Anne is having problems getting the spacing above and below her tables to work properly. The paragraph styles she uses for her document body have 6 points before and 6 points after, which provides an aggregated 12 points between paragraphs. However, this spacing doesn't seem to apply (at least not properly) before and after tables. She is looking for the best way to control spacing before and after tables.

Place the text cursor in the top left cell of the table in question, before any text it contains. 3 Press 'Enter' if the table is at the top of the document; press 'Ctrl-Shift-Enter' if the table. To insert a text box, switch to the “Insert” tab and click the “Text Box” button. On the drop-down menu, choose the type of the text box you want. Here, we’re going with the “Simple Text Box” option. After insertion, the text box is selected automatically so you can go ahead and type in your text.

There are only two ways to adjust the spacing, and the method you use depends on how the table itsef is formatted within your document.

Tables can be either inline or not, the same as text boxes and graphics. When you insert a table it is, by default, inserted inline. You can adjust spacing before and after a table my making it non-inline, which is a particularly good approach if your table extends across the entire width of the page. Follow these steps:

1. Right-click on the table. Word displays a Context menu.
2. Select Table Properties from the Context menu. Word displays the Table Properties dialog box.
3. Make sure the Table tab is displayed. (See Figure 1.)

Figure 1. The Table tab of the Table Properties dialog box.

4. In the Text Wrapping area, click the Around icon. The Positioning button is activated.
5. Click the Positioning button. Word displays the Table Positioning dialog box. (See Figure 2.)

Figure 2. The Table Positioning dialog box.

6. Adjust the Top and Bottom settings to reflect how much space you want left before and after the table. (If your table doesn't extend the entire width of the page, you should also adjust the Left and Right settings.)
7. Click OK to close the Table Positioning dialog box.
8. Click OK to close the Table Properties dialog box.

There is one drawback with this approach: Your table now is treated as an independent element in the document, which means that text can flow around it. If you need the table to always be after a particular paragraph, then you'll want to check after any heavy editing that it is still where you expect it to be.

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If you want your table to remain inline, then the proper approach to take is to adjust the spacing on the paragraph immediately before the table and the paragraph immediately after the table. If you are using styles, as Anne does, the easiest way to do this is to create two additional styles based on whatever body style you are using in your document. One style would be for the paragraph before the table and the other for the paragraph after.

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For instance, let's say you create two styles called TableBefore and TableAfter. You could format the TableBefore style so that the Space After setting is however-many points you want to appear between the text and the table. You can then format the TableAfter style so that the Space Before setting is likewise reflective of the space you want after the table. Apply the styles appropriately, and your table should appear 'spaced' properly.

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It should be noted that it does no good to try to adjust the spacing of any of the paragraphs within the table, particularly if the table has borders visible. That will only adjust the spacing within the table cell in which the paragraph is located and won't affect the actual space between the table and the surrounding paragraphs.