Question

Is there an easy way to indent whole paragraphs without using bullets?

And is there a easily insert empty lines into the same paragraph?

• TWiki version: 03 Aug 2002
• Web server: Apache
• Server OS: Linux
• Web browser: Opera
• Client OS: Linux

-- MathiasKoerber - 01 Sep 2002

I also wanted to know whether there was an easy way to indent whole paragraphs without using bullets, and a search found this page. What we want is an easy way -- a TWikiShorthand way. I can hack HTML and CSS with anyone, but it's not in the spirit of things, and my site's other users generally cannot. When I contribute to Wiki sites I often want to indent paragraphs that are tangents to or questions about the previous paragraph or that are quotes from somewhere else (as with the HTML blockquote tag). While this does open the danger of the nested reply problem that ruins email and newsgroup conversations, it does make sense when used judiciously (not in ThreadMode) -- it's great that Wiki eliminates this problem, but it sometimes gives rise to its own: endless paragraphs with different roles in the document, which in some cases would be clarified by occasional indentation.

So, if there isn't a way to do this in TWikiShorthand, maybe one should be added? How about three dashes followed by a vertical bar for each level of indentation, similar to the syntax for headings?

-- MitchellModel - 11 Oct 2002

Answer

Do you want to indent the first line of a paragraph, or the entire paragraph? I don't know an easy way to indent the first line (a general problem of HTML, I think), but <BLOCKQUOTE> will indent an entire paragraph for you. (It also brings in the right hand side, however, which may not be exactly what you want.)

I'm not entirely sure what you mean by inserting empty lines in a paragraph, and how that's distinct from just starting a new paragraph. You can, however, always use the <BR> tag to insert a line break at any point, and two or more of them can be used to generate empty lines.

-- NicMcPhee - 01 Sep 2002

I'd suggest to use html with CSS style, such as:

This block of indented text, by <div style='margin-left:4em'>...</div> See http://www.htmlhelp.com/reference/css/box/margin-left.html

-- ColasNahaboo - 02 Sep 2002

"padding-left" is another option to "margin-left". The effects are very much the same, although there is a difference.

    And if you want to indent the first line of a paragraph, just add a few   symbols as seen in this paragraph. There's also the first-letter (and first-line?) style options in CSS, which you can use to add left hand padding, but I don't know how many browsers support that just yet (no reason not to use it if you want to push the standards forward!)

-- RobNorman - 03 Sep 2002

I'd support the introduction of an appropriate TWikiShorthand as proposed by Mathias Koerber.

But if you need an immediate solution, you can "abuse" the Definition List shorthand and give a   instead of a definition term:

    : This is the first indent
       : This is the second indent
    : Back to first level

gives

 

This is the first indent

 

This is the second indent

 

Back to first level

-- FrankThommen - 15 Oct 2002

Follow-up in Codev.TWikiMarkupForBlockquotes

-- PeterThoeny - 23 Oct 2002