Formatting with Blockquotes

September 10, 2004 12:08 PM

Not a huge deal, probably previously discussed, a little nitpicky, but a useful reminder:
Proper use of blockquotes in posts. More inside.
posted by Shane to Bugs at 12:08 PM (11 comments total)

I'm no expert, but: When using blockquotes, you should NOT use an extra line break after the final tag. This will cause extra line spaces. A blockquote automatically puts an extra line space before and after the quote. So, proper blockquote tags should be done like this:

Here is my quote:<blockquote>Blah blah, blahdey blah blah, blah blah blah blah blah. Blah blah, blahdey blah blah, blah blah blah blah blah. Blah blah, blahdey blah blah, blah blah blah blah blah.</blockquote>Okay, that was my quote.

Which will look like this:

Here is my quote:

Blah blah, blahdey blah blah, blah blah blah blah blah. Blah blah, blahdey blah blah, blah blah blah blah blah. Blah blah, blahdey blah blah, blah blah blah blah blah.

Okay, that was my quote.

But if you post it like this:

Here is my quote:

<blockquote>Blah blah, blahdey blah blah, blah blah blah blah blah. Blah blah, blahdey blah blah, blah blah blah blah blah. Blah blah, blahdey blah blah, blah blah blah blah blah.</blockquote>

Okay, that was my quote.

It will end up looking like this, with extra spaces:

Here is my quote:

Blah blah, blahdey blah blah, blah blah blah blah blah. Blah blah, blahdey blah blah, blah blah blah blah blah. Blah blah, blahdey blah blah, blah blah blah blah blah.

Okay, that was my quote.

Am I right?
posted by Shane at 12:09 PM on September 10, 2004

The extra breaks are because Matt's scripts make every hard return into a line break.
posted by riffola at 12:19 PM on September 10, 2004

That was a little nitpicky, but I also thought it was kinda useful. Thanks Shane!

hard return

I like to call it a "soft enter" because, wow, hot.
posted by The God Complex at 12:23 PM on September 10, 2004

To be fair, TGC, one does beget the other.

Yeah, that was quite nitpicky, but not unuseful.
posted by chicobangs at 12:26 PM on September 10, 2004

Thanks, riffola. I should have said, On MeFi, when using blockquotes, you should NOT use an extra line break...

-or-

Wherever a script makes every hard return into a line break, when using blockquotes, you should NOT use an extra line break...

I know: Blahdey blah blah. But it just doesn't look right with those extra spaces on the front page.

Heh, God Complex!
posted by Shane at 12:27 PM on September 10, 2004

Yeah, it's a good reminder, Shane, though I just use <UL> for these occasions because it's quicker and does the same thing.
posted by soyjoy at 8:27 PM on September 10, 2004

and chicobangs, while that comment may not have been unuseful, it wasn't all that ununuseful.
posted by soyjoy at 8:28 PM on September 10, 2004

huh. isn't stuff like this what the "preview" button is for? if my post/comment looks shitty (w/respect to formatting) i edit it before committing it to the server. that's kind of the point of preview.

(then again if i was sticking code into a website i'd for sure slap a hard return before and after a blockquote, so i imagine it's sort of automatic.)
posted by caution live frogs at 11:31 PM on September 10, 2004

yeah. I always make this mistake (because if I were writing normal ol' HTML, the extra return wouldn't hurt anything) and then change it on preview.
posted by hattifattener at 1:32 PM on September 11, 2004

Thanks! Now I too, can be an HTML programmer.

:::nudge:::wink:::
posted by KevinSkomsvold at 10:35 PM on September 11, 2004

Just to further the pedantry: since these pages are XHTML transitional, I think I'm right in saying that text inside blockquotes ought really to be enclosed in paragraph tags too.

But in some browsers/depending on the CSS/etc. that can cause the exact same problem you're trying to avoid. So I'll just shut up and go back to lurking!
posted by jack_mo at 5:53 AM on September 14, 2004