'Space Before' Not Working in Paragraph Styles but 'Space After' Is

With InDesign, space before never works at top of column/frame.

In Word, such a setting does work at top of page.

Maybe that was what you were used to?

InDesign, like most apps (e.g. Word) automatically suppresses spacing at the top of pages, since that's what most users want. The only reliable way to space a paragraph down from a top margin, with no prior paragraph, is to use a Rule Above —

• Unless you want ALL instances of a style to have hard space above, create a "STYLE TOP" child variation for this.
• Under Paragraph Rules, enable a Rule Above and set the rule width to 0 and the rule color to None.
• Set the Offset to the amount of space you want above the paragraph.
• Check "Keep in Frame."

This paragraph will now sit the Offset amount below any margin or other paragraph.

It can be combined with Space Above to get different (increased) spacing mid-page as well. Experiment.

"Space before" feature works only if there is another paragraph before the selected paragraph.