How to indent in biography

Question

I am trying to copy entire biography as it was first presented to me including indentation and numbering, but when I save, I just get it all lumped together as a single paragraph. My example is Black-20955 wherein the text I desire is as follows without all the double spacing, and is there a way to to keep it formatted as it appears below?

== Biography ==

Notes from Irene Stevens in an email dated Wednesday, April 13, 2011 10:00 PM:

Helen BLACK was born on 24 Jan 1871 in Ellon, Aberdeen, Scotland and died on 20 May 1945 in Foveran, Aberdeen, Scotland aged 74. 

      *  Birth: 24 Jan 1871. 

     *  She appeared With parents & siblings in the 1871 census in Ellon, 

        Aberdeen, Scotland. 

    *  She appeared With parents & siblings in the 1881 census in Ellon, 

       Aberdeen, Scotland. 

   *  She appeared Working as a servant for the Smith's in the 1891 census                in Old Deer, Aberdeen, Scotland. 

   *  She appeared With husband & children in the 1901 census in        

      Glenbervie, Kincardine, Scotland.

  *  Marriage: 12 Jun 1896. 

  *  Death: 20 May 1945. 

Helen married John RITCHIE on 12 Jun 1896 in Old Machar, Aberdeen, Scotland. 

John was born Cal 1864 and died before 1945.

      *  Birth: Cal 1864. 

      *  Marriage: 12 Jun 1896. 

      *  He appeared With wife & children in the 1901 census in Glenbervie, 

          Kincardine, Scotland. 

      *  Death: Bef 1945. 

Children from this marriage were:

i. Helen RITCHIE was born in 1897 in Peterculter, Aberdeen, Scotland. 

      *  Birth: 1897. 

      *  She appeared With parents & siblings in the 1901 census in                 

          Glenbervie, Kincardine, Scotland. 

ii. Margaret J S RITCHIE was born in 1899 in Old Machar, Aberdeen, Scotland. 

      *  Birth: 1899. 

      *  She appeared With parents & siblings in the 1901 census in Glenbervie, 

          Kincardine, Scotland. 

iii. Isabella RITCHIE was born in 1900 in Glenbervie, Kincardine, Scotland. 

      *  Birth: 1900. 

      *  She appeared With parents & siblings in the 1901 census in 

         Glenbervie, Kincardine, Scotland.

  

Comments

The <references /> tag is a "must be included" part of a profile. 

Required: Biography and Sources

All profiles should have these sections:
== Biography ==
== Sources ==
<references />
 

-
When "inline" sources are added to statements in the biography using <ref>tags</ref>, the sources automatically get placed beneath the == Sources == header and a superscript number linking to each source is automatically generated in the biography on view mode.
An example of "inline" sources can be seen on David Rappaport's profile.  Feel free to check it out in edit mode as well.  (I also added some sources in list mode beneath the Sources header, because they weren't necessary in the biography text.)

---

Hi again Melanie.  I have employed your solution to a couple of profiles and in each I still have an issue for which you perhaps have a solution. It relates to blank lines.  Example 1 is Black-20955.    In this case I would have liked to see a blank line between each child, but it's not a big deal if it can't be done.  However, if I insert a blank line, I lose the numbering.

In example 2 Black-20957, there is an unwanted blank line preceding the first point of the child Mary Ann Black. As in example 1, I would prefer to see each child delineated with a blank line.

Both profiles are currently saved, but feel free to edit to see how I have formatted them. If you can achieve a solution then save it and I will temporarily use edit to see what change you made.

Thanking you in advance for your assistance.

P.S. I just finished editing another profile and this time I left out the Block Quote.  This presentation is quite acceptable, other than what I consider unnecessary blank lines. Another question.  If inclusion of "'The <references /> tag is a "must be included" part of a profile.'" why isn't it simply part of the initial system generated == Sources == or for that matter why not also system generate == Resource Notes ==?

---

Inserting a hard return will break the format, and the wikitext markup will think you have completed the list and are starting a new one.

If you want a new line without a line space, try <br />

What you see regards line spacing is how wikitext is coded.  Lists and suchlike can't be manipulated too much, or they lose format.

It's not a good idea to use "thumb on the space bar" for formatting.  It is likely to throw database errors.

I tried something on Black-20957 -- if you don't like how it looks, you can revert the changes.

---

Melanie, where do you place the <br />?  For profile Black-20958 I tried at the end of the line preceding the blank line with no effect.  I then tried placing it in front of the line following the blank line and that just eliminated the numbering and indentation.

---

If inclusion of "'The <references /> tag is a "must be included" part of a profile.'" why isn't it simply part of the initial system generated == Sources == or for that matter why not also system generate == Resource Notes ==?

commented by Bob Shepherd G2G2
edited 13 minutes ago by Bob Shepherd

-

The <references /> tag is autogenerated when you create a new profile.  Some of the older profiles may be missing it, however, and some people remove it because they do not understand that it must be there.

The system will not autogenerate == Research Notes == as they are, as with Acknowledgements, totally optional.  Styles and standards may dictate the size of the header, but not which headers to include other than Biography and Sources (with <references />).

---

---

Thanks Melanie for the response.  I have not really had to generate an entirely new profile and so hadn't realized that. Presently I am simply trying to improve the entries I setup on WikiTree a couple of years ago and knew nothing about formatting and sources.  I did realize that Research Notes were optional, but that is why I had been including them after Sources, rather than between Biography and Sources.

---

Thanks for everything Melanie.  My daughter Melanie just retired on Thursday following 35 years as a school teacher.  You seem to have replaced her as my teacher.  Black-20957  looks just how I would like to see it presented. I will keep it open on my screen to use as a template.  Have a wonderful weekend and thanks for all your help.

Bob Shepherd

---

The styles and standards sets out the Research Notes are to be placed between Biography and Sources.  (I used to small down the header size until I was informed I was "doing it wrong".)
It used to be, too, that totally empty biography boxes would occur if you added a sibling without an existing parent.  The system would autogenerate a father for the siblings, and there wasn't even a Biography header in the profile.  (This no longer occurs, and at least one date must be added for new profiles.)
Most of my profiles are newly created by me, or are ones I have adopted for various reasons, so I always see the headers in place.

---

Sorry Melanie.  I thought I was all through bothering you, but trying to fix another profile made me realize I was still not entirely satisfied.  Two points using your edited version of Black-20957.

Prior to using blockquote, the major headings of Biography, Research Notes and Sources, all lined up against the left margin.  Now Research Notes and Sources are indented, seemingly as far as the furthest indent under Biography.

Then, there is also this:

Mary Ann BLACK was born on 15 Aug 1876 in Ellon, Aberdeen, Scotland and died on 8 Dec 1941 in Foveran, Aberdeen, Scotland aged 65.

  • She appeared with parents & siblings in the 1881 census in Ellon, Aberdeen, Scotland.

Is there a way to cause subsequent lines of a point to be lined up under the preceding line(s)?

I keep trying to find info in the documentation relating to tabs and indents, but I haven't been successful.

---

Your blockquote wasn't closed.  

<blockquote>
You had the entire block quote enclosed in two opening quotes, with nothing to close it off, so the system took that to mean there was to be a closing tag somewhere, so wrapped all that came after the second tag as being within the nested blockquote.
<blockquote>

What you need is to open with
<blockquote>
Paste all your text,
then close the 
entire thing with
</blockquote>

The slash for such things is very important, just as it is for linebreaks <br />

Answer 1

Previous comments have described some of the ways to format profiles. There is a help page here: https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Help:Editing_Tips

The most common way to stop everything running together is to create paragraphs by entering two newlines/carriage returns. A single newline character just gets converted to a space, but a double newline creates a new paragraph.

Indents are done with the : character and lists with * or # as described on that help page.