Text Formatting

Auto XHTML

The purpose of the Auto XHTML option is to make your content semantically and typographically correct. This feature does the following:

• Double Line Breaks are wrapped in paragraph tags: <p>*content..*</p>
• Single Line Breaks are turned into <br /> tags.
• Double quotes are converted to curly double quotes: "this" becomes “this”
• Single quotes are converted to curly single quotes: Joe's becomes Joe’s
• Double dashes are converted to em-dashes: This -- text becomes this—text.
• Three periods are converted to ellipsis: This... becomes this…

In addition, the Auto XHTML feature intelligently handles text containing block level elements, like <div>, <blockquote>, etc. so that they are not wrapped in paragraph tags. Further, elements within <pre> tags are exempt from the paragraph conversion.

Note: By default, all entries and comments are assigned to this formatting option.

Markdown

The Markdown option parses all of your content through a Markdown parser and a SmartyPants parser—the parser follows Jon Gruber’s implementation of Markdown for the most part, but adds a few things as well. SmartyPants transforms normal quotes into curly quotes, consecutive dashes into en (-- into –) and em (--- into —) dashes, and three consecutive periods into an ellipsis (... into …).

Note: To use the Markdown option, the Markdown Add-on must be installed.

Auto BR

This Auto BR feature simply converts each line break into an HTML <br /> tag.

This feature can be found in the PUBLISH page of the Control Panel. You’ll see a menu below each entry field with this option. You can also configure your Comment Preferences so that any comments will be formatted this way.

None

ExpressionEngine will use your text exactly as you have entered it. This includes disabling BBCode.