Why won't my drop cap work correctly?

G

Goingtoschool

When I try to format the first letter of my paragraph with Drop Cap I get a
very wide text box that spans the width of the page. I uninstalled Microsoft
Office 2003 and reinstalled it and I still have the same problem. I have
Microsoft Office 2003 installed on another computer and the drop cap works
fine. How can I fix it on this computer? THANKS!
 
G

garfield-n-odie [MVP]

In Word, click on Tools | Options | General | uncheck the
"Automatically create drawing canvas" box | OK.
 
G

Goingtoschool

Thanks but it still doesn't work. "Automaticaly create drawing canvas" was
selected and I unchecked it but Drop Caps is still working the same way. It
still gives me a big text box that displays part of the letter when I try to
make a Drop Cap. Any other ideas?
 
G

Goingtoschool

Font was Times New Roman, Lines to drop was 4, Position was Dropped, and the
Distance from Text was 0. I did these same exact settings on another
computer that has the same version of Word (2003) and it worked like it was
supposed to. I just can't figure out why I get this large text box on this
computer. Also, when I opened the document where the dropped cap looked
right on one computer it still looked messed up on this computer.
 
G

Goingtoschool

I can see what it is doing now but I don't know how to fix it. When I create
the drop cap it automatically creates a new formatting style with a font size
of 1283. On the other PC the font size is 76.5. I can go in and edit the
font and make it 76.5 and then it looks like the drop cap. However, I don't
know why it is defaulting to that large font size when I select the the drop
cap to cover 4 lines.

THANKS!

Michelle
 
S

Suzanne S. Barnhill

Interesting. I get 73.5 for TNR dropped four lines, but no matter. Are you
sure of the 1283? The reason I ask is that the maximum font size in Word is
1,638 points, and I'm wondering if perhaps Word is somehow getting confused
about that.

For any kind of misbehavior of this type, the first line of investigation is
to try it in a fresh document. If you get the expected results there, then
the original document may be treated as corrupt. If you have Word 2003, use
the Open and Repair option. For previous versions, see
http://word.mvps.org/FAQs/AppErrors/CorruptDoc.htm

If it happens in any document, then the problem is in Word. For general
troubleshooting techniques, see
http://word.mvps.org/FAQs/AppErrors/ProbsOpeningWord.htm. Note that the
first step is to open Word in Office Safe Mode (by pressing Ctrl while
starting the program or using a command line with the /a switch as described
in the article). If it behaves properly in Safe Mode, then you can be fairly
confident the problem is in Normal.dot, the Registry, or an add-in (or
occasionally the printer driver), and the article provides steps for
systematically eliminating each of these.
 
G

Goingtoschool

Suzanne,

Thanks. I went into safe mode and it does the same thing and actually in
safe mode the font size is 1638 which is what it was in regular mode . ..I
don't know why I thought 1283. I did a screen capture of what it looks like
but t doesn't look like this system allows you to attach files. If you don't
mind, and if you have another email address, I could mail you the screen
capture of the problem. I would be most appreciative. It is driving me
crazy. I compared all the settings on my computer that works to this
computer and everything looks the same.

It does happen in any file and even in new files. I will try to delete the
Normal.dot and try again. Thanks again for all your help.

Michelle
 
G

Goingtoschool

Suzanne,

Guess what! I finally got it to work properly. The problem was the print
driver. It was set to generic text instead of the default printer. As soon
as I changed the default printer it worked fine. Thank you again for all
your help! This is my first time using this community and, after this
success, I'm sure it won't be my last. THANK YOU!

Michelle
 
S

Suzanne S. Barnhill

I should probably have promoted the printer driver to the head of the
suspect list! It is often the culprit when font formatting is concerned.
 
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