Template:In5/doc

The indenter Template:in5 indents text by 5 spaces or the count specified by
parameter 1 (range: 1 to 50 spaces).

Usage:   {{in5}}       <--indents by 5 spaces

Usage:   {{in5|8}}     <--indents by 8 spaces

Usage:   {{in5|47}}   <--indents by 47

Spaces outside the double braces will add an extra space on either side,
such as the 12 spaces inserted by: " {{in5|10}} ".

NOTE: The name "in5" was chosen because other names were debated, such as
the name "in" being redefined as 6 different uses.

Examples

The following are examples showing larger amounts of spacing:

Example 1: xx{{in5|10}}yy{{in5|10}}zz, produces: xx          yy          zz

Example 2: xx{{in5|10}}yy{{in5|15}}zz, produces: xx          yy               zz

Example 3: aa{{in5|20}}bb{{in5|20}}cc, produces: aa                    bb                    cc

Example 4: "32.0{{in5|7}}"  produces: "32.0       "

The example 4 shows the ability to put trailing spaces, such as spaces after a number in a wikitable column (coded as: | 32.0{{in5}} ). Typical numbers (with "align=right"), in a table column, often appear crowded at the right-hand side, so appending "{{in5}}" can improve readability, in tables with lines between columns.

Universal template

This Template:in5 is intended as a universal template, with the same name on all Wikipedia sites. The name "in5" with the digit "5" is unlikely to conflict with other-language Wikipedias. Care must be taken not to name a universal template with a name that would be an awkward or peculiar word in the other languages. However, in some cases, a universal template might need a different name in a few conflicting languages.

Comparison with Template:spaces

There are other templates that insert spaces, although none had allowed 50 spaces. For example, the Template:spaces has had a limit of about 15 spaces (during 2009-2010):

Example of {{spaces|10}} and... with {{spaces|14}} with {{spaces|15}} with {{spaces|25}}	xx{{spaces|10}}yy, produces: xx          yy xx              yy xx               yy xx               yy
Example of {{in5|10}} and... with {{in5|14}} with {{in5|15}} with {{in5|25}} with {{in5|45}}	xx{{in5|10}}yy, produces: xx          yy xx              yy xx               yy xx                         yy xx                                             yy

Again, using {{in5}} reliably allows up to 50 spaces at a time.

Comparison with letter-spacing

To insert space between each consecuting letter pair of any text, "span style=letter-spacing:<value><unit>" can be used. For an example, with <span style="letter-spacing:2.2em">spanning the text "example" it looks like example. The value may express any number from 0 on, also fractions like .45 are possible, the unit may be "em" or any standard measurement unit (pt, px, cm, mm, in).

Performance

Template {in5} generates a mix of &nbsp; and spaces to avoid the space compression done by the MediaWiki parser. Each &nbsp is stored inside the formatted page (such as seen by the browser option: <View><Source>). The output is optimized to be the shortest possible markup language for spaces, in a variety of different browsers.

Typically, {in5} runs much faster than Template:spaces, generating 1/3 the markup per use (as 72% less text, over 50 fewer characters each time). Also, {in5} allows 50 spaces, whereas {spaces} has been limited to 15 spaces during 2009-2010.

See also

• Template:indent - forces newline break before indenting