Help:Whitespace: Difference between revisions

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{{about|the appearance of blank space on an article|the Manual of Style section on using line breaks in an article|MOS:LINEBREAKS}}

[[File:WhiteSpace.jpg|right|thumb|350px|TheThis Wikipedia article shown here is a stub. It has a minimal amount of body text along with an infobox on the right and a navbox at the bottom. The remainder of the page is blank, known as whitespace.]]

{{shortcut|WP:WHITE}}

'''Whitespace''' refers to any [[Blank space (punctuation)|blank space]] that appears on the published version of a Wikipedia page across all [[Wikipedia:Namespaces|namespaces]] that is free of [[special characters]], [[Wikipedia:Templates|templates]], [[Wikipedia:Multimedia|media]], or other [[HTML elements]]. In other words, it appears as empty, ''white'' space.

People in New Zealand refer to this penguin as the "Blue Penguin" or "Little Blue Penguin." It is known as the Fairy Penguin in Australia. Their distinctive slate- or indigo-blue coloration on the top of their bodies and their diminutive size—they are the smallest penguins in the world—give rise to these common names. Eudyptula, the scientific name of their genus, means "good little diver," which they are. These penguins never move. They live on their island and the mainland in the Southern Hemisphere year-round. They leave the land in groups at dawn under cover of darkness to forage in shallow inshore waters, spend the day at sea, and return to land at dusk. Flocks are shielded from predators by their behavior from dawn to dusk.

Whitespace is not always desirable. It can give the page an untidy appearance and make the article look incomplete. But it cannot always be avoided, and there are times, when used sparingly, whitespace can enhance readability and visual balance, helping readers to better navigate and absorb the content on the page.

==Causes of whitespace==

===Table of contents===

On pages with multiple headings, a [[WP:TOC|table of contents]] listing the headings is automatically generated. When this occurs, the table of contents box will appear on the left side of the page between the lead section and the first heading. There will be no text to the right of the table of contents, though an image or a vertical template, such as an [[WP:INFOBOX|infobox]], will appear in the space to the right if formatting causes it to require that space. Still, no text will appear in the space in between; it'll be white (as you notice, there is some white space between the TOC box and the image above).

The Blue Penguin (Eudyptula minor) has a place with the family Spheniscidae, an unmistakable

gathering of flightless, pelagic seabirds that possess the Southern side of the equator. The Blue Penguin, the smallest of the penguin species, is found naturally in cooler waters off Australia and New Zealand's southern coast. It weighs about one kilogram and stands about 40 centimeters tall. As a form of counteractive camouflage, Blue Penguins have dense, waterproof plumage that is pale power-blue to dark slaty blue-grey on the dorsal side and white on the ventral side.

The number of subspecies that inhabit E. minor's extents is the subject of ongoing debate. The White-flippered penguin, E. minor ablosignata, is thought by some experts to be a distinct species rather than a subspecies. These

penguins are described by the presence of a white edge on both the front and

back sides of the flippers and paler plumage on their backs.

There are about 350 000 to 600 000 breeding pairs of Blue Penguins in Australia and New Zealand as a whole, according to estimates. Even though it is thought that the number is stable, there are concerns that there are fewer breeding pairs in some places.

There are various ways to modify the appearing of the table of contents. Entering the templates {{Tlx|TOC left}} or {{Tlx|TOC right}} at the top of the page will produce a table of contents to the left or right that does share its lines with some text. The [[Help:Magic words|magic word]] <nowiki>__NOTOC__</nowiki> will cause the table of contents to be altogether absent, which for some pages may be necessary.

It is also possible to produce your own table of contents as follows:<br />

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<syntaxhighlight lang="wikitext">

<pre><nowiki>

{| id="toc" class="toc" summary="Contents"

! {{MediaWiki:Toc}}

Line 25 ⟶ 23:

__NOTOC__

|}

</syntaxhighlight>

</nowiki></pre>

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