Row Padding, Row by Row

Question

Here's my MWE that is almost right... except for the excess padding in the top row which I would like to reduce to 0.2cm. The rest, I'd like to keep at 1.5cm.

\documentclass[12pt,letterpaper]{article}

\usepackage[utf8]{inputenc}
\usepackage{array}
\usepackage{tabularx}

\begin{document}

{
\setlength{\extrarowheight}{1.5cm} 

\begin{tabularx}{8cm}{|p{2.5cm}|p{2.5cm}|X|}  \hline

Top Left & Top Middle & Top Right \\ [0.2cm] \hline

Bottom Left & Bottom Middle & Bottom Right \\ [0.2cm] \hline

\end{tabularx}
}

\end{document}

This thread shows how to specify the one amount of vertical padding above the cells for ALL rows in a table. But what if the rows need different amounts? (I am making worksheets on which students will be writing in pencil.)

P.S. This is my first, or one of my first ever posts on StackExchange. I'm also a LaTeX newb. If there's a better way to pose questions, please let me know and I will edit this post. Thanks!

Answer 1

An easy, but manual solution, to this problem would be to reduce the value defined in \extrarowheight to 0.2cm and manually add an empty row of 1.1cm (1.1cm + 2 * 0.2cm = 1.5cm) above each row for which a top padding of 1.5cm is desired.

This approach has some limitations however. Because there is a minimum height a table row can have by default (see Column and row padding in tables), the minimal padding that it is possible to add with this approach is limited by the \baselineskip. It is, however, possible to reduce this value as described here: How to make a row in a table shorter?.

Below is a MWE that shows how it can be done:

\documentclass[12pt,letterpaper]{article}

\usepackage[utf8]{inputenc}
\usepackage{array}
\usepackage{tabularx}

\begin{document}

\begin{table}
    \centering  
    \setlength{\extrarowheight}{0.2cm}  
    \begin{tabularx}{8cm}{|p{2.5cm}|p{2.5cm}|X|} \hline

        Top Left & Top Middle & Top Right \\[0.2cm] \hline
        && \\[1.1cm]
        Middle Left & Middle & Middle Right \\[0.2cm] \hline
        && \\[1.1cm]
        Bottom Left & Bottom Middle & Bottom Right \\[0.2cm] \hline

    \end{tabularx}

\end{table}

\end{document}

Which results in:

Update (2015-07-27):

Below is an updated solution derived from the macro presented at: How to make a row in a table shorter?. It consists in a new command, which allows to add an extra custom row padding of a given height on a row by row basis.

\documentclass[12pt,letterpaper]{article}
\usepackage{tabularx}

% Modified from :
% https://tex.stackexchange.com/questions/84524/
% how-to-make-a-row-in-a-table-shorter/84536#84536

\makeatletter
\newsavebox\saved@arstrutbox
\newcommand*{\setarstrut}[1]{%
  \noalign{%
    \begingroup
      \global\setbox\saved@arstrutbox\copy\@arstrutbox
      \global\setbox\@arstrutbox\hbox{%
        \vrule \@height #1
               \@depth  0cm
               \@width\z@
      }%
    \endgroup
  }%
}
\newcommand*{\restorearstrut}{%
  \noalign{%
    \global\setbox\@arstrutbox\copy\saved@arstrutbox
  }%
}
\makeatother

% New command to add an extra custom padding at the top of a row.
% Basically, it adds an empty row with the height value
% defined in the command.

% \paddingtop{height}{content}

\newcommand{\paddingtop}[2]{\setarstrut{#1} #2 \\ \restorearstrut}

\begin{document}

    \begin{tabularx}{8cm}{|p{2.5cm}|p{2.5cm}|X|} \hline
        \paddingtop{0.2cm}{&&}
        Top Left & Top Middle & Top Right \\[2mm] \hline
        \paddingtop{1.5cm}{&&}
        Middle Left & Middle & Middle Right \\[2mm] \hline
        \paddingtop{5.cm}{&&}
        Bottom Left & Bottom & Bottom Right \\[2mm] \hline
    \end{tabularx}

\end{document}

which results in: