Help:Line Break
From Sustainable Ballard
Contents |
Why does everything I type run together on the same line?
You are probably typing a single newline at the end of a sentence, and wiki is ignoring that line break. That's because the wiki syntax requires you to type two newlines to separate paragraphs. So remember to always leave a completely blank line between paragraphs, if you want wiki to break a line. Especially when you are copying and pasting text from other places (such as from other websites, emails, or Word documents), remember that a single newline will be ignored.
OK, but when I type two newlines there is too much space between paragraphs. I don't really want to start a new paragraph, I just want to break the line
In that case, you'll have to type an ugly little piece of HTML code: <br/> (left angle-bracket BR slash right angle-bracket - BR stands for BReak). So you type your first line, then type <br/> at the end, then newline, and then start the next line. <br> works the same as <br/>, but is frowned upon (by purists and automatic syntax checkers).
How to indent
Another alternative is to start the next line with a colon (:), which will do a single line-break, but also indent the next line. You can have as many lines as you want, all starting with a colon, and they will all be indented the same. You can also do multiple levels of indentation, but starting a line with multiple colons: two colons will indent twice as deep as one colon, three colons indent three times as deep as a single colon, etc.
Examples
| What it looks like | What you type |
|---|---|
|
A single newline generally has no effect on the layout. These can be used to separate sentences within a paragraph. Some editors find that this aids editing and improves the diff function (used internally to compare different versions of a page). But an empty line starts a new paragraph. |
A single newline generally has no effect on the layout. These can be used to separate sentences within a paragraph. Some editors find that this aids editing and improves the ''diff'' function (used internally to compare different versions of a page). But an empty line starts a new paragraph. |
|
You can break lines Please do not start a link or italics or bold on one line and close it on the next. |
You can break lines<br/> without a new paragraph.<br/> Please use this sparingly. Please do not start a [[link]] or ''italics'' or '''bold''' on one line and close it on the next. |
|
You can indent the next line of text
Back to the left. This is good for "wiki conversations". When you comment on something somebody else wrote, it is common practice to indent it one more level. --joe
|
You can indent the next line of text :starting the line with a colon ::two colons indent the line twice as far :::three colons even more :::::::you get the picture Back to the left. This is good for "wiki conversations". When you comment on something somebody else wrote, it is common practice to indent it one more level. --joe :''And often people use a different typeface to set their comment apart, like in italics'' --barb ::Yes, barb, that's true --chuck :but joe, what about ... ? --dave ::I didn't think about that! --joe |
Thanks, Fulvio! I just learned a new word, too - newline. I had to figure it out from the context (where have I been?) and then I looked it up on wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Newline :-) Julia