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Q197010: WD97: Drop Cap (Framed Paragraph) Causes Unwanted Behavior

Article: Q197010
Product(s): Word 97 for Windows
Version(s): WINDOWS:97
Operating System(s): 
Keyword(s): kbdta word97
Last Modified: 14-NOV-2000

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The information in this article applies to:

- Microsoft Word 97 for Windows 
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SYMPTOMS
========

A dropped capital letter ("drop cap") can cause problems with envelope
addressing or table of contents 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 contents 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. Because
the drop cap is in a separate paragraph, it behaves as a separate paragraph and
may cause unwanted behavior in some situations.

Additional query words:

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Keywords          : kbdta word97 
Technology        : kbWordSearch kbWord97 kbWord97Search kbZNotKeyword2
Version           : WINDOWS:97
Issue type        : kbprb

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