Educators and Designers

Re: How to get blank lines between paragraphs in Bb messages?

Leah M — Tue, 15 Jan 2013 00:53:31 GMT

This was the only solution I found for Chrome. Can't wait for this to get fixed! http://du.screenstepslive.com/s/docs/m/7137/l/78186-spacing-in-chrome-safari-versus-firefox-hard-shift

Re: How to get blank lines between paragraphs in Bb messages?

Kate Stewart — Mon, 14 Jan 2013 16:33:17 GMT

I've run into the same issue. I use shift + enter twice when I move to a new paragraph. It forces a line in-between.

Re: How to get blank lines between paragraphs in Bb messages?

Hamid Tabariasl — Fri, 11 Jan 2013 01:36:09 GMT

This issue is resolved in SP10.

Re: How to get blank lines between paragraphs in Bb messages?

Brian Morgan — Tue, 08 Jan 2013 13:41:31 GMT

Because of the "Browser Wars", CSS is interpreted differently on the different browsers and even on different platforms. Adding themes and options to choose from can complicate the mix, especially if the themes are not set up with all of the CSS quirks that will override some of the defaults and interpret styles for the various browsers. Even then, I have had a couple of computers that show pages differently than 50 others with the same OS and browser, which makes absolutely no sense to me at all.

Re: How to get blank lines between paragraphs in Bb messages?

Jesseca Cornelson — Tue, 08 Jan 2013 04:41:28 GMT

I don't know if it's already been suggested, but one simple workaround is to enter a space on the lines you want to be blank. So you enter to drop down, hit the space bar on the line you want blank, enter again, and start writing the new paragraph. Then it doesn't matter that it's a div tag and not a paragraph tag. I'm using Chrome, too, and it's a pain in the butt. Why the different responses from different browsers? Is it the way the browsers are set up or the way Bb is? Who knows. I hope the upcoming update fixes it.

Cheers.

Re: How to get blank lines between paragraphs in Bb messages?

Ilse Ortabasi — Mon, 26 Mar 2012 04:30:19 GMT

Hi Mike,

No, it's "items", "Announcements", everything. We also tried it out on another computer in the office. Same story. I didn't pay attention as to the browser etc. on that machine. But this makes me think that your suggestion about different themes and css styles might be the clue.

Thanks again,

Ilse

Re: How to get blank lines between paragraphs in Bb messages?

Michael Zimmerman — Mon, 26 Mar 2012 03:41:37 GMT

Hi Ilse,

Different themes do end up with different formatting, but it can also be customized if there's something you don't like. Also, is this text you're creating part of a Learning Module, by any chance? I've noticed that the Learning Module formatting seems to override a lot of the other formatting, perhaps to make it fit into the Learning Module format....

Mike

Re: How to get blank lines between paragraphs in Bb messages?

Ilse Ortabasi — Mon, 26 Mar 2012 01:12:43 GMT

Hi Mike,

I don't see any line break tags, only one paragraph tag. I don't know what theme is being used on our server. We are upgrading this week and I'm still working on the testserver. I will pass your question on to the person who knows the answer to your question.

Thanks,

Ilse

Re: How to get blank lines between paragraphs in Bb messages?

Michael Zimmerman — Sun, 25 Mar 2012 22:30:25 GMT

Ilse,

if you toggle the text editor into HTML mode (with the "<>" icon), do you see line break (<br>) tags between the paragraphs, pr paragraph (<p>) tags? if you're seeing paragraph tags, do you know what theme is being used on your school's server? The theme is the CSS stylesheets being used to control the formatting in effect on the server, and it will determine how the HTML formatting codes are displayed.

Mike

Re: How to get blank lines between paragraphs in Bb messages?

Ilse Ortabasi — Sun, 25 Mar 2012 22:00:37 GMT

Hi Mike,

Sure, I use IE 8 with Windows 9 or the newest Firefox. I just can't get line brakes to "stick". This is what it looks like in preview or after submitting versus text editor: (Please visit the site to view this media)

I uploaded a png file to the file folder. I'm not sure whether this will work for you.

Even if I add an additional paragraph tag in the source code, it will not work. I have been able to take formatted text from Word into the text editor and after some wrangling I got it to look OK.

Thanks,

Ilse

PS: We also see a jumbled/randomized arrangement of the color swatches for highlighting and text color. In case you're interested...

Re: How to get blank lines between paragraphs in Bb messages?

Michael Zimmerman — Sun, 25 Mar 2012 20:55:00 GMT

Ilse,

Can you describe in a little more detail what problem it is that you're seeing, and what web browser you're using?

Mike

Re: How to get blank lines between paragraphs in Bb messages?

Ilse Ortabasi — Sat, 24 Mar 2012 06:32:55 GMT

Steve, Mike,

I have the same problem with line brakes in the text editor showing but not in the text after submitting or in preview mode. I agree, fixing it in the source code every time is not an efficient option. Importing from Word seems to work better, but I'm not sure whether it is consistent. I first encountered the problem when I tried to add an announcement. It seems that this problem is new, since it didn't happen earlier when I set up course materials. We did not get WYSIWYG results with Firefox.

Thanks for any help or EASY work around.

Ilse

Re: How to get blank lines between paragraphs in Bb messages?

Michael Zimmerman — Fri, 24 Sep 2010 14:40:13 GMT

I normally use Firefox, but I try to check things out with IE as well. I was certainly surprised to see the visual editor generating different tags from the same keystroke depending on the browser!

Mike

Re: How to get blank lines between paragraphs in Bb messages?

Steve Moiles — Fri, 24 Sep 2010 06:37:49 GMT

Mike -- You're right on the money regarding Firefox providing a WYSIWYG experience. Just tried it in Firefox and got exactly the good result you mentioned. Thanks! I'll switch over to Firefox. That does make a difference. (I've mostly been using the Chrome browser when in Bb, and occasionally IE, and only rarely Firefox, though I have all three browsers on my desktop. I'll just get in the habit of using Firefox for Bb and my problem will be solved.)

Thanks for your help here. It hadn't occurred to me that it might well be a browser issue. I appreciate the solution!

Steve

Re: How to get blank lines between paragraphs in Bb messages?

Michael Zimmerman — Fri, 24 Sep 2010 01:53:00 GMT

Hey Steve,

I'm playing around with a few different things to check the formatting behavior. Are you using Internet Explorer, Firefox, or Safari?

I notice that in Firefox, "enter" gets converted to a line break tag, while in Internet Explorer, it gets converted to a paragraph tag. Multiple/extra paragraph tags are removed when the text is submitted, but multiple line break tags are not. I also notice that--due to the CSS formatting in BB 9.1, I think--paragraph tags display more like a 1-1/2 spaces between lines, not double spaces. As a result, two "enter"s in Firefox gives you double-spacing, while two (or one, or three) "enter"s in IE ends up looking line 1-1/2 spacing.

So, if you are using IE, you can't add extra spaces between paragraphs by hitting enter multiple times. What's more, if you manually enter returns at the end of a line when composing your text rather than allowing the lines to wrap automatically, there's no way to distinguish between a line break and a paragraph break. (The paragraph break is more obvious if you all the editor to do automatic line wrapping.)

Hopefully that clarifies things a little bit.

Mike