating a Drop Cap.
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2016-07-10 10:19:58
Steven Litvintchouk
A further enhancement to drop caps:
Since Microsoft Word implements drop caps as frames, you can define a linked style for them. That way, all the drop caps in your document can be formatted with that same style.
In Word 2007 or later:
Once you have formatted your drop cap just the way you like it, select it and in the Style Gallery, select Create a Style. Name it whatever you want, say My Drop Cap.
Then any time you want to create a drop cap that's formatted the same way, insert a hard return (with the Enter key) just AFTER the character you want to turn into a drop cap. That leaves the character in its own little paragraph separated from the original paragraph, which now follows it.
Now select that one-character paragraph and apply the style My Drop Cap. The drop cap will be created, the hard return will disappear, and the drop cap will be joined to the rest of the original paragraph.
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Please Note:
This article is written for users of the following Microsoft Word versions: 2007, 2010, 2013, and 2016. If you are using an earlier version (Word 2003 or earlier), this tip may not work for you. For a version of this tip written specifically for earlier versions of Word, click here: 
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