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Spacing

Boxes, tables, paragraphs and many other elements have a margin and padding.
The margin is the white space around an element, outside the border. It is used to position an element in relation to the other elements, by putting more space between the element and its surrounding elements.
The padding is the space between an element's content and its border. It is used to position the content of the element inside the border.

Elements have a rectangular shape, so they have four sides. The margin and padding have be different on all sides.

Use a negative left margin to create a hanging paragraph or image.

To set the spacing:

  1. Right-click the element and click the respective element on the shortcut menu.
    Alternatively, select the element (see Selecting an element) and on the Format menu click the respective element.
  2. Click the Spacing tab.

    All settings in the Formatting dialog are in fact CSS style rules. Click the Advanced button to manually add CSS properties (at the left) and values (at the right). For more information about CSS, see Styling and formatting.

    It is also possible to set an element's border in a style sheet; see Styling templates with CSS files.

  3. Set the value for the padding in measure or percentage. You can do this for each side separately, which is equivalent to the padding-top, padding-bottom, padding-left or padding-right property in CSS. To set the same padding for all sides, check the option Same for all sides. This is equivalent to the padding property in CSS.
  4. Set the value for the margin in measure or percentage. You can do this for each side separately, which is equivalent to the margin-top, margin-bottom, margin-left or margin-right property in CSS. To set the same margin for all sides, check the option Same for all sides. This is equivalent to the margin property in CSS.
  5. Click OK, or click Apply to apply the changes without closing the dialog.