# answer to Louie's question: how to eliminate spaces before HTML table

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/answer-to-louies-question-how-to-eliminate-spaces-before-html-table/551>\
**Category:** About This Message Board\
**Created:** [December 3, 1999, 5:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/answer-to-louies-question-how-to-eliminate-spaces-before-html-table/551 "1999-12-03T17:17:00Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 11\
**Page:** 1

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Arnold\_Winkelried](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Arnold\_Winkelried](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Arnold_Winkelried)\
**Post date:** [December 3, 1999, 5:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/answer-to-louies-question-how-to-eliminate-spaces-before-html-table/551/1 "1999-12-03T17:17:00Z")

</div>

I think that when you post messages, the UBB software adds a \< BR \> to replace every carriage return.

so if you have several HTML commands following each other on separate lines,  
such as  
\< table border=1 width="100% \>  
\< tr \>  
\< td \>  
text  
\< /td \>  
\< /tr \>  
\< /table \>  
You will see a blank line for every HTML command line. What I did was remove all “returns” between HTML commands, e.g.  
\< table border=1 width="100% \>\< tr \>\< td \>text\< /td \>\< /tr \>  
\< tr \> \< td \> more text \> \< /td \> \< /tr \>\< /table \>

* * *

La franchise ne consiste pas à dire tout ce que l’on pense, mais à penser tout ce que l’on dit.  
H. de Livry

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Louie](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/c68b51/32.png) [@Louie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Louie)\
**Post date:** [December 4, 1999, 10:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/answer-to-louies-question-how-to-eliminate-spaces-before-html-table/551/2 "1999-12-04T10:23:00Z")

</div>

Thanks, Arnold.

test…  
==start of code==  
\<table border=“1”\>  
\<tr\>  
\<td\>#1\</td\>  
\<td\>#2\</td\>  
\<td\>#3\</td\>  
\<td\>\<marquee\>test\</marquee\>\</td\>  
\<td\>#4\</td\>  
\<td\>\<font size=7\>test\</font\>\</td\>  
\</tr\>  
\</table\>  
==end of code==

==start of code==  
\<table border=“1”\>\<tr\>\<td\>#1\</td\>\<td\>#2\</td\>\<td\>#3\</td\>\<td\>\<marquee\>test\</marquee\>\</td\>\<td\>#4\</td\>\<td\>\<font size=7\>test\</font\>\</td\>\</tr\>\</table\>  
==end of code==

* * *

…and remember, duct tape fixes _all_ your problems, big and small.

[Fun with HTML (tutoral) : The True Sequal](http://www.straightdope.com/ubb/Archives/Archive-000001/HTML/19991103-2-000302.html) [Give someone an FU](http://www.straightdope.com/ubb/Forum5/HTML/000255.html)

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![TubaDiva](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tubadiva/32/507_2.png) [@TubaDiva](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TubaDiva)\
**Post date:** [December 4, 1999, 5:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/answer-to-louies-question-how-to-eliminate-spaces-before-html-table/551/3 "1999-12-04T17:23:00Z")

</div>

Thanks, Arnold, this has been driving us CRAZY.

(Not that we had far to go or anything.)

your humble TubaDiva  
for the Straight Dope

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Arnold\_Winkelried](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Arnold\_Winkelried](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Arnold_Winkelried)\
**Post date:** [December 7, 1999, 6:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/answer-to-louies-question-how-to-eliminate-spaces-before-html-table/551/4 "1999-12-07T06:24:00Z")

</div>

You’re welcome. Now if someone could explain to me how to prevent UBB software from “wrapping” to the next line when you have a very long html link with a hyphen in it! (it seems to wrap after the hyphen.) 🙂

* * *

La franchise ne consiste pas à dire tout ce que l’on pense, mais à penser tout ce que l’on dit.  
H. de Livry

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![TubaDiva](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tubadiva/32/507_2.png) [@TubaDiva](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TubaDiva)\
**Post date:** [December 7, 1999, 6:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/answer-to-louies-question-how-to-eliminate-spaces-before-html-table/551/5 "1999-12-07T06:11:00Z")

</div>

Well, either it “wraps” or it lengthens the line so that you have to scroll back and forth to read it, which is a big pain. Frankly, I’d prefer the wrap.

your humble TubaDiva  
for the Straight Dope

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Arnold\_Winkelried](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Arnold\_Winkelried](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Arnold_Winkelried)\
**Post date:** [December 7, 1999, 5:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/answer-to-louies-question-how-to-eliminate-spaces-before-html-table/551/6 "1999-12-07T17:50:00Z")

</div>

Well, sure, I don’t want the screen to become very wide, but what I meant is when you say  
[url = http: // very long link]Link Description [/url]  
I would be happy if it would hide the long link. Instead, it wraps, and the whole [url] [/ url] code becomes a mess.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Jois](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ea666f/32.png) [@Jois](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jois)\
**Post date:** [December 8, 1999, 6:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/answer-to-louies-question-how-to-eliminate-spaces-before-html-table/551/7 "1999-12-08T06:25:00Z")

</div>

Tuba is napping - so while you wait tell me why I can’t get these darned smiley faces to work…\<font color=red\>Pleeeeze\</font\>

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Arnold\_Winkelried](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Arnold\_Winkelried](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Arnold_Winkelried)\
**Post date:** [December 7, 1999, 8:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/answer-to-louies-question-how-to-eliminate-spaces-before-html-table/551/8 "1999-12-07T20:59:00Z")

</div>

“Doesn’t work”? What does that mean?

try posting a message. Inside the message, put in colon, right parenthesis with no space between them.

🙂

* * *

La franchise ne consiste pas à dire tout ce que l’on pense, mais à penser tout ce que l’on dit.  
H. de Livry

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Jois](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ea666f/32.png) [@Jois](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jois)\
**Post date:** [December 7, 1999, 9:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/answer-to-louies-question-how-to-eliminate-spaces-before-html-table/551/9 "1999-12-07T21:03:00Z")

</div>

See next thread - Tuba Tuba Tuba - Thanks!

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![TubaDiva](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tubadiva/32/507_2.png) [@TubaDiva](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TubaDiva)\
**Post date:** [December 7, 1999, 9:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/answer-to-louies-question-how-to-eliminate-spaces-before-html-table/551/10 "1999-12-07T21:34:00Z")

</div>

> [@](#):
>
> Well, sure, I don’t want the screen to become very wide, but what I meant is when you say  
> [url = http: // very long link]Link Description [/url]  
> I would be happy if it would hide the long link. Instead, it wraps, and the whole [url] [/ url] code becomes a mess.

By any chance are you allowing space between the two blocks of code?

There should be NO white space between the two brackets. As so:

{url=http://www.straightdope.com}THE STRAIGHT DOPE{/url}  
(of course, substitute straight brackets for curly ones)

As per this: [The Straight Dope](http://www.straightdope.com)

your humble TubaDiva  
for the Straight Dope

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Arnold\_Winkelried](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Arnold\_Winkelried](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Arnold_Winkelried)\
**Post date:** [December 8, 1999, 12:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/answer-to-louies-question-how-to-eliminate-spaces-before-html-table/551/11 "1999-12-08T00:18:00Z")

</div>

Sure, TubaDiva, but there are some links that go beyond the line length allowed by the UBB software (at least that’s my guess.) So then it’s word-wrapped after the hyphen, which breaks the [url] [/ url] attempt.

e.g.

[Long link]([http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/srch\_archive/srch-list.cgi?p=chron&y=1999&fm=01&fd=01&tm=12&td=31&cs=&es=&h=&b=&q=devil&t=sorted\_search.tmpl&a=search&d=thedate&wdb=%2Fsfgate%2Fw](http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/srch_archive/srch-list.cgi?p=chron&y=1999&fm=01&fd=01&tm=12&td=31&cs=&es=&h=&b=&q=devil&t=sorted_search.tmpl&a=search&d=thedate&wdb=%2Fsfgate%2Fw) ais%2F)