Drop Cap Option Greyed Out

[Mark Davila]

Hello Everybody,

I'm using Word 2002 and having trouble with the Drop Cap function on the
Format Menu. For some reason, in most paragraphs where I'd like to insert a
Drop Cap in my document, the option (format/drop cap) is greyed out on. It
is available in other documents that I open, just not in the one I'm working
on.

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Mark Davila

 

[Suzanne S. Barnhill]

Is the text inside a text box? The Drop Cap feature uses a frame, which is
not available inside a text box.

 

[Mark Davila]

Dear Suzanne,

Thanks for your speedy reply. No, the text is not in a text box. It's just
regular body text formatted with a custom style I created based on Normal
style (or normal template?).

As a sidenote, I am aware that you have advised using as few text boxes as
possible, and so I am cutting back on them and substituting with tables as
needed.

Thanks again for your help. Let me know if you have any other ideas. And
Merry Christmas!

Mark Davila

 

[Suzanne S. Barnhill]

If the text is in a table, the same will apply (frames not permitted).

 

[Mark Davila]

Hi Suzanne, I'll keep that in mind, but the paragraphs where I'm trying to
insert a drop cap are not in a text box or table. As a work around, I think
I'll try to just resize the first letter and then maybe adjust it's spacing
above and/or below . . .

Thanks again!

Mark Davila

 

[Suzanne S. Barnhill]

I guess I should ask, do you have text selected when you attempt to use the
Format | Drop Cap command? The command is unavailable unless text is
selected.

 

[Mark Davila]

Dear Suzanne,

Thanks for your help. Your suggestion to make sure text has been selected
was a very good one. (Never shy away from asking the "obvious" question, so
says my father in law, who is a pilot for a major airline: "Got the landing
gear down?" "Is the door closed?" "Did we put fuel in the tank?")

In any event, I have carefully reviewed my document over numerous pages,
and have observed the behavior: on some pages the Drop Cap function is
greyed out, whether text is selected or not.

On other pages, the Drop Cap function works perfectly: with or without
having to select any text.

If I had an hour to spend on it I'd get on the horn with the good folks at
Microsoft but I know what they'd say: "Sir, we suggest you reinstall the
program." Isn't that the fix for most of these sorts of things? Come to
think of it . . . that might not be such a bad idea?

Thanks again for your help, and please keep me posted of any other ideas . .
.. .

Mark Davila

 

[Suzanne S. Barnhill]

FWIW, reinstalling almost never solves problems with Word because it doesn't
affect the three most common causes of problems: Normal.dot, the Registry,
and add-ins. I'm not sure that any of those three have any bearing on this
problem, though. When you have time to troubleshoot, I'd suggest trying to
figure out what the difference is between the pages where it works and those
where it doesn't.

Interestingly, I have found that my earlier statement that text must be
selected is incorrect (at least in Word 2003). Text must be *present* (I was
trying in a blank document). I have found that if I select text in the
middle of a paragraph, or just click in a paragraph, I can use the Drop Cap
command, but it is applied to the first letter of the paragraph. If I select
text (one letter or more) at the beginning of a paragraph, then all the
selected text can be dropped.

The Drop Cap command works by inserting text in a frame, so it would appear
that your problem may be caused by somehow being in a situation in which a
frame is not permitted, but I can't imagine what that could be in ordinary
text.

 

[Mark Davila]

Thanks for your help Suzanne. I think at this point I'm going to spend some
time learning more about frames.

Yours,
Mark Davila

 

[Suzanne S. Barnhill]

If you would like to send me a sample of the/a document in which Drop Cap is
not working, I'll take a look.

 

[Mark Davila]

Dear Suzanne,

Thanks for taking a look at the sample page with the Drop Cap greyed out.

Yours,
Mark Davila

 

[Suzanne S. Barnhill]

Did you get the problem sorted?

 

[Mark Davila]

Hi Suzanne,

Actually the problem with the Drop Caps is still there. I'm resending the
page where it's at . . .Thanks for all your help!

Mark Davila