InDesign Table – Can’t Get Cell Padding to Affect Fill or Vertical Line Appearance

[nelly@egdesign]

I’m working with a table in InDesign and trying to create the appearance of a vertical line with gaps at the top and bottom between rows.

Here’s what I’ve tried:

• Added a narrow column and applied a cell fill to mimic a vertical line.

• Added top and bottom cell insets (padding) via Table > Cell Options > Text.

• Tried adding spaces or soft returns inside each cell to force the padding to take effect.

But the fill still runs full-height, and I can’t get the padding to create visible gaps at the top and bottom of the fill area.

Is there a better method to achieve this effect using native table features (no manual lines)?

See orange line below, I'm trying to create this with stroke, not add in manually. the arrow head I can add in manually.

[Eugene Tyson]

Instead of this you could try using paragraph rules for the Numbers

Normally they sit above or below - but you can offset the rule to the right and increase the pt size

Keeping them all even - you can then use a Paragraph Style going forward to make any global changes.

 

[nelly@egdesign]

That's such a great idea thank you. I did think to place an I and right justify, and it would work except as I go through asjust the layout, the height of the cell is likely to change a few times and some cells higher than others too, so that's why I was looking for another way to do it where the height would adjust with hte cell height 🙂

[Eugene Tyson]

I think it still works if you use Keep In Frame and then increase the size. 

I might test it later. 

Another option is Paragraph Shading/Border - which would grow by itself. 

I'll test some things.

[Dave Creamer of IDEAS]

Another option is to create a custom stroke style in the Strokes panel wtih gaps at the top and bottom.

Then create a cell style (auto-applied to first column in table style) with the orange rule.

Note: I did not try to replicate your layout exactly.

[nelly@egdesign]

I'm so close to getting this but I'm just not getting the gaps in still, I just can't for the life of me figure this out!! I don't suppose you could have a look at this .indd file and see where i've gone wrong?

🙂

[Dave Creamer of IDEAS]

Here you go. 

(I don't know if this was just a quick sample, but you should learn to use styles to your advantage.)