Drop caps–those big, attention-getting glyphs that arrest the eye and bring it right into the beginning of your story–are a quick and simple thing to achieve in InDesign.
The drop caps are controlled by settings made in the Paragraph palette. If it’s not open, bring it up with Mac: CMD-OPT‑T, Win: CTRL-ALT‑T or Menu: Window>Type & Tables>Paragraph. The last two boxes allow input for drop caps: on the left, the number of lines, and the right, number of characters. For example, if the drop cappage on your paragraph will involve three lines and the first two characters, input “3” in the left-hand box and “2” in the right. The iconic illustrations will remind you exactly what it is you’re specifying.
The drop caps can also be controlled from the Control Palette, in the Paragraph view.