Difference between revisions of "Template:Spaced en dash/doc"

Revision as of 00:30, 11 January 2011

This is a documentation subpage for Template:Spaced en dash. It contains usage information, categories and other content that is not part of the original template page.

This is the ndash template, it looks like this " – ".

It works similarly to the HTML markup sequence " – ". That is, a non-breaking space, a short dash (known as an en dash) and a normal space.

{{–}} and {{endash}} redirect here and can be used as alternative names for this template.

This template is used when you want something stronger than a bold middot "·" or a bullet "•", but shorter than an mdash "—". (An en dash is half the width of an em dash.)

Normal usage

The recommended usage is to use no space before the template and one space after the template, like this:

[[Salt]]{{ndash}} [[Pepper]]

It will render one space on each side of the dash, like this:

Salt – Pepper

If it line breaks then the line break will come after the dash, not before, like this:

Salt –

Pepper

For long dashed lists each list item can be put on its own line, with no spaces between each item and the template. Like this:

 [[Salt]]{{ndash}}
 [[Pepper]]{{ndash}}
 [[Curry]]{{ndash}}
 [[Saffron]]

(It doesn't matter if there are no or some spaces at the end of the lines, after the templates.)

As before it will render one space on each side of the dashes, like this:

Salt – Pepper – Curry – Saffron

And if it line breaks then the line break will come after one of the dashes, not before, like this:

Salt – Pepper –

Curry – Saffron

Incorrect usage

If the template is used slightly wrong it will in some cases still behave well. For instance if there are no or several spaces after the template. Like these examples:

[[Salt]]{{ndash}}[[Pepper]]
[[Salt]]{{ndash}}   [[Pepper]]

Both of them will render exactly as before, with just one space on each side of the dash, like this:

Salt – Pepper

And it will still only line break after the dash, like this:

Salt –

Pepper

But putting one or more spaces before the template will cause problems, like these examples:

[[Salt]] {{ndash}}[[Pepper]]
[[Salt]]   {{ndash}}[[Pepper]]
[[Salt]] {{ndash}} [[Pepper]]
[[Salt]]   {{ndash}}   [[Pepper]]

Then it will render with two spaces before the dash, and one after, like this:

Salt  – Pepper

And if it line breaks it might break before the dash, like this:

Salt

 – Pepper

Also, this template should not routinely be used in regular article text and certainly not where an em-dash would be more appropriate. As a rule, this template should not be used between clauses of a sentence.

Because tool-tip previews in Wikipedia do not render template contents, avoid using this template in the first 500 characters, or so, of the lead section text, exclusive of wikilinks and hypertext formatting characters. Instead, use " – " or " – ".

Technical details

The space before the dash is a non-breaking space. That means it will not line break and will not collapse together with normal spaces that come before the template.

The space after the dash is a normal space. That means it wraps (allows line breaks) and it will collapse together with normal spaces that come after the template to form one single space.

Dot size reference list

See also

There are several other templates with similar functionality:

• {{·}} – Bold middot "·" is mostly used for dotted lists.
• {{•}} – Bullet "•" is mostly used for dotted lists that use small font sizes.
• {{mdash}} – Mdash "—" is an em dash, a longer dash.