Android Question Multiple spaces in HTML [Solved]

There are several different suggestions that might be relevant here, but it sure would help a lot if you explained more about your document, preferably attaching it to your post.

Sandman said:

There are several different suggestions that might be relevant here, but it sure would help a lot if you explained more about your document, preferably attaching it to your post.

Click to expand...

Sandman thanks for the reply.
I don't think the document is relevant. It is 3 pages of text, no pictures, no drawing objects, no special characters. Next week I may face the same problem with a totally different doc with 10 pages.
The core issue is how do I include multiple spaces without having them trimmed when Writer saves in HTML


Regards Roger.

In HTML you have to use   for each space. Of course, normally you hardly need this as in HTML you would use padding and margins but I suspect LibreOffice can not do that.

Since you're converting the original LibreOffice format to HTML, why instead not export to PDF and use a PDF viewer in your app?

Roger Daley said:

I don't think the document is relevant. It is 3 pages of text, no pictures, no drawing objects, no special characters.

Click to expand...

And yet you are using multiple spaces for formatting and layout.

Oh well, I tried to help.

If it is just a plain text in the file, you could try saving the document as a text file, then replacing multiple spaces when you load it into the app.


The tabs are unlikely to align correctly unless you are using a fixed width font.

Edit: sorry forgot the semi colon.

Sandman said:

And yet you are using multiple spaces for formatting and layout.

Oh well, I tried to help.

Click to expand...

Much appreciated.

Thanks for the replies but it seems I didn't make it clear. [My error]
Multiple spaces is bad style I initially found the problem when using 2 - 3 tabs then tried spaces as an alternative.

For example using 3 spaces before and after an arrow. [Lots of way to do this but this is just a demo of the problem.]

1. SOME TEXT 3 SPACES ==> THEN AN ARROW, 3 SPACES AND MORE TEXT
2. OTHER TEXT ==> SAME SPACING FRONT AND REAR OF ARROW

If I save this as HTML from Writer, close the Doc and then reopen it in Writer the triple spaces are trimmed to one space.
I'm sorry I didn't initially explain in this detail but I was trying to keep it brief and simple. [Catch 22]

SOLUTION:
1. What I needed is called Non Breaking Spaces. These are inserted by Shift+Ctrl+Space Bar.
2. The only other solution I found was to use Microsoft Office Word, the problem does not occur. This package is what I am trying to leave behind


Regards Roger

As mentioned in Post #4, the string " " is a non-breaking space character. That's what the "nb" in " " stands for.

So, before you save the HTML, just substitute all the soft spaces for hard spaces:


Then the resulting HTML will be:

"SOME TEXT   ==>   MORE TEXT"

Which will display as follows in an HTML/Webview viewer:

"SOME TEXT ==> MORE TEXT"

JohnC said:

As mentioned in Post #4, the string " " is a non-breaking space character. That's what the "nb" in " " stands for.

So, before you save the HTML, just substitute all the soft spaces for hard spaces:

B4X:

Doc = "SOME TEXT   ==>   MORE TEXT"

Doc = Doc.Replace(" "," ")
Save "Doc.html"

Then the resulting HTML will be:

"SOME TEXT   ==>   MORE TEXT"

Which will display as follows in an HTML/Webview viewer:

"SOME TEXT ==> MORE TEXT"

Click to expand...

Thanks John,
Much clearer unfortunately:
When I save "SOME TEXT   ==>   MORE TEXT" as HTMl
Chrome displays it as "SOME TEXT   ==>   MORE TEXT"

Probably I did something wrong, I can easily stick to Shift+Ctrl+SpaceBar

Regards Roger