Controlling the spacing after a table

[Michael Carr]

I currently use the Normal style to add 12pt after each paragraph, but this
setting doesn't seem to apply to tables. As a result, the bottoms of my
tables are butted up against their following paragraphs. Can I change a
table style somehow to automatically add 12pt after the bottom of the table?
I've tried everything I can think of and I can't find a way to do it
anywhere.

I don't want to put an extra "blank" paragraph after each table if I can
avoid it.

I am using Word 2007.

Thanks!
Michael Carr

 

[Suzanne S. Barnhill]

The way most of us work around this is to have a Space Before style (in my
case it's Body Text Space Before, corresponding to Body Text, which I use
for my body text) to use after tables and anywhere else it's needed.

 

[Lene Fredborg]

An alternative solution would be to keep the style you would normally use and
use a macro like the following to change the space before. The macro simply
applies 12 pt space before the first paragraph in the selection.

Sub Add12ptSpaceBefore()
Selection.Paragraphs(1).SpaceBefore = 12
End Sub

You can assign the macro to a toolbar button and/or a keyboard shortcut in
order to make it easy to execute.

A more advanced macro could be made that checks the entire document and,
below each table, removes any empty paragraph(s) plus applies appropriate
space before the following paragraph - the space may depend on the style of
the paragraph (for example, you may want more space in case of a heading). If
another table follows immediately below one or more empty paragraphs, a
single empty paragraph must remain in order to split the tables. I normally
use a macro like this in order to correct the “space below table†in an
entire document in one step.

--
Regards
Lene Fredborg
DocTools - Denmark
www.thedoctools.com
Document automation - add-ins, macros and templates for Microsoft Word