Paul,

Now to the first question.

The cell alignment and padding may have been screwed up.

Try this on a table:

Sub Test()
Dim oTable As Table
Dim oCell As Cell
Set oTable = Selection.Tables(1)
For Each oCell In oTable.Range.Cells
With oCell
.VerticalAlignment = wdCellAlignVerticalTop
.TopPadding = "0.0"
End With
Next
End Sub