Double Spacing versus Single Spacing in Web Pages

Mindwatering Incorporated

Author: Tripp W Black

Created: 10/14/2008 at 11:26 PM

 

Category:
General Web Tips
HTML

In Dreamweaver and FrontPage, when you hit the <enter> key, a double carriage return is performed. That is due to the fact that "under-the-covers" in the HTML source, a paragraph was just ended and a new one started. In the HTML source two paragraphs would look like this:
<p>Some text in a first paragraph</p>
<p>Some text in a second paragraph</p>

which looks like this:

Some text in a first paragraph.

Some text in a second paragraph.

To perform a single carriage return (which is a <br> within the paragraph), hold down <shift> when you click the <enter> button. Then you will force a single space carriage return.

Note:
Since some attributes/properties such as justification (left, center, right) are paragraph-wide settings, when you use a single return, the whole paragraph WILL have the same paragraph attributes/settings below and above the carriage return. You cannot split it, unless you apply such settings/properties via CSS instead.

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