Question: I have defined a command for a letter in the margin as follows (using marginnote because marginpar did not work at all):

```
\newcommand{\sideletter}[1]{\marginnote{\Huge\bf\sffamily\color{orange} #1}}

```

I appreciate that there are likely going to be issues with vertical alignment, due to the different fonts/sizes and when issuing the commands I have done the following to address the issue:

```
\sideletter{Q}[-1mm]

```

and

```
\sideletter{A}[1mm]

```

This seems to just about fix the issue vertically. However I cannot seem to align horizontally - the A is just *slightly* further to the right.

Example image:

![example](https://i.stack.imgur.com/5YtBa.png)

Does anyone have any idea about how to approach this? I have tried using hfill and centering but nothing seems to work.

Below is a minimum working example:

```
\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{lipsum}
\usepackage{marginnote}
\newcommand{\sideletter}[1]{\marginnote{\Huge\bf\sffamily #1}}
\setlength\parindent{0pt}
\begin{document}
\reversemarginpar
\sideletter{Q}
\lipsum[6]

\sideletter{A}
\lipsum[6]
\end{document}

```

I think in this MWE ![MWE](https://i.stack.imgur.com/fcV6u.png) the misalignment is possibly less obvious, but it is still there. Perhaps the font choice does have *some* bearing on it, but not everything.

Answer: 
I would go about this a little differently. It seems to me that your 'Q' and 'A' could be wrapped up in a `list` environment, which makes me immediately think of the `enumitem` package. 

![enter image description here](https://i.stack.imgur.com/1Exbe.png) 

Instead of using a `command` I have used an `environment`. Personally I find this preferable, as it may ease global changes later on- for example, you may wish to add numbers to the environment, or perhaps other decorations. See what you think- if it's not appropriate, perhaps someone else will have an alternative.

```
\documentclass{article}
\usepackage[showframe=true]{geometry}
\usepackage{xcolor}     % for colour
\usepackage{enumitem}   % for customizing lists
\usepackage{lipsum}     % for sample text

\newenvironment{question}{\begin{itemize}[leftmargin=0mm]\item[\vbox to -5pt{\vss\hbox{\Huge\bf\sffamily\color{orange} Q}\vss}]}
{\end{itemize}}
\newenvironment{answer}{\begin{itemize}[leftmargin=0mm]\item[\vbox to -5pt{\vss\hbox{\Huge\bf\sffamily\color{orange} A}\vss}]}
{\end{itemize}}

\begin{document}

\begin{question}
\lipsum[1]
\end{question}
\begin{answer}
\lipsum[1]
\end{answer}
\end{document}

```

If you plan to use `\Huge` for the `question` environment, you could use the following for the definition:

```
\newenvironment{question}{\begin{itemize}[leftmargin=0mm]\item[\Huge\bf\sffamily\color{orange} Q]\Huge}
  {\end{itemize}}

```
This one seems to work with marginpar:

```
\documentclass[11pt]{article}
\usepackage{xcolor,blindtext}
\newcommand*{\noPlace}{\hrule height0pt width 0pt}
\reversemarginpar
\newcommand{\QA}[2]{%
  \mbox{}\leavevmode\marginpar{\textcolor{orange}{%
    \noPlace\sffamily\Huge#1}}%
    {\noPlace#2}\par}
\setlength{\marginparwidth}{0.2in}%
\setlength{\parindent}{0pt}

\begin{document}
\QA{Q}{\blindtext}

\QA{A}{\blindtext}

\end{document}

```

![enter image description here](https://i.stack.imgur.com/zJv74.png)