I Need More Breaks And This Is How I Justify It
Wed, Aug 27, 2008
Have you ever encountered a recurring problem that happens often enough to be bothersome, but regard it as being small enough to deal with another day? Well, I’ve had a problem with Wordpress for a long time that I simply dealt with, up until writing my last post. I was writing it late at night, running on very little sleep from the night before, and this time I finally snapped!
Let this be a lesson to those of you who neglect the small issues that sneak their way into your pot of happiness. They will stir you gently until you eventually reach a boiling point.
By the way, is it ok to quote myself using blockquote?
I’m a big fan of white space, especially reading long articles online. Often, when I write a blog post in Wordpress, I’ll break the post down into small sections with a bold heading to help the reader scan and read easily.
This is where my problem comes in to play.
The Problem:
When I want to add an extra break, I will hit a hard return to add an extra space. In the Wordpress visual editor, it looks fine. The extra break appears and I feel warm and fuzzy inside. However, when I save the post and view it on my site, that extra break that I added does not appear. This happens regardless of what theme I’m using and I can’t seem to change any code in the style sheet(s) that makes a difference.
The Accidental Solution:
The post I was writing 2 nights ago for Motivational Monday had about 8-10 places that needed an extra break to make me happy, and when I couldn’t make it happen, it was the final straw. I headed to Google search to find the answer but to no avail. However, I did find angry people with the same problem and no solution.
At about 1:30am, I was vigorously hammering my keyboard, clicking everything on the Wordpress toolbar in a fit of rage.
The chaos lasted until about 1:33am.
When I was finished, I clicked “preview this post”. Somehow, I had not only implemented the added breaks that I needed, but I had also justified the text. There is no documented level of human joy known to man that could possibly compare to my overwhelming feeling of happiness at that moment in my life. I took a breather and went back to see if I could do it again.
Now, when I write a post, I highlight it, then I justify it and add the extra breaks. It works!
Do You Secretly Live With This Problem Too?
While I can live with this solution, and actually prefer the text being justified, it’s still mildly frustrating that the breaks I add won’t appear without that formatting.
My question is, do you guys have that problem, or is it something with my set up in Firefox 3/ Mac? (I have Windows as well, but haven’t tested this problem on it)
Or is it that I simply don’t know what I’m doing? That’s very possible. lol
If you happen to have any knoweldge and/or tips regarding this little annoyance, please let me know. You may be able to save a keyboard’s life!
Tags: tips and fixes, Wordpress
August 28th, 2008 at 3:41 pm
As a big fan of white space myself I must say that this is a great post. It’s also a problem that Britt has all the time and I know it drives her insane. Will have to get her over to visit the masterful Jay.
LMAO @ The chaos lasted until about 1:33am.
Great title, perfect post.
Cheers Jay
August 28th, 2008 at 6:06 pm
@ Jay: I wrote something about this a while back… not the line breaks, but the design involved with typography. It’s pretty darn important!
Here is why this “issue” happens. WordPress auto-magically removed improperly nested code. They do this figuring, that most of it’s user community is in capable or unaware of how to properly nest XHTML tags.
As you know, code and CSS can get complicated, and I’m a little too hurricane ass whooped to explain the nitty gritty so I’ll just say that you can for the most part turn this feature off on the WordPress core by going to admin >> writing >> options and a few lines from the top, under the smiley conversion option you’ll see that nasty little bugger.
Ahh the proverbial caveat… the screwy thing is, that for the most part, the box is unchecked. Which means depending on your browser, it may or may not remove that ol nail in your shoe.
Play with it off and on and see if it helps, the sad reality is that I just spent two minutes writing this post, when the solution is always browser dependent.
Oh… and I’ll be posting under another name shortly, as I have just sold the Biscuit… I think. LOL.
Peace
August 28th, 2008 at 7:44 pm
There have been lots of folks frustrated with the fact that the Wordpress designers seem to think it is okay to stip or add tags. There should be an option to turn this off. Some of us do know HTML/XHTML/CSS and are perfectly comfortable floating are divs and spanning our headers. :O)
Debt Consolidation Articless last blog post..Kevin Trudeau Reviews — Reviewing Debt Cures
August 28th, 2008 at 11:28 pm
Hi Jay,
If I understand you correctly, I think I might have the solution. When I want to insert an extra blank line I just use the paragraph tags and the @nbsp; inbetween them. That way WP knows there’s at least something there that it can work with, otherwise, good old HTML kicks in when it sees extra space with nothing in them and removes them all.
Mark Sierra at MeAndMyDrum.coms last blog post..What Do Comments Do For You? For Your Blog?
August 28th, 2008 at 11:28 pm
Oh my bad, it’s not @nbsp;, it’s
Mark Sierra at MeAndMyDrum.coms last blog post..What Do Comments Do For You? For Your Blog?
August 28th, 2008 at 11:30 pm
Okay, sorry for the multiple comments, but looks like WP is trying to convert my code. The thing you put between the paragraph tags is and that’s it.
Crossing fingers that this will come through. Again sorry for being a comment hog.
Mark Sierra at MeAndMyDrum.coms last blog post..What Do Comments Do For You? For Your Blog?
August 28th, 2008 at 11:37 pm
@Neal: Why are you always the first to comment lately man? Where’d Missy go?;)
LOL@ 1:33am - you’re the only one that seems to pick up on my little additives. Either that or you’re the only one that reads the entire article. lmao
@PB: Congrats on selling PissBiscuit. I thought about buying it when I saw the price and that new customization you did. But, I don’t have time to be SuiteJ and PissBiscuit.
August 28th, 2008 at 11:48 pm
@Debt And @ Mark:
Thanks guys. (NP on the extra posts Mark! lol)
In the past I’ve used the p tag with an align attribute and/or the space tag to force a break. However, my point is that you shouldn’t have to add html or css or anything else for a “break”. It’s extra frustrating when the visual editor shows an extra break when you hit return, but then just doesn’t save it in the post. Know what I mean?
So, I do know how to force one in html, but I don’t want to spend the time flipping back and forth to the html section to add an extra break every time I want one.
The weird thing is, simply adding a break within the visual editor when after I have the text justified (like I do now) works fine without adding any html. lol. So, technically, that’s a “solution”, just a crappy one for someone who doesn’t want their text justified.
Thanks for the tips!
Oh PB: I don’t know what you’re talking about turning off/unchecking, but I’m going to check it out now. lol
Cheers guys!
Jay
August 29th, 2008 at 11:07 pm
@ Jay: I gave you directions and what I though was a clear explanation… oh well.
@ Debt Consolidation: As a theme designer, I assure you that most of us don’t strip out any code. Fact is, we like adding little details like linebreak styles or wonderfully styled bullets. But as mentioned already, it’s WordPress that thinks everyone is mindless.
Homleess Guys last blog post..Test Main 2
August 30th, 2008 at 1:25 am
@Homleess, I meant the WordPress programmers, not those of us who can do our own HTML, so I’m with you.
Debt Consolidation Articless last blog post..Kevin Trudeau Reviews — Reviewing Debt Cures
August 31st, 2008 at 12:23 am
@Homeless: LOL @ your last post being “test main 2″.