There are several major aspects of white-space handling in the oXygen Author editor when opening documents or switching to Author mode, saving documents or switching from Author mode to another one and editing documents.
- Open documents
When deciding if the white-spaces from a text node are to be preserved, normalized or stripped, the following rules apply:
If the text node is inside an element context where the xml:space="preserve" is set then the white-spaces are preserved.
If the CSS property white-space is set to "pre" for the node style then the white-spaces are preserved.
If the text node contains other non-white-space characters then the white-spaces are normalized.
If the text node contains only white-spaces:
If the node has a parent element with the CSS display property set to inline then the white-spaces are normalized.
If the left or right sibling is an element with the CSS display property set to inline then the white-spaces are normalized.
If one of its ancestors is an element with the CSS display property set to table then the white-spaces are striped.
Otherwise the white-spaces are ignored.
- Save documents
The Author editor will try to format and indent the document while following the white-space handling rules:
If text nodes are inside an element context where the xml:space="preserve" is set then the white-spaces are written without modifications.
If the CSS property white-space is set to "pre" for the node style then the white-spaces are written without any changes.
In other cases the text nodes are wrapped.
Also, when formatting and indenting an element that is not in a space-preserve context, additional Line Separators and white-spaces are added as follows:
Before a text node that starts with a white-space.
After a text node that ends with a white-space.
Before and after CSS block nodes.
If the current node has an ancestor that is a CSS table element.
- Editing documents
You can insert space characters in any text nodes. Line breaks are permitted only in space-preserve elements.
![[Note]](img/note.gif) | Note |
|---|---|
CDATA sections, comments, processing instructions have by default the white-space CSS property set to "pre" unless overridden in the CSS file you are using. Also they are considered to be block nodes. |