apologies. i thought they'd sent you a solution. oh well, there are many ways to skin the cat, but here's one:
1. open showflat.tpl
2. replace lines 85-109 with:
<div>
<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0">
<tbody><tr>
{if $prevlinkstart}
<td style="padding-right: 4px;">
<table class="t_standard">
<tbody><tr>
<td class="tdheader">
<img style="vertical-align: middle" src="{$config.BASE_URL}/images/{$style_array.general}/previous.gif" alt="{$lang.PREV_THREAD}" border="0" />
{$prevlinkstart}
{if $is_gallery}{$lang.PREV_IMAGE}{else}{$lang.PREV_THREAD}{/if}
{$prevlinkstop}
</td></tr></tbody></table></td>
{/if}
<td style="padding-right: 4px;">
<table class="t_standard">
<tbody><tr>
<td class="tdheader"><img style="vertical-align: middle" src="{$config.BASE_URL}/images/{$style_array.general}/all.gif" alt="{$alttext}" border="0" />
{$currentlinkstart}
{$linktext}
{$currentlinkstop}</td></tr></tbody></table></td>
{if $nextlinkstart}
<td>
<table class="t_standard">
<tbody><tr>
<td class="tdheader">
{$nextlinkstart}
{if $is_gallery}{$lang.NEXT_IMAGE}{else}{$lang.NEXT_THREAD}{/if}
{$nextlinkstop}
<img style="vertical-align: middle" src="{$config.BASE_URL}/images/{$style_array.general}/next.gif" alt="{$lang.NEXT_THREAD}" border="0" />
</td></tr></tbody></table></td>
{/if}
</tr></tbody></table>
</div>
adjust the padding-right value for your tastes as to button spacing.
ps: i editted the latest 7.2 beta.. dunno which version you are referring to, but they are close..
