Large quotation marks in Word?

Is there a simple way in MS Word to get large quotation marks tightly round a paragraph of text, like you might see in print media to mark a quote?

If you simply increase the font size of the quote character, it moves too far away from the text it's accompanying. Worse, the first and last lines start to detach from the rest of the paragraph. Here's what I mean (this is Calibri I think):

But this is the desired effect (can't do this in Word, had to chop it about in a paint package):

hawbsl

Posted 2011-06-24T16:41:23.570

Reputation: 178

Answers

~~Yes, Time New Roman, I just did it. Courier might space it out too much.~~

Also, highlight it and do format..paragraph, and make sure spacing and indentation are 0 and line spacing is single.

Correcting my answer,

I see your issue now. See my comment, create a textbox put the quote in there and move the textbox.

Here is an example you can see the method with it

The quote at the top line is done the traditional way. You'd want to delete it and use a textbox for it. The quote on the bottom line with a textbox, that's how you'd do it, that's a picture done in progress of doing it to show you the method. You would delete the quote you don't want from the textbox, make the quote however big you want, and move the textbox. And you double click the border of the textbox and make sure it has no fill and no border, then the textbox is seamless. Textboxes are very useful in Ms Word, very powerful. You can move them finely by clicking the border and using ctrl+arrow keys.

enter image description here

barlop

Posted 2011-06-24T16:41:23.570

Reputation: 18 677

@hawbsl I guess that's where one might consider some kind of desktop publishing software. – barlop – 2016-10-01T05:56:16.490

@barlop with Times New Roman i get the same problem i illustrated in my question. the first and last lines detach from the other lines as you increase the font. even with times new roman. – hawbsl – 2011-06-24T18:28:08.697

@hawbsl I just added a picture, see it's fine for me. ms word 2003. perhaps font isn't the issue for you and it's the format..paragraph thing. That's a common word issue but try amending the settings to 0 and single line spacing as mentioned in my answer. see if that helps. – barlop – 2011-06-24T18:30:24.300

@barlop, your quotes and text are equally enlarged. the effect i am looking for is just the quotes enlarged – hawbsl – 2011-06-24T18:31:56.633

@hawbsl oh I see, you want a giant quote char and little text... – barlop – 2011-06-24T18:32:05.597

@hawbsl What works is using a Textbox, put the quote in there and move it. Draw a textbox set border to none/0/white and change transparency so it doesn't paint stuff and make it have no fill - those kind of settings , change settings like that it's trivial. Then you'll have it. And you can finely move it by clicking the border and using ctrl and arrow keys . i'll try include a pic but am in a rush at the moment. put 2 quotes in the textbox, one will be left style quote the other right style quote then delete the one you don't want leaving the one you want, move the textbox. – barlop – 2011-06-24T18:36:21.943

@hawbsl Does this answer it? if it does, you should accept it. If it doesn't, then you should clarify as to why. – barlop – 2011-07-01T16:51:10.737

it kind of works but i don't trust the textbox positioning to stay true if you make large changes to the content. i was hoping for something built in to do with text formatting – hawbsl – 2013-02-07T11:02:34.660

This question is years old, but the answer you're looking for is "Drop Cap." In Word 2013 and 2016, type out your paragraph. Then select the characters at the beginning of the paragraph, usually one word, in your case, one character. In the tabs, in the "Insert" tab, click "Drop Cap" and choose "Dropped".

Christopher Hostage

Posted 2011-06-24T16:41:23.570

Reputation: 4 751

So here's how you can do this, not that difficult. All you need is three text box's and a little messing around with word. Make the first text box and write (or copy/paste) your quote into it. Make a second text box, and type a large quote-mark in it, like this ". Then when you make your third, do the same (make sure to make the other quote mark the same colour, font, and size for better effect). Drag the two quote marks (each in their own text box's) beside the quote and wa-la! Done. Sorry, I couldn't post pictures because I "need at least 10 reputation to post images"

Zontafer

Posted 2011-06-24T16:41:23.570

Reputation: 9

I see you haven't revisited since your post. You seem to be talking about dragging textboxes. How is that any different to what I said? And as hawbsl commented to my answer, the same comment would apply to yours "it kind of works but i don't trust the textbox positioning to stay true if you make large changes to the content. i was hoping for something built in to do with text formatting –" – barlop – 2016-10-01T05:56:59.110

1I'm having a little trouble following, but here's ten reputation in the hopes you will post the picture to make it clearer. – Kazark – 2013-03-22T20:07:11.307