Office for Mac Issues

How to Add White Space Around Text in Word Table Cells on Mac

Elise Williams Sep 28, 2026 868 views

Question details

The user needs to add padding or white space around text inside Microsoft Word table cells on a Mac so that the text does not touch the borders.

How to Add White Space Around Text in Word Table Cells on Mac

Product: Microsoft Word
Device & OS: Mac
Scenario: Formatting document tables or fixing layout issues after importing documents from Apple Pages where margin settings may have been lost.
Observed behavior: Text inside the table cells touches the cell borders, making the content appear cramped due to insufficient cell margins, missing padding, or incorrect paragraph spacing.

Before you start

Ensure your cursor is placed inside the table you want to modify, or highlight the specific cells if you only want to change the margins for a specific section of the table.

Solution 1Recommended

Adjust Cell Margins via Table Properties

The most direct way to add white space around text in a table is by increasing the internal cell margins through the Table Properties menu.

Cell margins act as internal padding for your table cells. By default, Word applies a small amount of space, but this can be lost when importing from other programs like Pages.

You can apply margins to the entire table or override the table settings by applying margins to specific cells.

Select the table or cells

Click and drag to select the specific cells you want to modify, or select the entire table by clicking the table move handle in the upper-left corner.

Open Table Properties

Right-click the selected area and choose 'Table Properties' from the context menu.

Access Cell Options

Go to the 'Cell' tab in the Table Properties dialog box and click the 'Options' button at the bottom right.

Set the margin values

Uncheck 'Same as the whole table' to enable custom inputs. Enter your desired values for the Top, Bottom, Left, and Right margins to add white space, then click 'OK'.

Adjust Cell Margins via Table Properties

Cell-Specific Overrides: Any custom margins you set within the Cell tab Options will override the global table-wide margin settings for those selected cells.

Solution 2

Modify Paragraph Spacing and Text Indents

If adjusting cell margins does not fully resolve the spacing issue, paragraph formatting settings might be pushing the text toward the borders.

Format Table Cell Margins Easily with WPS Writer

You can seamlessly open Word documents, adjust table cell margins, and add white space around text on your Mac using WPS Writer, a free and highly compatible office suite.

1. Open your document: Launch WPS Writer for Mac and open the document containing the tables you want to format.
2. Select the cells: Highlight the entire table or specifically select the cells where you need to add padding.
3. Access Table Properties: Right-click the selected area and choose 'Table Properties' from the context menu.
4. Adjust cell margins: Navigate to the 'Options' menu within the Table Properties to easily increase the top, bottom, left, and right cell margins, then click 'OK'.

Fully compatible with Microsoft Word (.docx) table formatting and layouts.Intuitive table properties menu to precisely control cell margins and paragraph padding.Lightweight, free to use, and optimized for fast performance on macOS.

microsoft office alternative - wps office

Frequently Asked Questions

Why does text imported from Apple Pages touch the table borders in Word?

When importing or converting documents from Apple Pages to Microsoft Word, specific table formatting metadata like cell margins and padding may be lost or interpreted differently by the software. This results in the default cell spacing being removed, causing the text to sit directly against the borders.

Does changing the cell margin affect the whole table?

If you change margins via the 'Cell' tab options, it only affects the currently selected cells and overrides the table-wide settings. To apply margins to the entire table at once, you should modify the default cell margins found under the 'Table' tab's Options menu in Table Properties.

Can paragraph line spacing cause text to hit the top or bottom cell borders?

Yes. If the paragraph spacing (Before or After) is set to 0, or if the Line Spacing is set to 'Exactly' with a very small point value, the text may touch the top or bottom table borders regardless of how large your cell margins are.

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