Older versions of Internet Explorer (version 7 and lower) don’t handle the box model correctly, and so this can result in margins that are off compared to how they look in modern browsers.

To fix this you can either ignore it (as it’s only going to happen in really old browsers) or fix it using a box model hack. The hacks listed on that web page help you get IE 6 and 7 to show the same margins as other browsers. You can also use conditional comments to hide CSS specific to IE 7 and lower:

Code:
<!--[if lte IE 7]>
    <link href="ie7-styles.css" rel="stylesheet">
    <![endif]-->
CSS Drop Caps

The most logical way to do a drop-cap would be to use the first-letter pseudo-element. To set a drop-cap using this, you might write a style like this. Type the following and place it in a STYLE element at the top of your web page:


Code:
p.introduction:first-letter {
      font-size : 300%;
      font-weight : bold;
      float : left;
      width : 1em;
    }
Then paste this into the body of your document:

Code:
 <p class="introduction">
    This paragraph has the class “introduction.” If your browser supports the pseudo-class “first-letter,” the first letter will be a drop-cap.
    </p>
But some older browsers don’t support this pseudo-class. You can still fake it in some browsers by using the SPAN element around the first letter in the paragraph. For example:

Code:
<span style="font-size : 200%; font-weight : bold; float : left; width : .75em;">
Try pasting the following into your HTML editor:

Code:
<span style="font-size : 200%; font-weight : bold; float : left; width : .75em;">T</span>his paragraph has a drop-cap on the first character that should be visible in most every browser.<br clear="all" />
Or this:

Code:
<span style="font-size : 200%; font-weight : bold; float : left; width : .75em; background-color : #cc0000; color : #cccccc;">Y</span>ou can even play with other style attributes on your drop-cap. Just remember to test in as many browsers as you can, so you’re not surprised by how your page looks. <br clear="all" />
You set those styles as CSS classes, you can use conditional comments like above to only style the SPAN element in older browsers.