w:tblCellSpacing (Table Cell Spacing)

Specifies the spacing between cells in a table, or between the table border and the outermost cells, when the table uses separated borders.

Parent elements

Description

w:tblCellSpacing defines the gap between adjacent cells (and between cells and the outer table border) when the table uses the separated borders model. This is analogous to the CSS border-spacing property.

It is defined in ECMA-376 Part 1 §17.4.47.

When placed in w:tblPr, it sets the default cell spacing for all rows. When placed in w:trPr, it overrides that default for the individual row.

Attributes

Attribute	Type	Possible Values	Description
`w:w`	`xsd:integer`	Measurement value (see `w:type`)	Amount of cell spacing.
`w:type`	`ST_TblWidth`	`dxa`, `nil`	Unit for `w:w`. `dxa` = twips; `nil` = no spacing.

Examples

<!-- 72 twips (0.05 inch) spacing between cells -->
<w:tblPr>
  <w:tblCellSpacing w:w="72" w:type="dxa"/>
</w:tblPr>

using DocumentFormat.OpenXml.Wordprocessing;

var tblPr = new TableProperties(
    new TableCellSpacing { Width = "72", Type = TableWidthUnitValues.Dxa }
);

Notes

Cell spacing is only meaningful with separated borders (not collapsed). With collapsed borders (w:tblBorders using a single border), spacing is visually ignored.
Row-level w:tblCellSpacing in w:trPr overrides the table-level value for that row.
Setting w:type="nil" removes cell spacing, making borders collapse.