How To Create a Drop Cap in Your Google Docs
How To Create a Drop Cap in Your Google Docs
You can add a good and beautiful decorative element to your document using a drop cap. While Google Docs does not offer a drop-cap feature like that of Microsoft Word, you can still create one in just a few minutes.
A drop cap is the first letter of a word that is in a paragraph or it is a block of text. It’s an upper case letter that is larger than the rest of the whole text and can stretch two or more lines. You’ll in most times often see a drop cap in a book, but it has its place in some certain types of documents as well. You could be writing an essay or doing other creative work where that little bit of flare adds just the right touch to your work.
Creating a Drop Cap in Google Docs
1. Head straight to the Google Docs website and then sign in, open your document or you can create a new one. Place your cursor at the beginning of the word in the paragraph or block of text where you want your drop cap to be. You can remove the first letter of the word either before or after you create the drop cap for it.
2. Next, click Insert > Drawing from the menu and choose “New.”
3. Click Insert, Drawing, New
4. When the drawing window opens, click the “Actions” drop-down list in the top-left corner and select “Word Art.”
5. Click Actions and select Word Art
6. Enter the letter that you want to use for your drop cap in the box that appears and press your “Return” or “Enter” key.
7. Enter the letter for the drop cap
8. Once your letter appears in the drawing window, you can customize it the way you like using the toolbar at the top. Use the font drop-down box to choose a style you want, make the letter either bold or italic, and choose a border to fill color.
9. Use the font tools to customize the letter
10. You can resize the letter by just dragging inward or outward from a corner. This will keep the proportions of the letter correct for the style you have selected.
11. Resize the drawing by dragging a corner
12. When you finish, click “Save and Close” at the top to pop the letter into your document.
13. Click Save and Close
How To Wrap the Text around Your Drop Cap
You’ll notice the drop cap at the beginning of your Google Docs document. You might need to just remove the first letter if you haven't done so already. By default, the drop cap is in line with the text.
1. Select the letter, and a small toolbar menu will appear beneath it. Click the center alignment option for “Wrap Text.”
2. Select the letter and click Wrap Text
3. You’ll then see the surrounding text just adjust to wrap around your drop cap. If you want to adjust the size of your drop cap after you are done wrapping the text, just select the letter and drag it from a corner. You can also click and move the letter if need be for appearance’s sake.
4. Resize the drop cap by dragging a corner
5. Edit the Drop Cap Drawing
6. If you would like to make any other additional changes to the letter such as altering the font style or color, select the letter and click “Edit” in the toolbar.
7. Select the letter and click Edit to make changes
8. This will reopen the drawing window you have used to create the drop cap. Make your changes and then save your work, you’ll see the changes applied to your document.
Once you have created your first drop cap in the Google Docs, you’ll see just how easy the process is. You can even create a lovely appearance for your document without it being distracting or over the top by just using a simple drop cap. And if you prefer to use the built-in drop cap feature in Word, you can easily convert it to your Google Docs document to the Microsoft Office format, and you’re good to go.
