Adobe InDesign: How do I create this variation of a drop-caps style?

Factual Questions
1

I’m using Adobe InDesign 2.0 to design some pages, and I’m trying to create a specific character or paragraph style (not sure which to use) that aligns to the left side of text. This style will be a font that’s considerably bigger than the text next to it, sort of like dropcaps, but it’s going be chapter/verse numbers. I would use the drop caps function to accomplish this, but I want the chapter/verse to be a different font, and also there’s going to be a range in the number of characters being drop-capped (ex. “1.1” has 3 characters, but “1.10” has 4). What’s the best way of accomplishing this? Is there a way I can do this with the drop caps function?

Sorry for the convoluted explanation.

2

You could create a character or paragraph style and apply it to whatever text you want.

3

Caveat: I have InDesign CS, so things I’m seeing might not be exactly the same as your setup. I’m hoping ID 2.0 is similar…

  1. Highlight the character(s) at the beginning of your paragraph that you want to make big and drop-cappy. Make sure your top toolbar is on the paragraph formatting controls, and increase the drop cap value to the number of lines you want it to drop. (There’s a little picture of a drop cap next to that value–default is 0). Also, there’s a value just to the right of that one where you control how many characters you want to drop (default value=1). Set the number accordingly for each instance.

  2. Create a new character style. Specify the font you want to use; it doesn’t have to be the same as the surrounding text. Then apply that style to the drop cap(s).

Character styles are what you want here because you are dealing with a change to only a few characters, rather than an entire paragraph.

Good luck! Drop caps are great fun.

4

Thanks a lot, Anaptyxis! That was perfect advice.