User:Joseph A. Spadaro/Sandbox/Page48

Examples

 * Preakness Stakes top three finishers
 * Pretzel Logic
 * Polur (State Assembly Constituency), chart that uses a different font
 * Węgrów County
 * Miss Ecuador 2003
 * FIFA World Cup - "separated" columns with white space

Left padding
Let's say that I am creating a table, such as that below (just as an example). Is there any easy way to get the entries in the first column to have a little margin of blank white space to the left of the article title/name within each particular cell? In other words, let's say I want the first row/first column to appear as this: blank white space / blank white space / blank white space / blank white space / blank white space / Death of Abigail Taylor. Is there any easy way to do this without using the "nbsp" command ... and while still keeping the entry left-justified? Thank you! (Joseph A. Spadaro (talk) 02:01, 14 October 2010 (UTC))


 * Here is another example of what I mean: List of actors who have appeared in multiple Best Picture Academy Award winners. The third column in (Best Picture winning films) has all of the entries "pushed to the right" a little bit, so that there is some blank white space of margin prior to the film title.  However, in this chart, the editor had to type in the "nbsp" command 5 or 6 times to the left of each film title entry.  Is there any easier way to create that white margin space?  Thanks.   (Joseph A. Spadaro (talk) 02:05, 14 October 2010 (UTC))


 * You can use the CSS padding-left property to do this (as I've done in the above table). Unfortunately, since tables are organized by rows rather than columns, this is not much easier.  Intelligent  sium  02:13, 14 October 2010 (UTC)


 * Aww, you beat me to it. Another alternative is to use Template:Space. Placing the template  , specifying x as the number of spaces you want, puts "blank spots" in the location that it is placed. ~Super Hamster  Talk Contribs 02:20, 14 October 2010 (UTC)


 * &amp;nbsp; and space both give poor formatting of table cells if the cell text wraps to a second line as it does for me in several cases at List of actors who have appeared in multiple Best Picture Academy Award winners. They should be avoided for this purpose. And I don't think any additional space should be inserted to the left of the cells there, not even with padding-left which formats better with multiple lines. It's not necessary and limits cell content per line in narrow windows. PrimeHunter (talk) 02:59, 14 October 2010 (UTC)


 * Yes, it "limits cell content per line in narrow windows" (although negligibly, at best). But, it also makes the content easier on the eye (for readability and aesthetic purposes).  There is not much to be gained in "cramming" the use of every available space in a row.  Blank white spaces (in general) give the eye "breathing room", make reading text easier on the eyes, etc.  That's why we employ blank white space in a variety of ways in a variety of written documents.  There is no need to cram every available space with printed text (avoiding white space), just because it can be done.  Blank white space makes the "labor" of reading much easier on the eyes.  (Joseph A. Spadaro (talk) 04:11, 14 October 2010 (UTC))


 * Default wikitables don't "cram every available space with printed text". http://svn.wikimedia.org/viewvc/mediawiki/trunk/phase3/skins/common/shared.css?view=markup sets "padding: 0.2em;". See the difference:


 * {| class="wikitable"


 * No padding specified so defaults to 0.2em
 * style="padding-left: 0.2em" | padding-left: 0.2em explicitly specified so same as above
 * style="padding-left: 0em" | padding-left: 0em specified
 * style="padding-left: 1em" | padding-left: 1em specified
 * }
 * style="padding-left: 0em" | padding-left: 0em specified
 * style="padding-left: 1em" | padding-left: 1em specified
 * }
 * }


 * 0em looks bad to me but I like the default 0.2em and dislike the current List of actors who have appeared in multiple Best Picture Academy Award winners. The way the left padding is currently implemented there is really bad. The right padding is the smaller default so there is no symmetry, and multi-line cells have default left padding in the following lines so they move to the left. You can make a suggestion at Wikipedia talk:Manual of Style (tables) if you want a recommendation to add more whitespace to tables in Wikipedia. I'm not sure where best to discuss the default wikitable settings in http://svn.wikimedia.org/viewvc/mediawiki/trunk/phase3/skins/common/shared.css?view=markup. PrimeHunter (talk) 05:04, 14 October 2010 (UTC)


 * Thanks for all of your info and feedback, as well as for the examples and the links. I guess it's all a matter of preference and opinion, stylistically speaking.  In your chart above, the first three examples all look pretty much the same to me (i.e., "too crowded and crammed" on the left side).  The fourth example looks the most eye-pleasing and aesthetic.  I agree about your points regarding List of actors who have appeared in multiple Best Picture Academy Award winners. I may go in and work on improving that.  And that was partly what prompted my asking these questions here.  Thanks!   (Joseph A. Spadaro (talk) 12:15, 14 October 2010 (UTC))

Stacked charts
See my change below. / ƒETCH COMMS  /  01:09, 11 October 2010 (UTC)

Chart with column separation

 * Miss Universe

Miss Universe Organization titleholders
The following is a list of all Miss Universe Organization titleholders over the years.

In 2002, Fedorova was dethroned by the Miss Universe Organization and replaced by Pasek, the first runner-up. In 1957, Gage was stripped of her Miss USA title when it was revealed that she was married and the mother of two children. Sheffield, the first runner-up, replaced her.