I found that useful command \addlinespace[3pt]
to create an extra white border around the rows. See example:
\documentclass[a4paper]{report}
\usepackage{multirow,booktabs}
\usepackage[table]{xcolor}
\begin{document}
\begin{table}
\rowcolors{1}{gray!15}{gray!15}
\begin{tabular}{rrrrr}
\rowcolor{gray!50}
Header & 1 & 2 & 3 & 4 \\ \addlinespace[3pt]
Row1 & a & b & c & d \\
\multicolumn{1}{c}{} & a1 & b1 & c1 & d1 \\ \addlinespace[3pt]
\multicolumn{1}{c}{\multirow{-2}[0]{*}{Multirow1}} & a2 & b2 & c2 & d2 \\
Row2 & aa & ab & ac & ad \\
\end{tabular}
\end{table}
\end{document}
I also found commands like:
\setlength\extrarowheight{7pt}
\renewcommand\arraystretch{1.2}
here: vertical align and color in table with multirow
But these two commands seem to just expand the whole row rather than that white border thing. However, you call it ;)
As I have a lot of tables with loads of rows, my question is how to make the command \addlinespace[3pt]
globally so that I do not have to add it at the end of each single row for all tables.
\renewcommand\arraystretch{1.2}
increases the whitespace above and below the row.\setlength\extrarowheight{7pt}
only above! – user2478 Jan 8 '13 at 13:18