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Wikipedia:Indentation

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Good indentation makes prolonged discussions easier to read and understand. It might be helpful to think of discussions as reports with numbered/bulleted sections and subsections where material is not necessarily written in chronological order. Remember to also follow the Talk page guidelines. In these examples the bolded line is the most-recently-added reply. Long discussions should be split up by level two headings to provide [edit] section links and reduce edit conflicts.

Indentation guidelines

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1. A reply should be placed beneath the original comment. The reply should be indented:
I think good indentation is very helpful. --Example (talk) 12:34, 1 January 2011 (UTC)[reply]
Me too. Place holder T/C 12:44, 1 January 2011 (UTC)[reply]
2. If two replies are made to one specific comment, they should be at the same level of indentation with the later reply at the bottom:
3. A response to a reply should be placed below that reply, but above all later replies. The response should be indented relative to the adjacent replies:
I think good indentation is very helpful. --Example (talk) 12:34, 1 January 2011 (UTC)[reply]
Me too. Place holder T/C 12:44, 1 January 2011 (UTC)[reply]
I thought you didn't like indentation, Place holder. --Example 14:23, 1 January 2011 (UTC)[reply]
Me three! →sandbox 13:57, 1 January 2011 (UTC)[reply]
4. A new comment or sub-thread that is being added after a number of replies should go at the bottom. Do not add a new comment or sub-thread where it will separate an earlier comment from its replies:
I think good indentation is very helpful. --Example (talk) 12:34, 1 January 2011 (UTC)[reply]
Me too. Place holder T/C 12:44, 1 January 2011 (UTC)[reply]
I thought you didn't like indentation, Place holder. --Example (talk) 14:23, 1 January 2011 (UTC)[reply]
Me three! →sandbox 13:57, 1 January 2011 (UTC)[reply]
I thought you didn't like indentation either, sandbox. --Example (talk) 14:32, 1 January 2011 (UTC)[reply]
I thought that too, Example. Warning Testing 15:51, 1 January 2011 (UTC)[reply]
Good spelling and grammar are important on talk pages. —the other example 11:22, 2 January 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Outdenting

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Sometimes a long discussion can cause indentation to become too deep, which may make it difficult to read, especially in narrower browser windows. In such cases you may consider outdenting your post (also called undenting). When doing so it is helpful to make clear what you are doing, for the benefit of readers. The templates {{outdent}} and {{outdent2}} exist for this purpose.

Example of {{outdent}} (shortcut {{od}}):

I think good indentation is very helpful. --Example (talk) 12:34, 1 February 2011 (UTC)[reply]
Me too. Place holder T/C 12:44, 1 February 2011 (UTC)[reply]
I thought you didn't like indentation, Place holder. --Example (talk) 14:23, 1 February 2011 (UTC)[reply]
I sure don't. (example2) 14:32, 1 February 2011
I can take it or leave it. —the other example 15:15, 1 February 2011 (UTC)[reply]
I like it, but not too much. --Third example 18:18, 1 February 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Example of {{outdent2}} (shortcut {{od2}}):

I think good indentation is very helpful. --Example (talk) 12:34, 1 February 2011 (UTC)[reply]
Me too. Place holder T/C 12:44, 1 February 2011 (UTC)[reply]
I thought you didn't like indentation, Place holder. --Example (talk) 14:23, 1 February 2011 (UTC)[reply]
I sure don't. (example2) 14:32, 1 February 2011
I can take it or leave it. —the other example 15:15, 1 February 2011 (UTC)[reply]
(←) I like it, but not too much. --Third example 18:18, 1 February 2008 (UTC)[reply]

See also

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