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Write and Show support
Joined: 27 May 2007
Posts: 140
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 Posted: Mon May 28, 2007 12:44 am Post subject: NoIndent button - Stops indenting... has other uses |
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Button name: NoIndent
Button feature and function: The "NoIndent" button, punches into your text a very special html code, which produces a "guaranteed space" or "true space." In computer parlance this is called the non-breaking space code.
It looks like this:
Why do you need it? Very simply, html behaves strangely and sometimes you need a space that you know is not going to disappear.
Do some spaces disappear? Yes "space bar" spaces often do. If you were to put in spaces using your space bar, at the beginning of a paragraph (to try to move some words to the center of the page), when you save, you find sometimes the program has stripped those out. That's the way html (the language used to present text that browsers recognize) works and it is not always consistent. Oftentimes, depending on the brower viewing it, the browser's html reading engine will collapse "leading spaces" to nothing. But, thank goodness, you can count on a "true space" never to disappear.
Uses for "NoIndent:"
A. To cancel auto-indent
Your paragraphs in Write and Show are automatically indented (about three to five spaces). Sometimes, you would like to cancel that and have your next paragraph flush left. It's easy.
On the blank line preceding the paragraph which you want flush left, just clich the "NoIndent" button. It will insert the " " on that formerly blank line. The next paragraph will be flush left (with auto-indent cancelled).
B. Forcing a paragraph indent:
Oddly (ironically), the NoIndent" button can work to do the opposite of the usage described above. A strange occurence, which you might observe, is that if you change the font (using the font button) and cover several paragraphs, the last paragraph of a selected section of text is not indented, because that final code to close the font </font>, for some reason, acts to cancel the auto indent code. Just feed a bunch of the " " using your "True space" button. Be sure they are on the first line of the paragraph (like where you would like to have been putting in spaces with the space bar). Three should duplicate the indent effect. It would look like this:
| Quote: | | First words of paragraph . |
Other ways to use the non-breaking space
C. Doing special formatting with"NoIndent."
The non breaking space is useful many other ways because of that strang happening we discussed spaces, where spaces you typed at the beginning of a line (with your space bar) mightcollapse when you save your text (a quirky feature of html).
This is why the non-breaking space "True Space" was invented (not by Write and Show,, but by the programmers of the html code) to enable quick creative formatting with text, similar to using the Write and Show"as typed" button, but in this case keeping your decorative fonts. "True Space" lets you position text with the knowledge that it will stay where you want it.
D. Creating blank lines between tables:
If you place two tables following each other... they will run together, irrespective of how many times you put in blank lines (using the carriage return or Enter key). This is a feature of html, not a bug, so tables can be used to present data in a more orderly way. But, you can create blank lines between your tables using the "True space" button.
On a blank line between table click the "NoIndent" button to produce a non-breaking space. This will insure a blank line between the tables when you want it. Usually a non-breaking space on a line by itself is sufficient without the offsetting codes. |
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