I did open it. What am I supposed to have noticed?
The OP’s original post indicated that in his document “the whole article is double spaced”. The lines in “deleteme Line Spacing.docx” are not double-spaced, at least not in the first paragraph.


“deleteme Line Spacing.docx” has no opening quote mark for the first paragraph. The OP’s original post showed a screenshot with an opening quote mark for the first paragraph.
The OP’s original post showed a screenshot with the base of the first letter flush with the first-line base. The base of the first letter in “deleteme Line Spacing.docx” is flush with the second-line base.
At least, this is how “deleteme Line Spacing.docx” displays in Word 2007 on my system.

Sorry, I thought you were the original poster and responded "“Line Spacing.docx” uses a Drop Cap for the first letter." "Line Spacing.docx" does not use a Drop Cap as I understand that term. However, it does exactly what the OP seemed to want which is a larger font in the first character without messing up the line spacing.

In my opinion, this is a "drop cap." It is the only kind that my version of Word produces, going down from the top of the line rather than up from the bottom.

Sometimes I get caught up in the jargon. I apologize. I'm a grumpy old man trying to be better. Thank you for helping and I apologize again for being so pedantic.

“Line Spacing.docx”, as I attached it yesterday, does use a Drop Cap for the first letter. It was inserted as such in Word 2007. See attached screen shot:

Attached Images

dropcap.png (128.8 KB, 11 views)