Wikipedia: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 wrap the line where there are natural breaks such as spaces, hyphens, etc. in the text.

Causing line breaks

Newlines

Further information: Wikipedia:Line breaks usage and Wikipedia:Manual of Style § Controlling 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:

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<br>

<br>, <br >, <br/>, <br />

The MediaWiki software uses any of them for a single forced line break. All of them are converted to <br /> in the HTML that browsers read.

MediaWiki also converts </br> to <br />, but this form is invalid. Please correct these tags.

For content that is semantically a list, such as in infoboxes, actual list markup is preferred. See § Lists below.

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The example below includes five forms, including the invalid </br>, that are rendered as line breaks and two that display as plain text.

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One <br>Two <br >Three </br>Four <br/>Five <br />Six < br>Seven </ br>Eight

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Six < br>Seven </ br>Eight

<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:

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<pre>

<pre>...</pre> and its alternatives are typically used to display code; their contents are rendered in monospace with a frame and different background colour. Both markup and newlines within <pre>...</pre> are reproduced verbatim. However, the first newline after <pre> and last newline before </pre> are ignored, allowing the tags to be placed on their own lines without extra empty lines appearing on the page.

Markup	<pre> {{2x|foo}}<br />bar [[wiki]] </pre>
Renders as	{{2x|foo}}<br />bar [[wiki]]

To evaluate markup while still preserving newlines, the alternatives <pre<includeonly></includeonly>></pre> and {{Pre}} can be used.

Markup	{{Pre | {{2x|foo}}<br />bar [[wiki]] }}
Renders as	Template:2x bar wiki

<nowiki>

The effect of the tag <nowiki>...</nowiki> on line breaks is that single and double line breaks are ignored, and you also cannot add a line break with <br />:

Markup	<nowiki> Single line breaks, and double line breaks as well, are ignored, and the tag <br /> is just displayed as is. </nowiki>
Renders as	Single line breaks, and double line breaks as well, are ignored, and the tag <br /> is just displayed as is.

There are several ways to enable line breaks in text that uses <nowiki>...</nowiki>:

Solution 1. Use <nowiki>...</nowiki> for each line separately, with <br /> or double newline between lines.

Markup	<nowiki>Around the entire line,</nowiki> <br /> or only around text that must be escaped: <nowiki>{{2x|bar}}</nowiki>. <nowiki> Extra spaces are still collapsed. </nowiki>
Renders as	Around the entire line, or only around text that must be escaped: {{2x|bar}}. Extra spaces are still collapsed.

Solution 2: Use <poem>...</poem>.

Markup	<poem><nowiki>Twas bryllyg, and ''y<sup>e</sup>'' slythy toves Did gyre and gymble in ''y<sup>e</sup>'' wabe: All mimsy were ''y<sup>e</sup>'' borogoves, And ''y<sup>e</sup>'' mome raths outgrabe.</nowiki></poem>
Renders as	Twas bryllyg, and ''y<sup>e</sup>'' slythy toves   Did gyre and gymble in ''y<sup>e</sup>'' wabe: All mimsy were ''y<sup>e</sup>'' borogoves,   And ''y<sup>e</sup>'' mome raths outgrabe.

When <poem>...</poem> is used with <nowiki>...</nowiki>, the contents must begin on the same line as the tags, because a leading newline will appear in the output. However, the last newline is ignored, so the closing tags may be on their own line.

Markup	<poem><nowiki> Extra line above </nowiki></poem>
Renders as	Extra line above

Solution 3: Consider using <pre> instead of <nowiki>...</nowiki>.

Lists

Main page: Help:List

Numbered and bulleted lists are created using standard wiki markup. 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:

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Formulas

To display formulas with <math> on their own line, Wikipedia:Manual of Style/Mathematics#Using LaTeX markup recommends <math display=block>.

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:

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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 on page C‑2 of the newspaper.

This code generates "page C‑2" just like the plain code "page C-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.

Inline blocks

The templates {{Inline block}} and {{Avoid wrap}} avoid breaks, but allow them if there is not enough space. Template:Awrap

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Both put the content in <span style="display:inline-block;">. The latter also adds the CSS class "avoidwrap".

{{nowrap}}

"WP:NOWRAP" redirects here. For the Manual of Style guideline, see MOS:NOWRAP.

The {{nowrap}} template is less flexible and will prevent breaks even when the line is too long for the window, forcing the user to scroll:

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt. Sed ut perspiciatis unde omnis iste natus error sit voluptatem accusantium.

It is good for short text sections like "10 kg (22 lb)", which should always stay together.
This could also be achieved with the non-breaking space: Lots of text 10 kg (22 lb) more text.
But this makes the source text hard to read. The template is recommended instead: Lots of text {{nowrap|10 kg (22 lb)}} more text.

It may render like this	or like this	or like this.	But not like this.
Lots of text 10 kg (22 lb) more text.	Lots of text 10 kg (22 lb) more text.	Lots of text 10 kg (22 lb) more text.	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

To insert a word-break opportunity, use <wbr>.

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. Whether the line actually breaks is then left up to the browser. The break will look like a space - see soft hyphen below when it would be more appropriate to break the word or line using a hyphen.

Markup	Now is the time to become a power editor, by learning Hyper<wbr>Text Markup Language...
Renders as	It may render like this: Now is the time to become a power editor, by learning HyperText Markup Language... Or it may render like this (in a narrow browser window): Now is the time to become a power editor, by learning Hyper 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 also creates word-break opportunities, but will add a hyphen rather than a space. In other words, a soft hyphen is a hyphen inserted into a word not otherwise hyphenated, to be displayed or typeset only if it falls at the end of a line of text.

The code ­ is employed in the same manner as <wbr>. For example:

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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:

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Consider instead using the {{shy}} template for such complex cases:

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See also: MOS:SHY

Wrap between (linked) list items

In lists of links such as inside infoboxes and navboxes, use a horizontal list (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

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