Why auto_p?

Modify the CSS for each individual post? The vertical space is set correctly for normal situations. But when you use your blog for more than typical posts, that’s not always feasible to do.

Pages are a good example. My site has an “About Us” page that lists the admin, tells a little about them, etc. I want to be able to space each individual out properly. However, when the blog is going in behind you and deleting the spaces, that doesn’t work right.

This has always been one of the biggest flaws of wordpress for me, and from what I’ve seen, several other people as well. When you do something in your visual editor, you expect the system to keep it in place. If we wanted it to delete our extra lines, we wouldn’t have put them there to begin with.

At the very least, these automatic correction “features” should be optional. I imagine most people probably want control over how things work on their blog. Whether or not they ever need that much control is another thing altogether.

Modify the CSS for each individual post?

No, create a specific case for where you need that extra vertical space and use the proper class for it at that point.

Content is not presentation. Your content does not always show up on your webpage. What about your readers who subscribe to your feed? What do they see? What do you want them to see? A bunch of empty lines with no styling? That doesn’t sound like a good user experience to me.

Pages are a good example.

Pages are a good example for my case, actually. Because pages are usually static content with one-time cases. That’s why Page Templates exist.

Your “About Us” page should have a specific design and template for its presentation, since it is different than everything else on your site. It’s a special case, and every system needs a way to handle special cases.

I’m really just barely able to modify the theme I have. When I get too deep into php and css, things get sticky. I can understand the reasons why this standard rule exists. But options truly are never a bad idea.

Creating a page template is probably not something I could comfortably do. And anyone that is less skilled at that than even I am probably wouldn’t be able to do it at all.

Simple is a motto that WordPress sticks pretty close to. But I’ve had several of my authors that just want a post/page/whatever to do what they tell it to do. I honestly wouldn’t even know where to begin in creating a page template that tells the page to display vertical space as it was typed in the WYSIWYG editor. Is there a function for that raw form of display? Anything that would help anyone but the most skilled php coders?

In any case, thank you for clarifying all this. While I still don’t necessarily agree with the inability to do what I need out of the box, I can at least understand why these restraints are in place. I’m just a big believer in freedom. If I told WordPress to put in an extra space, I probably wanted it there. My favorite is when a left-justified image causes problems for other things on the page, such as an embedded video. If that video was one or two lines lower, it would be fine. But as it stands, you have to decide on typing filler text, or dealing with the fact that your page looks ugly because your video is “stuck” to your image.

If I told WordPress to put in an extra space, I probably wanted it there.

You’d be surprised at how often people put things in that they really don’t want to be there. It’s the most common case, actually.

Think of it like this: You have a website. It has a bunch of authors (instead of just you). These authors put in a bunch of posts and such, but you control the site. You control the layout of the site. Do you really want your authors to be able to screw up your layout by simply making posts? Would you want them to be able to choose different fonts? That would make your webpage really chaotic looking, no?

A dynamic web page is not like a word processor. It does not make pages for printing or display, it mixes content and presentation from different sources. Your content can come from several places, and your presentation can be in multiple forms at the same time, depending on the viewer. So the content has to be filtered, somewhat, to be just the content itself. People are used to word processors, and they put in formatting that often should not be there.

had this same issue, was a stupid plugin – running 2.7

The reasons list is very long, but basically it’s because it makes it the easiest for everyone involved (you, devs, plugin authors, etc.). WordPress stores the post the way you write it.

I don’t want to stare at <p>'s or <br />'s while I’m editing a post. I want to look at what I wrote.

I’m sorry, but IMHO removing extra blank lines is certainly not easier for my novice client (the editor) or for me the developer. WP is making the assumption that I really don’t want that extra line when I really do want that line.

No, create a specific case for where you need that extra vertical space and use the proper class for it at that point.

Sometimes the editor that just wants to add an extra line or two of white space. Why on earth should they have to know how to apply a special CSS class to a paragraph – regardless of page or post? I don’t want them using the html editor and they don’t want to use it either.

auto_p I can live with – although it’s a bit irrational for other tags to be visible but not <p> or <br /> – but it’s workable. Removing my blank lines is unacceptable. WP is editing my content for me.

BTW – for those who are interested. A workaround for this is to enter the html editor and insert <p>&nbsp;</p> in place of the extra blank line you have added. Then save.

I would really like to see the WP folks reconsider this issue and make the removal of extra blank lines an option.

Thanks

BTW – even this ..

<p>&nbsp;</p>

..does not work if someone subsequently edits the page/post in visual mode. It disappears again.

Annoying .. really.

I am sick to death of the auto correction !!!
I use static pages a lot on my site which are VERY code dependant to work. Every time I save the page the HTML is screwed up.

Not only is it screwed up but the HTML no longer validates as the corrections are wrong – tags uncompleted etc.

It should be possible for the editor to distinguish between what is done in the WYSIWYG editor, which should be automatic and what is is done in the HTML code editor which is intentional and, it must be presumed, being done by a competent person.

The question of multiple authors is, of course a problem but then the option should be to TURN OFF the code editor to those who do not have rights, not to stop people who use code from editing it.

It’s almost enough to make me go looking for something else !

Hi!

Since I’ve been very sensible to the auto formatting problem (I couldn’t believe that one huge problem with WP could be about what is primarly meant for: writing), here is one thing I am going to try:

https://www.ads-software.com/extend/plugins/ps-disable-auto-formatting/

This plugin shoul ddisable the annoying auto fromatting.

I say “should”, because I just gave it a look, and it seems to do the job.

I was actually running the Dean’s FCKEditor plugin as well, but it bothers me because of the different look whith the rest of the interface (oh, these designers!!!).

Anyway, let me know what you think about the plugin. it could really be the missing option that WP doesn’t seem to give us.

??

Thanks for the info – I’ve been using Headspace 2 – site wide tab auto formatting, and WP unformatted
I think I’ll give your suggestion a whirl – seems more flexible than WP unformatted.
I gave up on FCKEditor too – you use certain functionalities like NextGen button and the like.

I gave up on Dean’s FCKEditor too. It created as many problems as it solved.

We really need a button to turn off auto formatting. ModX has it.

Please put this into WordPress!

I was just about the post a new thread, and here it was, at the top of the list. I embrace the auto <p>tag. But why on Jah’s green earth can’t we decide to omit it in html view?? That’s where I’m stumped.

This is frustrating, because when I insert an image into my post, I don’t want it wrapped in a p tag.

The reason is, the image will then pick up my p tag hover properties (in Firefox), Which looks janky (a dotted underline when you hover, pushing everything below the image down when you hover over it). Even with special classes applied to the image, I can’t stop the hover, because its applied to the p tag.

Why do people keep defending the way WordPress butchers code and pretend that it doesn’t? No wonder nothing ever gets fixed in this terrible editor.

I am trying to edit a simple post, and every time I switch to html view and back, my post has completely changed and everything is a mess.

Not only that, I can’t get things to appear in preview or after posting the way they appear in the visual editor I create in the first place. What junk.

A pity they refuse to just fix the stupid thing.

The short solution is this: Don’t switch. Pick visual or html editor and stick with it.

And you’re right, it’s not a true WYSIWYG editor, but it’s both onerous and nigh impossible to make one that works without putting a lot of junk in your HTML. There isn’t a single one on the entire internet that fulfills every need that people have for a visual editor. Yet.

Not only that, I can’t get things to appear in preview or after posting the way they appear in the visual editor I create in the first place.

That may be due to your CSS in your theme, but without specific examples (and probably actually looking at your site) no one can help you there.