Please Note: This article is written for users of the following Microsoft Word versions: 2007, 2010, and 2013. If you are using an earlier version (Word 2003 or earlier), this tip may not work for you. For a version of this tip written specifically for earlier versions of Word, click here: Space after a Table.
Brian has set up the "body text" style in his document so that it only has "space after" and has zero "space before." This works great for laying out his document, except when it comes to tables. The paragraph following the table ends up being too close to the table, and Brian wants some space between the table and a "body text" paragraph following the table. He wonders if it is possible for Word to put "space after" a table.
Not really, in the sense of "space after" for a paragraph. This can cause some issues when it comes to vertical spacing after tables, as Brian points out. There are two things you can do to work around this problem.
First, you could define another style, perhaps called "body after table," which is based on the "body text" style. The only difference would be that the "body after table" style would have space before the paragraph, not just after. This style can then be applied to the first paragraph after any tables, with the "body text" style being used for the rest of the paragraphs.
The other option is to insert an extra row at the end of your tables. This row should have no text in it, and it should be formatted so that it has no borders. You can adjust the height of the row to reflect the amount of space you want between the main portion of the table and your following text.
WordTips is your source for cost-effective Microsoft Word training. (Microsoft Word is the most popular word processing software in the world.) This tip (13012) applies to Microsoft Word 2007, 2010, and 2013. You can find a version of this tip for the older menu interface of Word here: Space after a Table.
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2014-03-16 11:28:00
Daniele
I found a work-around that seems to work. Insert a table and format it the way you like it. Make sure the paragraph mark immediately below the table has the spacing after as you want it. Select the table with the paragraph mark (note that you can also include your formatted caption here). Then go to insert table, Quick Tables, Save Selection to Quick Tables gallery. Change the category in the dialogue box to something which alphabetically comes before "Built-In" and select whether you want to link it to your normal Template or to another Template. The next time you want to enter a table, go to insert, tables, Quick Tables and select your new Quick Table style. It now has the correct space after. I did it using Word 2010, but tried it using Word 2007 and it seems to work there too.
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Please Note:
This article is written for users of the following Microsoft Word versions: 2007, 2010, and 2013. If you are using an earlier version (Word 2003 or earlier), this tip may not work for you. For a version of this tip written specifically for earlier versions of Word, click here: 
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