Drop Cap
Updated: April 6, 2004
Curriculum Area: Language arts
Grade Level: Elementary school and up
Application: Microsoft® Word 2002
Tip: Use the Microsoft Word Drop Cap feature to make the first letter of a paragraph stand out.
Description:
When you are writing a story, poem, or report, you can make the first letter of the paragraph larger than the rest of the text and drop it down a few lines. A drop cap is an effective way to jazz up documents, especially for student work that is posted in the classroom, around the building, or on the school Web site or that is published a literary book. Take a look at some books, magazines, and newspapers in the classroom or around the house. You'll notice that many publications use the drop cap.
How To:
1. | Start Microsoft Word. Then either open a document that you've already created, or start a new one. |
2. | Select the first letter of a paragraph, and then select Drop Cap from the Format menu. |
3. | Select either Dropped or In margin. |
4. | Choose a different font if you want the letter to stand out even more from the surrounding text. |
5. | Decide how many lines you want this letter to drop, such as 3. |
6. | Control the distance from the text (0.1" works well), and then click OK. |
Tip: Experiment with different fonts for the drop cap. Some fonts are really fancy and contain many twists that work nicely in a drop cap.
