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Why can't I add extra line or paragraph breaks?

  1. silkroadfreeways
    Inactive

    Is it possible to do do multiple line breaks or paragraph breaks? I am having such trouble! I am attempting to put extra space between an image and the text beneath it.

    In Visual, I tried to add extra space by pressing "enter."

    In code, I tried <p>, </p>, <p />, <br>,
    ... nothing works. To add insult to injury, editor automatically deletes those tags from my posts.

    Why doesn't wordpress let you add extra line spaces? This is the second theme I've tried with this (Jentri). Apparently both themes both think they know so much better than me.

    Thank you.

  2. timethief
    Member

    You can also try &nbsp; and <br/>

  3. multiveg
    Member

    I've tried everything - <br> <p> </p>
    Perhaps I should consider moving my blog back to my webpage with my ISP.
    Hmm - notice that the post has even removed some of the tags.

  4. raincoaster
    Member

    When you're putting in code, you need to put it between back ticks, ` those.

  5. timethief
    Member

    I solved this problem by:
    (1) Creating a draft post with all the text in it and saving it;
    (2) Going to => Users =>My Profile and unchecking the checkbox for the visual rich text editor;
    (3) Editing the post in the standard editor by inserting the desired spaces into the text;
    (4) Saving the post as "private";
    (5) Viewing the post to see if the spaces you have inserted are there and if they are then publishing the post;
    (6) Turning the text rich editor on again (see 2).

  6. frymaster
    Inactive

    I'd just like to add that I tried timethief's method and it didn't seem to work, and it would be extremely useful if I could enter some code or just simply hitting the enter key worked to create that amount of space.

  7. katm
    Member

    I never got it to work with the WP editor in either mode.

    The only way I can get things spaced the way I want is to write in BlogDesk (an offline editor) and then upload. If I need to change anything I need to edit in BlogDesk as well and upload it again. For whatever reason the editor likes to strip them out.

    Actually I find I prefer BlogDesk as Firefox likes to crash in the middle of me writing out my most profound thoughts.

  8. sulz
    Inactive

    i get the <br> tag to work all the time, whether in posts or sidebar.

  9. mapmagazine
    Member

    I, perhaps like many of you, am being driven crazy by the uncontrollable formatting of this blog space. I would understand (maybe) if I were trying to do complicated bullet points, indentations, and the like; however, I am simply trying to get a space in between paragraphs! I also have to say that the code I see being generated is bizarre at best. I am a novice programmer (about two years of professional experience), but I can't make any sense of the code - it seems highly redundant and contradictory.

    I appreciate the posts left by others and will try the suggestions.

  10. frymaster
    Inactive

    I'd used BlogDesk, and I simply hit enter a couple of times when I wanted a space. katm - I've since uninstalled the program, but is there a code part where you entered <br> or <p> that got it to work? If that's the case, I might need to re-install it.

  11. sulz
    Inactive

    you should be able to get spaces between paragraphs by a simple pressing of enter. if you can't do this, i suggest you switch the rich text editor off; i find that when things are not autoformatted, i can make it work the way i want to. i've also learnt simple html in the process.

  12. katm
    Member

    @frymaster.

    Yes, there is a code view (they call it source view). I use it when I want to change font colors/size and stuff they don't provide through the visual editor. You can get at it through the "view" menu.

    I need to migrate away from it though and start hand coding the html. My skills have gotten rusty from lack of use (errr... laziness).

  13. katm
    Member

    @sulz.

    I found that for whatever reason WP likes to strip my inserted line breaks when I edit a post, even if I'm using the code view.

  14. frymaster
    Inactive

    @katm

    BlogDesk source didn't work for me. I tried hitting enter a few times between two different <p> tags, as well as using <p> tags plus <br> tags.

    Anybody else have any clue on how to get things to work?

  15. timethief
    Member

    I'm afraid that if you have tried the methods above and they failed then we are all out of suggestions. :(

  16. raincoaster
    Member

    You can put a period followed by Enter, then change the colour of the font on the period to the same as your background colour. That should work. I used to have to do that when I was a newsletter editor and they only gave me Word 2.0

  17. sulz
    Inactive

    katm: strange, i've never had that problem. i don't use the <br> tag, i just hit enter twice to separate paragraphs. i guess our blogs have their own kinks.

  18. katm
    Member

    @frymaster.

    I think I use <br />.

    But I've been able to hit enter a couple times in the visual editor view and have the line breaks show up correctly.

    @sulz...

    ::sigh::

    Computers... they all have their own quirks. Either that or the computer gods really like picking on me.

  19. frymaster
    Inactive

    Yeah, the thing that worked for me was changing the color of a period. The only problem now is that even though BlogDesk says comments and pings are enabled, WordPress doesn't so when I change that on a post it reverts to the old formatting.

  20. vanbleautenbil
    Member

    @frymaster
    May I make a suggestion? It works for me quite allright:

    For extra Enters insert into the Code field
    < p align="left"> </p>
    as many times as you want Enters. Without the extra spacing between < and p, of course, and don't forget the ; after nbsp.

  21. frymaster
    Inactive

    vanbleau, I have no problem adding enters via BlogDesk now with either your suggestion or the changing color of the periods suggestion. The problem is WordPress not recognizing that BD has comments enabled and WP turns them off, so when I edit them on using wordpress.com, WP reverts all the BD formatting back to normal.

  22. timethief
    Member

    Actually wordpress changed some coding that caused this and support from BlogDesk is on to it. The good news is the BlogDesk support guy posted into a thread on a blog that he'll be releasing a hotfix. So stay tuned.

  23. lmdalton
    Member

    If you want to try one more thing for spaceing... I just type it in Word and cut and paste it back into the edit page.

  24. raincoaster
    Member

    I wouldn't suggest doing that. Word adds all kinds of weird HTML that can mess up your entire blog. I speak from experience.

  25. timethief
    Member

    I'll also attest to Word being a bad choice. And I'd like to suggest an alternative. NoteTab Lite is freeware.

    NoteTab is a text and HTML editor. Winner of software industry awards since 1998, this application does it all: it easily handles a stack of huge files; lets you format text to your heart's content; does system-wide searches, and multi-line global replacements. It even corrects your spelling mistakes.
    Build document templates, add bookmarks, convert text to HTML on-the-fly, and take charge of your code. Use a simple, power-packed scripting language to create anything from a text macro to a mini-application.
    The distribution file is available in two formats. The EXE package is the easiest to install. However, some systems don't allow downloading those file types. In that case, download the ZIP package instead. http://www.notetab.com/

  26. hrstuks
    Member

    Actually I had the same problem, where all of a sudden WordPress didn't use any breaks in my posts. MY PROBLEM was simply to be found in the css; the paragraph <p> had the settings
    margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px;
    when I removed these, all my breaks came back. Hope this helps.

  27. katm
    Member

    Someone correct me if I'm wrong, but hrstuks work around won't work unless you have the CSS upgrade...

  28. frymaster
    Inactive

    yeah I'm going to have to agree with katm on this one

  29. timethief
    Member

    Agreed.

  30. joniev
    Member

    okay. i've just done it. you type any text (i followed people's suggestion and typed a period) in the line you want to leave blank. than color it the color of your background. it's cheating, but it works.

    http://averynonnymouse.wordpress.com/2007/05/20/birthday-song-for-the-twice-over-sea/

    see?

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