Hi Julie,
Style formatting doesn't insert an empty paragraph, per se, between each paragraph and the table before or after, but it allows you to force the document to preserve a defined amount of vertical space before or after a paragraph. Visually, that's the same as having the empty paragraph you seem so concerned about.
However, since you seem to be having trouble grasping the correct use of Styles, the following macro should do what you say you want:
Sub CleanUp()
Dim oPara As Paragraph
With ActiveDocument
' Delete all empty inter-table paragraphs. Note, though, that there
' must be at least one paragraph, empty or not, after the last table.
For Each oPara In .Paragraphs
With oPara.Range
If .Information(wdWithInTable) = False Then
If .Text = vbCr Then .Delete
End If
End With
Next
' Restore an empty paragraph before & after each table
For Each oPara In .Paragraphs
With oPara.Range
If Not .Previous Is Nothing Then
If .Information(wdWithInTable) = False Then
If .Previous.Information(wdWithInTable) = True Then
' If an empty last paragraph follows the last table,
' don't add another empty paragraph
If .Text <> vbCr Then .InsertBefore (vbCr)
End If
End If
End If
If Not .Next Is Nothing Then
If .Information(wdWithInTable) = False Then
If .Next.Information(wdWithInTable) = True Then
.MoveEnd wdCharacter, -1
.InsertAfter vbCr
End If
End If
End If
End With
Next
End With
End Sub
The first for .. next loop does essentially the same as the loop in my previous macro - except that it (now) preserves inter-paragraph breaks for paragraphs containing text between the tables. The second for .. next loop restores the empty paragraph immediately before & after each table.