Guide

Spacing, size and what is in effect

Which setting makes each gap on the page, which space a control changes, and the width and spacing a block really has — read from the same layout that draws the page.

Four kinds of space, set in four places

Margin — space outside a block, between it and its neighbours. Set in the block's Box section (the outer ring).
Padding — space inside a block, between its frame (where its Box fill and border paint) and its content. Set in the Box section (the inner ring).
Gap — the space a Stack, Row or Repeater puts between the things inside it. Set in that container's own Properties ("Gap between items", "Gap between columns", "Gap").
Paragraph spacing — space before and after the text of a paragraph, inside the block. Set in the text's formatting.

They add up. The space between two blocks in a Stack is the upper block's bottom margin, plus the Stack's gap, plus the lower block's top margin — nothing overrides anything else.

See which space a control changes

Point at a margin or padding number in the Box section, or at a container's Gap field — with the mouse, or by moving to it with the keyboard — and the page highlights exactly that space: outside the block for a margin, inside its frame for padding, between the children for a gap. It works at any zoom. A setting of 0 shows as a thin line where the space would grow from.

In effect

Below the Box editor, In effect says what the page actually has for the selected block:

Size — the block's width and height as laid out.
Width — what decides it: the page's text area, a column of a Row and how that column is sized, the inside of the Stack it is in, or its own width when it is anchored — less its side margins.
Content — how wide the content is inside the padding, when there is side padding.
Above and Below — the distance to the next block (or to the edge of the container it is in), split into who adds it: this block's margin, the neighbour's margin, the container's gap or padding. Space inside the block — padding, and a paragraph's own spacing — is listed separately, as inside this block. If part of the distance comes from something that is not a spacing setting, such as a column's vertical alignment in a Row, it is listed as its own part rather than left out, so the parts always add up to what is on the page.

Defaults you did not set

A Stack, Row, Repeater or List with no gap of its own still has one: 4 mm for a Stack or a Row, 2 mm between a Repeater's records, 1 mm between list items. An unset Gap field shows that default in grey, and Default takes a gap you set back to it — the field is cleared, so it keeps following the default instead of storing a copy of the number.

Row column widths

A column set to Auto or to a Weight has no number of its own. The Column section shows the width it has right now ("85 mm in effect"), and switching it to Fixed starts from that width so the column does not jump. Choosing Auto again always goes back to an equal share.

Rectangles and lines

A Rectangle has its own Shape fill, Shape outline and Shape corner radius in Properties, and a Box section with a fill and border of its own — the frame the shape sits in. In effect says which fill and which outline you actually see: the Box fill is painted first, the shape on top of it (inside the Box padding), and the Box border last, on top of everything. An outline is drawn along the edge of the shape and never adds to its size. For a Line, In effect separates the line's thickness from the height the block reserves, and says how long the line is when it is shorter than the block.

Where it does not answer

Blocks inside a table cell or a Ruled form region show their size and width but not the space above and below. An anchored block has no neighbours in the flow, so it shows its size and width only. Header and footer blocks have no Box section, so there is no In effect for them yet.

Four ways to size a column

Select a block inside a Row (or a Label + value block's label) and open the Column section. The width can be one of:

Fixed (mm) — exactly this many millimetres. Measured out first.
Weight — a proportional share: a column of weight 2 is twice as wide as one of weight 1, among the columns that are not fixed.
Auto (equal share) — an equal share of what the fixed columns leave. A row of all-Auto columns is just even columns.
Shared column — the width comes from a named shared width, so every column naming it is the same width and dragging its guide resizes them all (see Row columns and newspaper columns).

The side panel always says how wide a column is right now ("85 mm in effect"), so you can switch to Fixed without the column jumping.

In flow, or at a fixed position?

The side panel shows a small label under a block's name: In flow or Fixed position. In flow means the block takes its place in reading order and spacing is set by margins; this is the normal, safe choice, and it is what makes a document grow and break across pages. Fixed position means the block is pinned to an exact place on the page and ignores what flows around it. See Aligning and spacing anchored blocks and Why is this here?.

If something looks wrong

There is more space than I set between two blocks. Spaces add up: the upper block's bottom margin, plus the Stack's gap, plus the lower block's top margin. Point at a number to see which contributes what.
A block is narrower than its container. It has a fixed width, or a Row column gave it less.
A container's content does not touch its border. Padding is the space inside a frame; margin is outside it.
A table or shape will not get narrower. Check its own Table width or Size fields, not its margin.