Character Formatting

Tips, Tricks, and Answers

The following articles are available for the 'Character Formatting' topic. Click the article's title (shown in bold) to see the associated article.

Adding Drop Caps
Drop caps are formed by making the first character in a paragraph larger than normal, so that it occupies several lines of the paragraph. This finishing touch is easy to add using Word's built-in tools.

Adjusting the Width of Characters
Need to adjust how your characters look horizontally? Word provides an easy way you can scale the horizontal appearance of your text without affecting the height. Here's how to do it.

Creating a Shortcut Key for Strikethrough Formatting
Word provides shortcut key combinations for many different formatting options. One common formatting attribute that does not have such a combination is strikethrough. This tip can help you create a shortcut key for strikethrough formatting.

Making Sure Hidden Text is Printed
One of the formatting attributes you can apply to text is to make it "hidden." You can control whether the text formatted in this manner is printed or not.

Specifying a Default Font
Don't like the font that Word uses for a default in your new documents? You can pick a different font, but the way you make the selection is not as straightforward as you might expect.

Specifying Font Styles
Fonts, by default, come with one or more styles that define variations of how that font is displayed in your document. Understanding font styles enhances the way in which you can format your text.

Use Shading to Highlight Text
Need to draw attention to some text in your document? If used judiciously, you can use shading to highlight text and draw the attention you require.