Help:Whitespace: Difference between revisions

Revision as of 02:14, 17 July 2017

Revision as of 19:15, 2 August 2017

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==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).

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.

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===Images===

Sometimes, images can contribute to whitespace. But the size of images can be controlled, so if an image is causing there to be a lot of whitespace, it may be worth reducing the size of the image, even just a little, in order to fill more of that space with text (depending on display width). Beware, though, of making one image significantly narrower than all others.

On a short page, a single image may be to blame for whitespace. If the height of the image is greater than that of the text, there will be some whitespace at the bottom.

On a longer page divided by multiple headings, it may be desirable to provide a small amount of whitespace by using the {{Tlx|Clear}} family of templates so the image does not protrude into the next paragraph or section. Using several blank lines, {{tag|br|s}} tags or {{Tlx|Break}} will not work correctly for all display widths, and surplus blank lines are removed by a number of processes.

Many infoboxes take an image, so if an image is placed there, it'll add more height that may benefit from balancing with text and other left-justified content.

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==Addressing the whitespace issue==

Sometimes, when you have undesirable whitespace, the best way to solve the problem is to expand the article (with suitable content).

Sometimes, a minor fix will help eliminate or reduce whitespace. This may involve adding or removing one blank line from some part of the page, re-ordering templates, or the use of a [[WP:GALLERY|gallery]] for multiple images. If an embedded list creates white space, using two or more columns may solve the problem.

== Caveats ==

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Avoid "fixes" which break the appearance of the page on mobile devices. Again, other editors can advise you, if you do not have a suitable device on which to check.

==See also==

*[[:Category:Inline spacing templates]]

[[Category:Wikipedia page help]]