[Terry Farrell]

If I understand you correctly...

Go to Format Paragraph dialog and clear the option 'Don't add space to
paragraphs of the same style'. That options inhibits space accumulation for
paragraphs using the same style so that if Space after is 18pt and Space
before is 12pt, the space presented is only 18pt (the larger of the two
numbers) and not 30pt as expected.

Note that when you come to sort out the space at the top of the pages, in
the Compatibility dialog there are several 'Suppress additional space'
options that you may find useful.
--
Terry Farrell - MSWord MVP

wrote in message
...
For my government work I have been trying to work out spacing
precisely.

I am correct in the following:

If A and B are paragraphs, occurring sequentially, then the space
between the bottom of A (to descender) and the top of B (ascender) is

The leading of A + the maximum of (A.After and B.Before Spacing)

In other words the before and after spacing are not added together,
the spacing is based upon the larger of the two values.