27. The system of claim 16 , wherein the one or more design tools are configured to reside partially on the computer system and partially on one or more server computer systems, wherein: a portion of the one or more design tools executing on the computer system are configured to receive user specified text content for one or more text elements in the markup language design, and to transfer the received user specified text content to a portion of the one or more design tools executing on the one or more server computer systems, and the portion of the one or more design tools executing on the one or more server computer systems is configured to determine which of the plurality of text elements have specified text content, determine 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, the one or more vertical spacing distances, and the defined positioning order, position each of 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 to generate an updated markup language document, and transfer the updated markup language document back to the portion of the one or more design tools executing on the computer system.
16. A system for automatically positioning a plurality of text elements in an area of a markup language design of at least a portion of a document, the markup language design defining a plurality of text elements each haying a defined relative vertical positioning order, and further defining one or more vertical spacing distances, the one or more vertical spacing distances comprising one or more of either or both of a defined vertical spacing distance between adjacent text elements in the markup language design and a defined vertical spacing distance between data within the text elements in the markup language design, the system comprising: one or more design tools configured to access the markup language design of the document, allow a user to specify text content for one or more text elements in a markup language design, determine which of the plurality of text elements have specified text content, determine 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, the one or more vertical spacing distances, and the defined positioning order, position each of 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; and one or more processors configured to execute the design tools.