Line break in Wordpress

[StephenT]

I hate to use a thread for this, but I have not been able to figure this one out. I love wordpress, but I do feel they lack a bit in their help/support.

Anyway, I am having a hard time inserting a line break between things. I recently posted my first product, a download meditation recording on my videos and recordings page. The post is just above an affiliate entry I had made some time ago and the two are one on top of the other. I would like a line break between them (or two) but WP won't let me do it

Any suggestions

[jkgourmet]

Try going into the html editor in WP, and put this at the very end of the last line of text you typed:

<br></br>

If that doesn't work, try putting this on the line below the last line of text:

<p><br class="spacer_" /></p>

I'm sure some coding person will come along and explain all of this, but I've gotten both of these methods to work.

Also consider adding the tinyMCE plug in - which adds quite a few function to the visual editor making it 'feel' more like MS Word.

[AlexNewell]

Steve Is this the page you are referring to

http://lifechangeforu.com/self-help-programs/

and you don't want to hold the shift key down and use the return key?

Sorry to ask "Homer" questions!

[StephenT]

Yep, that's the one. It also happens on my podcast page. I hate it being so crowded!

[wade_watson]

Stephen, whenever you decide you've finally suffered enough with the darn WordPress WYSIWYG editor, download the Microsoft's Windows Live Writer (http://windowslivewriter.spaces.live.com/). Blogging will suddenly stop being a pain and become a pleasure. External blog editors seem to be the best kept secret in blogging and this free download is the best of the lot. It has many of the usability advantages of MS Office without all the WordPress quirks. You can type in your copy, insert your images and see it just as it will appear on the blog while you're writing. I keep it on my desktop and can open it like a program and it uploads to WP without me even needing to log in. But you feel you still need to put in your blogging dues, keep using the WP editor.

Wade

[AlexNewell]

Wade - you just converted me! I come across References to Live Writer every so often and I've not done anything about it...

I've just downloaded it and after seeing a warning about having to enable something (xml rfc protocol or whatever) I drafted an article with much less bother than the frankly awful text editor in Wordpress.

I am frankly astonished that something this good is, Gulp, done by Microsoft!

Can you use this for multiple blogs?

[StephenT]

Thanks Wade, I'll check it out!

Ok, I downloaded it. I tried to insert a picture and then blank line breaks and it showed up without them. Am I doing it wrong?

[wade_watson]

All the "enabling" you have to do is to go into the WP Dashboard>Settings>Writing and put a check in the "XML-RPC" box. This is a system that allows you to remotely control your WP blog. It still needs your username and password to work and with Live Writer you shouldn't have any security issues.

Well, darn, Stephen. I put you through that trouble and it still won't give you your line break? Sorry, but blog entry will be a lot better now anyway, I promise.

WordPress can be cantankerous about HTML for some reason and perhaps Writer's code is getting messed around after it gets there. I find that the <BR> tag doesn't do it. Maybe somebody else will come along with a more sophisticated solution, but here's a quick and dirty way to do it:
From your last text, hit enter once and put a period at the beginning of the line. If you need more breaks, repeat that on each line. Now select your period(s). Go into the text color selector and select white (or whatever color your blog's page is). You'll have line breaks and WordPress will be happy.

[StephenT]

Wade, your period idea would work! I haven't given up on the live writer yet! I had company yesterday so I only gave it a quick shot. I try again today and see how it goes.

[lindastacy]

I use the code for a blank space

&nbsp;

Like this:

First line here
&nbsp;
Next line here

Sometimes I have to use

<br>&nbsp;

[StephenT]

Linda, so far, your suggestion worked best, sort of. When I tried to use the <&nbsp> What showed in my blog was the &nbsp. When I tried just putting in <br></br> it worked great!

[jkgourmet]

Hey - wasn't the <br></br> idea mine (response #2 in this thread)???

As I've been the self-described "coding idiot" for so long, I just gotta know if I got this one right? :) :)

PS - but I'm going to try out Wade's MS solution - sounds far easier in the long run for folks like me who struggle with html.

[StephenT]

Jeanette, you are so right! You did. Why I didn't see it before was that I was trying <br /> by itself, which works in straight html, at least some times, so I disregarded it. When I did both open and close, it worked like a charm! Credit goes to you!

[TraciKnoppe]

Also, you can click the html tab in WordPress, put your mouse cursor when you want the link break and just hit enter.

[StephenT]

I wonder if it is a theme thing, Traci. I always work in the html editor and I have done that. It show in the editor, but not on the page. Perhaps the theme code overrides it somehow.

[TraciKnoppe]

Very well could be Stephen. Without looking at the CSS stylesheet to see, it's hard to say. But quite possibly is a theme issue, but most likely something that could be resolved.

[lindastacy]

Linda, so far, your suggestion worked best, sort of. When I tried to use the <&nbsp> What showed in my blog was the &nbsp. When I tried just putting in <br></br> it worked great!

Don't put the brackets around it... just use

&nbsp;

And note the semicolon at the end.

[StephenT]

Yep, by golly you are right Linda! Now I have two ways of doing this! Wow, from nothing to a plethora! I love it!