🚀 go-pugleaf

How about Space After in the Inline paragraph? That too could cause a gap. 

As for tables, if you can do it manually, you can probably do it with a script. 

I described in some detail a mechanism for using tables to do this just the other day in the ID_Windows forum. It has the added benefit of permitting the hanging head to be on either side of the main body. 

But it works just about the same way as the script you're using. 

If you're thinking of putting main story text into the table, too, then you have difficulties with dealing with page breaks: you can no longer manipulate the vertical position of the side head without also moving the paragraph next to it. 

For side heads, this is probably not an issue, but for side bars, it is. 

On the other hand, what if you're close to the bottom of the page? You'd have to be prepared to split the text mid-paragraph in order to fit, say, four lines at the bottom of a page with the rest of the paragraph at the top of the next. 

Holding side heads the way my script does is far simpler than having to do that kind of thing. 

Dave