It would help alot if we could see your current CSS & actual mark up, but my guess from what you are trying to accomplish is that you need to add padding to the top & bottom of the to achieve the look you want.
Can I ask why you are putting it in a table instead of a list? If you where doing a list your code would be something like this:
<div id="custom_menu">
<ul class="links">
<li class="first">
<a>Link</a>
</li>
<li>
<a>Link</a>
</li>
<li>
<a>Link</a>
</li>
<li>
<a>Link</a>
</li>
<li>
<a>Link</a>
</li>
<li>
<a>Link</a>
</li>
<li>
<a>Link</a>
</li>
<li class="last">
<a>Link</a>
</li>
</ul><!-- end class=links -->
</div><!-- end id=custom_menu -->
And this would be your CSS:
#custom_menu {
width: 850px;
margin: 0px auto;
padding: 0;
}
.links {
list-style-type: none;
margin: 9px auto;
padding: 4px 0 0 30px;
height: 23px;
}
.links li {
display: inline !important;
}
.links em {
display: none;
background-color: red;
height: 55px;
font-size: .7em;
margin: 0 0 0 -50px;
padding: 3px 10px 10px 3px;
position: absolute;
text-align: center;
width: 107px;
z-index: 30;
}
.links .last em {
margin: 0 0 0 -75px;
}