WD: Drop Cap (Framed Paragraph) Causes Unwanted Behavior

• Microsoft Word for Windows, versions 6.0, 6.0a, 6.0c
• Microsoft Word for Windows 95, versions 7.0, 7.0a
• Microsoft Word 97 for Windows
• Microsoft Word for the Macintosh, versions 6.0, 6.0.1, 6.0.1a
• Microsoft Word 98 Macintosh Edition

SYMPTOMS

A dropped capital letter ("drop cap") can cause problems with envelope addressing or table of content creation.

Because many functions in Word for Windows operate on a paragraph level, and because the Drop Cap command creates an additional paragraph in the document, many paragraph-based operations in Word may be affected.

WORKAROUND

The two most common problems associated with drop caps concern envelope addressing and table of content creation.

Envelope Addressing

When you create envelopes, Word searches in the current document for a possible mailing address. If you have formatted a drop cap at the beginning of the mailing address in your document, Word does not correctly choose the entire mailing address for the Envelope dialog box. If you do not select anything, Word "guesses" the address minus the first letter (the one with drop cap formatting).

The easiest workaround for this situation is to accept the guess that Word makes and then type the appropriate first letter. If you select the drop cap and the rest of the address, Word chooses just the letter with the drop cap formatting as the mailing address.

Tables of Contents

A common way to create a table of contents (TOC) is to build it from styles. If your drop cap paragraph is formatted with a heading style and you create a TOC based on heading styles, the drop cap letter appears by itself as a TOC entry, and the rest of the original paragraph appears as a second TOC entry.

To work around this problem, use Table of Contents Entry (TC) fields to mark the TOC entries instead of using the heading styles.

MORE INFORMATION

Word includes the Drop Cap command on the Format menu to allow easy creation of a dropped capital letter ("drop cap") at the beginning of a sentence. When you use this feature, Word inserts a new framed paragraph in the document. Since the drop cap is in a separate paragraph, it behaves as a separate paragraph and may cause unwanted behavior in some situations.