2 Easy Ways to Create a Drop Cap in PowerPoint

Microsoft PowerPoint does not have a drop cap feature like in Microsoft Word. But that doesn’t mean you can’t add drop caps to presentation slides.

In this tutorial there are 2 alternative ways to create a drop cap in PowerPoint.

This guide is applicable to PowerPoint 2007, 2010, 2013, 2016, 2019, and PowerPoint 365.

#1 Create a drop cap in PowerPoint with the help of Microsoft Word

Simply put, this method can be done by creating a drop cap as usual in Microsoft Word, then transferred to Microsoft PowerPoint.

1. Open Microsoft Word then place the text that you want to use later on the PowerPoint slide.

2. Next select the first letter in the paragraph → Insert →Drop Cap → Dropped.

3. So the result is like this. The letters used as drop caps will be larger.

4. I recommend narrowing the text zone because PowerPoint slides are by nature smaller than Word sheets of paper. Please set the width Margin according to the needs.

In addition, specify the font color, font size, font type, and other configurations in Microsoft Word. Because once it’s been moved to PowerPoint, you can’t change it anymore.

5. Press CTRL+A to select all text then right click, then Copy (CTRL+C).

6. Now, go to the PowerPoint slide where you want the text to appear. On the menu Homechoose Paste then Picture (see image below).

7. The text will appear on the slide. To zoom in, make sure to always use the dot in the corner of the text field while pressing the key SHIFT to keep the size proportional.

8. The result will be like this.

The downside of this method is the inability to edit the text when it’s been moved to PowerPoint because the format is already an image.

Therefore, method #2 is an alternative where you can still edit the text in PowerPoint after placing the drop cap.

#2 Create a drop cap directly in PowerPoint

In this tutorial we will be a little creative with the features in PowerPoint so that it can form a drop cap-like figure, and still edit the text.

1. In PowerPoint, select the first letter of the paragraph, right click then Cut or press CTRL+X.

2. Next, swipe the first 2 or 3 rows to the right using the button Tab on the keyboard.

3. Now, Paste (CTRL+V) the first letter that has been cut. Then move it to the top left corner of the paragraph, filling in the blank space we created in the previous step.

4. Enlarge the first letter as needed.

Here you may have to set how many lines to shift depending on the font size.

5. Then trim the position so that it looks like a drop cap.

6. When finished, the result will more or less be like this.

Method #2 is arguably more flexible because you can still style the text easily. However, the process of making and placing a drop cap does require some creativity so that the results are satisfactory.

Those are two ways that you can take to create a drop cap in PowerPoint.

If you have difficulty, please ask in the comments column!