There is a leading space created in the blank cells in a page properties macro. This poses a problem with templates that feature the page properties macro. Even if I delete the spaces in the template, when you go to create a page from the template, the spaces are recreated. In addition to display issues with irregular columns, this poses issues for users exporting the tables and then having to remove the leading space in Excel before working with the data.

The work-around I've been using until now has been to put filler characters into the cells. For example:

That prevents the macro from creating the leading space (since it only happens when the cell is blank); this way, when my users go to add values to those fields they replace the underscores. Otherwise, when you click on the blank cell, the default position for your cursor is AFTER the leading space. Some users notice the space and delete it, most don't.

The big problem comes with the excerpt macro. I have taken to putting the excerpt macro into the blank summary field in these templates, so that the summary displays as an excerpt when used in the Child Display macro with excerpts enabled, if a user wants to add a summary. However, for obvious reasons, I can't use the three underscores trick, since that's what will display as the excerpt. If I remove them, then the single leading space displays. Attached screenshot displays both variations.

As a result, I cannot use the excerpt macro within a page properties macro in a template.