17.4.45 tblCellSpacing

This element specifies the default table cell spacing (the spacing between adjacent cells and the edges of the table) for all cells in the parent table. If specified, this element specifies the minimum amount of space which shall be left between all cells in the table including the width of the table borders in the calculation. This setting shall be superseded by a table-level exception (17.4.44) or the row cell spacing value (17.4.43) in that order. It is important to note that table-level cell spacing shall be added outside of the text margins, which shall be aligned with the innermost starting edge of the text extents in a table cell.

This value is specified in the units applied via its type attribute. Any width value of type pct or auto for this element shall be ignored.

[Example: Consider a table whose first cell has a six point wide table border, and a table cell spacing value of 0.01 inches. The resulting table would have 0.01 inches of space between each table cell regardless of the width of the cell border, as follows (notice that no border is covered by any other border):

R1C1

R1C2

R2C1

R2C2

end example]

If this element is omitted, then the table shall inherit the table cell spacing from the associated table style. If table cell spacing is never specified in the style hierarchy, no cell spacing shall be added to the parent table.

[Example: Consider a table with a default cell spacing of 0.1 inches for all sides as follows:

R1C1

R1C2

R2C1

R2C2

This table cell spacing deafult is specified using the following WordprocessingML:

<w:tblPr>
  <w:tblCellSpacing w:w="144" w:type="dxa"/>
  …
</w:tblPr>

The tblCellSpacing element as a child of tblPr specifies the default cell spacing between all cells in the current table, in this case 144 twentieths of a point. end example]

This element’s content model is defined by the common table measurement definition in 17.4.87.