Specifying cell spacing and padding
Cell spacing is space between cells in a table. Cell padding is space between the border of a cell and its contents. You can specify a single cell padding value for a whole table, or you can specify a padding amount independently for each side of an individual cell. If you do both, individual cell padding values override the table-wide value. Cell spacing, on the other hand, can only be set for a whole table.
Some examples of different spacing and padding values are shown below:
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Spacing = 10; |
Spacing = 1; |
Spacing = 5; |
To set cell spacing and padding for a whole table
- Right-click the table and click Table Properties.
- In the Cell padding box, enter a number of pixels.
- In the Cell spacing box, enter a number of pixels.
- Click OK.
To specify padding amounts for selected cells
- Select the cells for which you want to specify padding amounts.
- On the Layout menu, go to Border, click the triangle under Border and then click Cell Borders.
- In the border selection box, select the cell side for which you want to set the padding. To select multiple sides at once, click each while holding down the Ctrl key. (See the examples below.) To select all four sides, click Select All. To deselect all sides, click in the middle of the box. By default, all four sides are selected.
Click a side to select it.
Click while holding down Ctrl to select multiple sides.
- Enter a number in the Padding box and then click the unit box next to it and select a unit. If you do not specify a unit, the value will be interpreted as pixels.
- Repeat steps 3 and 4 if you want to set a different padding value for another side.
- Click OK.
If you set a table’s cell spacing to 0, the borders of adjacent cells will overlap.
Related topics
Style dialog box – Borders & Background tab