Indents vs. Paragraphs

  • I’m trying to simultaneously introduce paragraph-indents and single-spacing between paragraphs.

    For example, in style.css I have:

    p {
  text-indent: 1.5em;
  margin-bottom: 0;
  padding-bottom:0; }
p + p {
  text-indent: 1.5em;
  margin-top: 0;
  padding-top:0; }

    However, what this means in practice is that when I have a simple
    break (ie. single-spacing) in the inputted text for the page, the CSS treats that entire block of text as a single paragraph, and only indents the first line. When I put a blank line between each paragraph, it makes a new paragraph, however there is a full space between these paragraphs, breaking up the text.

    Basically, I know how to indent text, I know how to eliminate spaces between paragraphs, but I find it impossible to do both at the same time. I want to post novel excerpts and dialogue looks ridiculous when it’s so spaced-out. It also looks ridiculous when there are no indents, as it becomes difficult to tell when each character starts or stops speaking once one character says something long enough to force a text-wrap.

    You can see an example here:
    https://www.tinpanparadise.com/?page_id=29

Viewing 5 replies - 1 through 5 (of 5 total)
  • Thread Starter briceryant

    (@briceryant)

    Can I bump this for another try? I still haven’t been able to resolve this issue.

    Spacing between paragraphs is determined entirely by top/bottom margin (or padding). How many carriage returns you add between blocks of text will make no difference, as all such whitespace is ignored when the browser renders the page.

    I’m guessing that you’re running into issues trying to paste text into the editor (Visual or HTML), and the carriage-returns not being properly interpreted as paragraph breaks, so you’re getting either a single block of text (i.e. one single paragraph), or else you’re getting an extra paragraph between paragraphs?

    Thread Starter briceryant

    (@briceryant)

    Well, I’ve done all sorts of things to make this work, but I essentially have the formatting I’m looking for. You can see it here:
    https://www.tinpanparadise.com/?page_id=29

    The thing is, I did all of this manually. For example, this text:
    “Rigor mortis?”
    “I’m not an examiner.”
    I knelt down, cradled the left wrist, and worked the joint. No
    resistance. That’s when I saw him face to face, and knew I had seen him before.

    was created by using the following HTML:
    <div style=”padding-left:20px;”>“Rigor mortis?”</div>
    <div style=”padding-left:20px;”>“I’m not an examiner.”</div>
    <div style=”padding-left:20px;”>I knelt down, cradled the left wrist, and worked the joint. No</div>
    <div>resistance. That’s when I saw him face to face, and knew I had seen him before.

    I’m not sure if this will render correctly in all browsers/monitors. Any advice?

    Ran across this post as I am also working with a writer ..and the indenting thing.
    So far I have used the following in a child of twentyten:

    #content p {
    text-indent: 40px;
    margin-bottom: 5px;
    }

    #content p.noindent {
    text-indent: 0;
    }

    I use the p class=noindent on the first paragraph (what the author wants)
    If you want all paragraphs indented, then just use the styles
    of #content p

    hth

    I sure am at my wits end to solve this problem. Somehow they solve it. Because I have seen normal book text with dialogue on the web. I need a paragraph indent and a single space between paragraphs because I write a lot of dialogue. There must be somebody who can solve this and who can lead me through it.

Viewing 5 replies - 1 through 5 (of 5 total)
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