Template:Block indent/doc#Technical issues with block templates

{{tl|block indent}} adds a block of indented text to a page.

:{{block indent|1={{var|The material to be indented here. May include markup, paragraph breaks, etc.}}}}

A colon at the start of the line produces a similar indent, but it produces incorrect HTML. See MOS:INDENT. (An initial : was intended only for use after ;, in constructing description lists, but most editors have used it almost everywhere for indenting.)

{{tl|Blockquote}} is for actual quotations only. Using it for block indent is not correct semantic HTML, and the appearance differs. ({{tl|Blockquote}} produces the HTML {{tag|blockquote}} element, which indicates a block quotation; {{tl|block indent}} produces the HTML {{tag|div}} element.)

The default display of {{tl|block indent}} differs from that of {{tl|Blockquote}} in that it does not:

• introduce whitespace margins above or below the indented material (just add a blank line above and/or below manually); nor
• indent from the right as well as the left (there is an optional parameter for this); nor
• affect the font size of its contents; nor
• (on mobile) bookend the block with large quotation marks; nor
• support plain blank-line paragraph breaks inside it; nor
• support attribution parameters (because {{tl|block indent}} isn't for quotations).

{{tl|Blockquote}} and {{tl|block indent}} both support paragraph breaks using {{tag|p}} around second and subsequent paragraphs, as well as other HTML markup, and it is always safest to explicitly format with HTML rather than rely on MediaWiki's parser to do the right thing, because the developers could alter its behavior at any time.

{{tlx|block indent|1{{=}}{{tl|Lorem ipsum}}}}

produces:

{{block indent|1={{Lorem ipsum}}}}

{{para|1}} a.k.a. {{para|text}} The material to be indented. {{strong|1=It is always safest to explicitly define this with 1=, not as an unnamed parameter}}, because any occurrence (e.g. in a URL, template, etc.) of the = character will break the template without it.

{{para|left}} a.k.a. {{para|em}} the value (e.g. 0.1 or 7) in em units by which to indent the material from the left; defaults to 3

{{para|right}} the value, also in em, by which to indent the material from the right; defaults to 0 (use 7 to match the default left indentation)

{{para|style}} arbitrary CSS declarations, e.g. font-size: 95%;. This parameter should not normally be needed. Note: It already includes overflow: hidden; by default, to avoid collision of the div's background with floating elements.

{{para|class}} any CSS class names (e.g. as defined at MediaWiki:Common.css), comma-separated if more than one. This parameter should not normally be needed.

{{Block bug documentation}}

• {{tl|indent}}, which indents a single line, after a newline, using a mixture of en- and em-sized spaces
• {{tl|spaces}}, which indents a single line (or content inline in one) uses non-breaking spaces
• {{tl|in5}}, which indents a single line (or content inline in one), skipping up to fifty equal en-sized spaces
• {{tl|hanging indent}}, the block hanging indent template
• {{tl|Blockquote}}, the block quotation template, which is only for quotations

{{semantic markup templates}}

{{Sandbox other||

Category:Inline spacing templates

Category:Typing-aid templates

Category:Semantic markup templates

}}