Increasing Space between Cell Borders and Cell Contents

Harold has a document that includes a rather simple table. The text in the table cells appears too close to the cell borders, so he wonders about the best way to provide more space between the text and those borders.

There are two ways to do this, depending on whether you want to increase spacing for all cells in the table or just for selected cells. Let's take a look, first, at how to do it for the entire table:

1. Make sure the insertion point is within the table you want to affect.
2. Display the Table Layout tab of the ribbon.
3. In the Table group, at the left side of the ribbon, click the Properties tool. Word displays the Table Properties dialog box. (See Figure 1.)



Figure 1. The Table Properties dialog box.

4. At the bottom-right corner of the dialog box, click the Options button. Word displays the Table Options dialog box. (See Figure 2.)



Figure 2. The Table Options dialog box.

5. Adjust the Top, Bottom, Left, and Right settings, as desired. (These indicate how much white space should be left between the cell border and the cell contents on each side.)
6. Click OK to close the Table Options dialog box.
7. Click OK to close the Table Properties dialog box.

At this point, the spacing within your table should be updated to reflect the settings you made in step 5. You should also note that, depending on your version of Word, you can click the Cell Margins tool in the Alignment group on the Table Layout tab of the ribbon. That will get you directly to the Table Options dialog box (step 4).

If you want to affect just some cells within the table, then you can follow these steps:

1. Select the cells you want to affect. (If you just want to affect a single cell, you can simply place the insertion point within that cell.)
2. Display the Table Layout tab of the ribbon.
3. In the Table group, at the left side of the ribbon, click the Properties tool. Word displays the Table Properties dialog box.
4. Make sure the Cell tab is displayed. (See Figure 3.)



Figure 3. The Cell tab of the Table Properties dialog box.

5. At the bottom-right corner of the dialog box, click the Options button. Word displays the Cell Options dialog box. (See Figure 4.)



Figure 4. The Cell Options dialog box.

6. Clear the Same as the Whole Table check box. The individual margin settings become available.
7. Adjust the Top, Bottom, Left, and Right settings, as desired.
8. Click OK to close the Cell Options dialog box.
9. Click OK to close the Table Properties dialog box.

The result is that the cell (or cells) you selected are adjusted to reflect the margins you set in step 7.

WordTips is your source for cost-effective Microsoft Word training. (Microsoft Word is the most popular word processing software in the world.) This tip (10361) applies to Microsoft Word 2007, 2010, 2013, 2016, 2019, 2021, 2024, and Word in Microsoft 365.