Help:Line-break handling

This page explains different methods for creating, controlling and preventing line breaks and word wraps in Wikipedia articles and pages.

When a paragraph or line of text is too long to fit on one line, web browsers, like many other programs, automatically wrap the text to the next line. Web browsers usually insert the word wraps where there are spaces in the text.

Causing line breaks

There are several ways to force line breaks and paragraph breaks in the text. The simplest method is by inserting newlines; for example:

A single newline in the markup 
does not cause a visible line break.

Two newlines in the markup

causes a paragraph break.

Three newlines in the markup


causes an extra-wide paragraph break. This should normally be avoided.

<br> or <br />

The <br> or <br /> tags are used for a single forced line break. For content that is semantically a list, such as in infoboxes, actual list markup is preferred. See § Lists below.

And this line of text<br>will break in the middle.

The MediaWiki software converts valid forms like <br>, <br/>, and <br > to <br />. Additionally, it converts the invalid form </br> to <br /> as well. The invalid forms < br> and </ br> are not converted; therefore they will not create line breaks and must be avoided.

While valid forms without the / (such as <br> or <br >) will work properly in the rendered page, <br > can break several of the available syntax highlighters for wikicode in the editing view, and so should be avoided.

Please correct invalid occurrences – such as </br>, < br>, or </ br> – to <br> or <br /> as you encounter them, though preferably as a part of a more substantive edit.

<poem>

The <poem> extension adds HTML-like tags to maintain newlines and spaces. This is useful for longer blocks of text such as poems, lyrics, mottoes, oaths and the like. These tags may be used inside other tags such as <blockquote>. For example:

<poem>
In Xanadu did [[Kubla Khan]]
  A stately pleasure-dome decree:
Where Alph, the sacred river, ran
  Through caverns measureless to man
Down to a sunless sea.

So twice five miles of fertile ground
  With walls and towers were girdled round:
And there were gardens bright with sinuous rills,
  Where blossomed many an incense-bearing tree;
And here were forests ancient as the hills,
  Enfolding sunny spots of greenery.
</poem>

Lists

Numbered and bulleted lists are created using standard wikimarkup. In cases where a plain list without number or bullet is desired, such as in an infobox, many editors will simply create a list using breaks. This method does not apply the semantics of a list, and for those using screen readers it will not sound like a list. For these cases, {{plainlist}} and {{unbulleted list}} both use list markup without numbers or bullets:

{{plainlist|
* cat
* dog
* horse
* cow
* sheep
* pig
}}

Preventing and controlling word wraps

There are several ways to prevent word wraps (line wraps) from occurring in unwanted places. This is an overview of when to use which method.

Non-breaking space

The HTML entity   is a non-breaking, or hard, space. It renders like a normal space " ", but prevents a line wrap from occurring, like this:

Lots of text 10 kg more text.

The non-breaking space works within links exactly like a regular space. Thus you can link to [[J. R. R. Tolkien]] directly and it will render as J. R. R. Tolkien. The initials will not be separated across a line break.

However,   renders the source text harder to read and edit. Avoid using it unless it is really necessary to avoid a line break.

Non-breaking hyphen

Browsers may break words at hyphens. A non-breaking hyphen ‑ may be used to prevent this occurring, as in:

As seen in sections 1‑2 of the paper.

This code generates "sections 1‑2" just like the plain code "sections 1-2", but prevents a line break at the hyphen.

However, like  , the use of ‑ instead of "-" renders the source text harder to read and edit. Don't use it unless it is really necessary to avoid a line break.

{{nowrap}}

The {{nowrap}} template prevents line wraps in text and links containing spaces. Consider a more complex case like "10 kg (22 lb)". It can be coded like this:

Lots of text 10 kg (22 lb) more text.

But that is quite awkward and renders the source text very hard to read. So in such cases it is instead recommended to use the {{nowrap}} template. Like this:

Lots of text {{nowrap|10 kg (22 lb)}} more text.

It may render like this:

Lots of text 10 kg (22 lb)

more text.

Or like this:

Lots of text

10 kg (22 lb) more text.

But it will not render like this:

Lots of text 10 kg (22

lb) more text.

(For the specific case of unit conversions, see {{convert}}.)

In some cases {{nowrap}} doesn't work so well. For instance, when you want to prevent wraps in longer or more complex text, then it might be hard to see where the {{nowrap}} ends. Additionally, the MediaWiki template mechanisms interpret characters such as equal signs "=" and pipes "|" in template parameters as special characters, and thus they cause problems. In these cases, it is instead recommended to use {{nowrap begin}} + {{nowrap end}}, like this:

{{nowrap begin}}2 + 2 = 4{{nowrap end}} and
{{nowrap begin}}|2| < 3{{nowrap end}}

It may render like this:

2 + 2 = 4 and

|2| < 3

But it will not render like this:

2 + 2 = 4 and |2|

< 3

<wbr /> and soft hyphens

<wbr /> is a word-break opportunity; that is, it specifies where it would be OK to add a line-break where a word is too long, or it is perceived that the browser will break a line at the wrong place.

Now is the time to become a power editor, by learning Hyper<wbr />Text Markup Language...

Note that <wbr /> will not work inside {{nowrap}}.

In many cases breaking up a word with a space would be inappropriate. Soft hyphens create a word-break opportunity, but will add a hyphen rather than a space. The code ­ is employed in the same manner as <wbr /> as seen in the examples above.

Use of soft hyphens should be limited to special cases, usually involving very long words or narrow spaces (such as captions in infoboxes or other tight page layouts, or column labels in narrow tables). Widespread use of soft hyphens is strongly discouraged, because it makes the wikitext very difficult to read and to edit. For example:

This Wi­ki­source ex­am­ple is dif­fi­cult to un­der­stand

{{shy|This al|ter|na|tive syn|tax im|proves read|a|bil|ity}}

Wrap between (linked) list items

In lists of links such as inside infoboxes and navboxes, use the CSS class hlist (perhaps via the template {{flatlist}}) to format lists.

For occasional cases where you need to delineate two pieces of text outside of a list, you can use the templates {{·}} or {{•}} which contain a   before the dot, thus handling some of the wrapping problems.

See also

• meta:Help:Newlines and spaces
• {{break}}
• {{clear}}
• Wikipedia:Manual of Style § Non-breaking spaces