@jane-de-cluttering,
HTML will, as a general rule, display one space between words, even if you enter multiple spaces in the code.
If you use something like Word, you will definitely end up with a load of junk code in your page. That is because MS Word is not designed for creating web pages, unlike a programme like Dreamwweaver, for instance. By copy-pasting your text from Word, you will be copying not only what you see, but invisible code that clogs up the page. When you look at the copied text in a HTML editor, you'll see so much extraneous, clunky and unnecessary formatting code that you will barely be able to make out the actual data!
In Word, of course, you can enter two spaces and it will display two spaces. But if you copy something like this
Wonderful design. Full range of colours
... then you will certainly see two spaces in your listing, but it will actually display that way only because the HTML will have this:
Wonderful design. Full range of colours
... (and that's stripping back all of the other code that will have been inserted automatically as a carry-over from Word!)
The best coding for pages is the cleanest code possible, in order to reduce load on the page and ensure that visitors looking at your page aren't loading a clogged-up page. Pages with junk code load more slowly, rank lower in Google search results, and are so much more difficult to edit if you need to do so.
Also, the HTML code generated by copy-pasting from MS Word often contains deprecated HTML tags.
If you want to format your text, there are good ways to do that. Describe CSS elements between <style> </style> in the head, and keep all of your text in the body (between <body> </body>).
If you're interested in learning more, take a look at the w3schools site. Everything you would ever need to know about HTML, CSS, PHP etc., is there.
Just as an example from the junk code which curraone has shown you...
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;line-height:107%"> </span></p>
This is ridiculous! The only text there is a blank space - signified by The junk code is styling this blank space with a font class that's been created by MS Word - i.e., "MsoNormal". In addition, it's styling the blank space with a span tag that has style information added to it. If you did actually want your paragraphs to be styled with a font size of 12 points and a line height of 107%, you could add those style details to the class "MsoNormal" (if you kept that class, that is.) That would at least clean it up a little by making the <span> tags unnecessary:
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
However, you probably don't need or particularly want a line height of 107% - and certainly not for a blank space! That whole line, therefore, is clutter without meaning or necessity. In essence, what you have there is a blank line - and if you do actually need a blank line, you could create it by adding the <br /> tag (which means "line break"), either within or after your paragraph tags.
For instance, let's say you want to have the following text displayed:
Wonderful design. Full range of colours. This is one of the most extraordinary
pieces available by lauded designer Francesco da Bimirobes, who worked closely
with Dior and Yves Saint Laurent in the ’50s.
Choose from the Classic range, or the more eclectic Style Punch range.
Your HTML would look like this:
<p>Wonderful design. Full range of colours. This is one of the most extraordinary pieces available by lauded designer Francesco da Bimirobes, who worked closely with Dior and Yves Saint Laurent in the ’50s.<br /></p>
<p>Choose from the Classic range, or the more eclectic Style Punch range.</p>
You may also want to consider styling the <p> element with CSS - adding space between paragraphs specifying a margin. You could then do away with the <br />.
I STRONGLY suggest that you put your text within paragraph tags. Failing to do so makes the page more difficult to access, and that's an important consideration for any visitor who relies on webpage accessibility. (That's just one consideration.)
If two spaces between sentences is how you prefer to see it displayed, you CAN achieve that. Instead of using <p>Blah blah blah</p>, you can instead use <pre> tags. (This means "preformatted".) Let's say that you want the text to look like this:
Wonderful design. Full range of colours. This is one of the most extraordinary
pieces available by lauded designer Francesco da Bimirobes, who worked closely
with Dior and Yves Saint Laurent in the ’50s.
Choose from the Classic range, or the more eclectic Style Punch range.
Your HTML would be:
<pre> Wonderful design. Full range of colours. This is one of the most extraordinary pieces available by lauded designer Francesco da Bimirobes, who worked closely with Dior and Yves Saint Laurent in the ’50s.
Choose from the Classic range, or the more eclectic Style Punch range.</pre>
However, be aware that your preformatted text will be displayed in a fixed-width font (usually Courier) which may not match the font that you use for the rest of your listing, and it certainly won't be as attractive as sans serif fonts such as Arial, or serif fonts such as Times New Roman.
(I don't recommend using <pre> in this way.)
NB: I tend to use the XHTML <br /> rather than <br>, but HTML will turn <br /> into <br> and there isn't any difference in display. You can safely use <br> where I've typed <br />.
