11. The computer-readable medium of claim 8 wherein each of at least some of the defined text elements are assigned to one of a plurality of text element types and wherein the text elements having text content are positioned such that the spacing distance between two sequentially positioned text elements of the same type is smaller than the spacing distance between two sequential positioned text elements not of the same type.
8. A computer-readable medium having encoded therein computer instructions for automatically positioning a plurality of text elements in an area of a markup language design of at least a portion of a document to be printed, the instructions comprising instructions for: defining a plurality of text elements in the markup language design, each of the plurality of text elements having a defined relative vertical positioning order, defining one or more vertical spacing distances between adjacent text elements in the markup language design and/or between data within the text elements in the markup language design, allowing a user to specify text content for one or more of the text elements in the markup language design, determining which of the plurality of text elements have specified text content; determining at least the height of each of the determined text elements having specified text content, and based on at least the determined text element heights, one or more spacing distances, and the defined positioning order, positioning each of, and only, those text elements having specified text content in the area such that each text element in the area is vertically separated from each adjacent text element by a defined spacing distance, whereby the layout of the text elements having specified text content is determined.