I wouldn't use an empty paragraph for this, as it can come back to bite you
if the text reflows to the top of a page. I usually just add some Space
Before manually (you can add 12 points easily by pressing Ctrl+0), but if I
already have a Body Text Space Before style (which I often do), then I use
that.

--
Suzanne S. Barnhill
Microsoft MVP (Word)
Words into Type
Fairhope, Alabama USA
Word MVP FAQ site: http://word.mvps.org
Email cannot be acknowledged; please post all follow-ups to the newsgroup so
all may benefit.

"Jen" wrote in message
...
Thanks Suzanne...at least now I know I'm not crazy!

So what's the recommended way to do this? Is it worth adding a new
paragraph
style just for the paragraph following a table, or should I just do the
dreaded "extra return"?

"Suzanne S. Barnhill" wrote:

Unfortunately, no, though this has frequently been suggested/requested.

--
Suzanne S. Barnhill
Microsoft MVP (Word)
Words into Type
Fairhope, Alabama USA
Word MVP FAQ site: http://word.mvps.org
Email cannot be acknowledged; please post all follow-ups to the
newsgroup so
all may benefit.

"Jen" wrote in message
...
I'm trying (really trying!) to use proper styles in formatting my
documents,
but what a PITA!! I'm especially having problems with tables. None of
the
font changes I make seem to be saved into the table format (I did find
some
other information about this on this forum...apparently this is some
kind
of
bug?) but now I want to be able to add some white space (like 12pt
worth)
after my table and before the next line. Whenever I change the spacing
in
the
styles dialog, it just changes the table itself.

Is there any way to add a certain amount of white space after a table,
without having to modify the style of the paragraph following it?

TIA,
Jen