Controlling the spacing after a table

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

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.

--
Suzanne S. Barnhill
Microsoft MVP (Word)
Words into Type
Fairhope, Alabama USA
Word MVP FAQ site: http://word.mvps.org
Email cannot be acknowledged; please post all follow-ups to the newsgroup so
all may benefit.

"Michael Carr" wrote in message
...
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

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


"Suzanne S. Barnhill" wrote:

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.

--
Suzanne S. Barnhill
Microsoft MVP (Word)
Words into Type
Fairhope, Alabama USA
Word MVP FAQ site: http://word.mvps.org
Email cannot be acknowledged; please post all follow-ups to the newsgroup so
all may benefit.

"Michael Carr" wrote in message
...
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

Pressing Ctrl+0 will add 12 pts Space Before (no macro required). It will
also remove it, or reduce/increase existing Space Before to 12 points,
depending on the current status. For a throwaway document, I would just use
this shortcut to add space; for properly structured documents, I try to have
a style for every paragraph format used more than a couple of times (that
is, when I see that I'm applying the same type of direct formatting more
than once or twice, I define a style).

--
Suzanne S. Barnhill
Microsoft MVP (Word)
Words into Type
Fairhope, Alabama USA
Word MVP FAQ site: http://word.mvps.org
Email cannot be acknowledged; please post all follow-ups to the newsgroup so
all may benefit.

"Lene Fredborg" wrote in message
...
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


"Suzanne S. Barnhill" wrote:

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.

--
Suzanne S. Barnhill
Microsoft MVP (Word)
Words into Type
Fairhope, Alabama USA
Word MVP FAQ site: http://word.mvps.org
Email cannot be acknowledged; please post all follow-ups to the
newsgroup so
all may benefit.

"Michael Carr" wrote in message
...
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

Since the desired space in this case is exactly 12 pt I agree with Suzanne -
it is easier to use the built-in Ctrl+0 than to use a macro. However, I
thought of the adjust-space-before-macro-method as a general, alternative
method (the space could be set to any other space than 12 pt).

In general, I would also prefer the method Suzanne describes (i.e. to define
a style for each type of formatting needed). However, in some documents it
could require several additional styles. The number of styles may not be a
problem, especially not if you are the only person working with the document.
However, in documents that are being created/edited by many different users,
it is my experience that users find the editing process more difficult the
more different styles to keep track of. This is why I often use the
adjust-space-before-method.


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


"Suzanne S. Barnhill" wrote:

Pressing Ctrl+0 will add 12 pts Space Before (no macro required). It will
also remove it, or reduce/increase existing Space Before to 12 points,
depending on the current status. For a throwaway document, I would just use
this shortcut to add space; for properly structured documents, I try to have
a style for every paragraph format used more than a couple of times (that
is, when I see that I'm applying the same type of direct formatting more
than once or twice, I define a style).

--
Suzanne S. Barnhill
Microsoft MVP (Word)
Words into Type
Fairhope, Alabama USA
Word MVP FAQ site: http://word.mvps.org
Email cannot be acknowledged; please post all follow-ups to the newsgroup so
all may benefit.

"Lene Fredborg" wrote in message
...
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


"Suzanne S. Barnhill" wrote:

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.

--
Suzanne S. Barnhill
Microsoft MVP (Word)
Words into Type
Fairhope, Alabama USA
Word MVP FAQ site: http://word.mvps.org
Email cannot be acknowledged; please post all follow-ups to the
newsgroup so
all may benefit.

"Michael Carr" wrote in message
...
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

If the table does not have borders, a white top border for the first row,
and bottom border for the last row (defined in the table style) can be a
work-around... but is unfortunately limited to 6 pt.
And Word reserves those 6 pt even at the bottom of the page, which can lead
to the table being broken to the next page.

Regards,
Klaus


"Lene Fredborg" wrote:
Since the desired space in this case is exactly 12 pt I agree with
Suzanne -
it is easier to use the built-in Ctrl+0 than to use a macro. However, I
thought of the adjust-space-before-macro-method as a general, alternative
method (the space could be set to any other space than 12 pt).

In general, I would also prefer the method Suzanne describes (i.e. to
define
a style for each type of formatting needed). However, in some documents it
could require several additional styles. The number of styles may not be a
problem, especially not if you are the only person working with the
document.
However, in documents that are being created/edited by many different
users,
it is my experience that users find the editing process more difficult the
more different styles to keep track of. This is why I often use the
adjust-space-before-method.


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


"Suzanne S. Barnhill" wrote:

Pressing Ctrl+0 will add 12 pts Space Before (no macro required). It will
also remove it, or reduce/increase existing Space Before to 12 points,
depending on the current status. For a throwaway document, I would just
use
this shortcut to add space; for properly structured documents, I try to
have
a style for every paragraph format used more than a couple of times (that
is, when I see that I'm applying the same type of direct formatting more
than once or twice, I define a style).

--
Suzanne S. Barnhill
Microsoft MVP (Word)
Words into Type
Fairhope, Alabama USA
Word MVP FAQ site: http://word.mvps.org
Email cannot be acknowledged; please post all follow-ups to the newsgroup
so
all may benefit.

"Lene Fredborg" wrote in message
...
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


"Suzanne S. Barnhill" wrote:

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.

--
Suzanne S. Barnhill
Microsoft MVP (Word)
Words into Type
Fairhope, Alabama USA
Word MVP FAQ site: http://word.mvps.org
Email cannot be acknowledged; please post all follow-ups to the
newsgroup so
all may benefit.

"Michael Carr" wrote in message
...
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

Klaus Linke wrote:
If the table does not have borders, a white top border for the first row,
and bottom border for the last row (defined in the table style) can be a
work-around... but is unfortunately limited to 6 pt.
And Word reserves those 6 pt even at the bottom of the page, which can lead
to the table being broken to the next page.

.... and if you need more than 6 pt, you can use an empty table row (with
the same ramifications, sigh :-)).

0.2¢
Robert
--
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