How do I get a double space between paragraphs?

[ficbot]

I am trying to get some personal documents edited for reading on the Kobo. I am driving myself crazy trying to get it to double-space in between sections. What I want is something that looks like this:

Paragraph 1

***

New paragraph

So in between the two paragraphs, a break with double space all around it, exactly as it looks above. I do this using the WYSIWYG editor and it looks fine. On my iPad in iBooks it looks fine. On the Kobo, it looks like this:

Paragraph 1
***

New Paragraph

I have tried every trick I can think of (given my limited skill) and it just is not coming out ok. My boyfriend is a programmer and he says that the extra <br> code should make it break. But it just isn't. This seems like it should be such a simple thing to do and since it looks fine on the iPad I am wondering what gives. What can I do to fix this so it looks ok on the Kobo? I have several more files to fix and want them all looking the same.

[Arios]

ficbot

You can try this:

p {
....;    
margin-bottom: 1em;
...;
}

...; = other classes. "1em;" is just an example; you can play with it to your liking.

[theducks]

I create a 'scenebreak' class with the desired margins-top,margins-bottom (as well as no indent and center)

<p class="scenebreak">*&nbsp;*&nbsp;*</p>

[ficbot]

Originally Posted by theducks

I create a 'scenebreak' class with the desired margins-top,margins-bottom (as well as no indent and center)

<p class="scenebreak">*&nbsp;*&nbsp;*</p>

So is this in the CSS? And then I mark it somehow in the text itself?

[RbnJrg]

Originally Posted by ficbot

So is this in the CSS? And then I mark it somehow in the text itself?

What theducks wanted to say you is that in your .css stylesheet you must write the following:

.scenebreak {
    margin: 2em 0; /* here instead of 2em you can use others values at your will */
    text-indent: 0;
    text-align: center;
}

And in your .html file, where you want to have the paragraph separated, you must write the following:

<p>Your Paragraph 1...</p>

<p class="scenebreak">*&nbsp;*&nbsp;*</p>

<p>Your New Paragraph...</p>

Also, supress all <br/> tags that you had used to separate the paragraph; the class "scenebreak" will do all the work.

Regards
Rubén

[Toxaris]

Some readers will ignore empty lines, wether it is <br /> or <p></p>. That is the reason most people use margins or <p>&nbsp;</p>.

[theducks]

And many will ignore 2+ in a row
so will use <br />&nbsp;<br /> instead of <br /> <br />

[ficbot]

Originally Posted by Toxaris

Some readers will ignore empty lines, wether it is <br /> or <p></p>. That is the reason most people use margins or <p>&nbsp;</p>.

Thank you! That worked. It looks fine on both my iPad and my Kobo now.