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Feature request: Easily work with non-breaking spaces in VisualEditor
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Description

Hello,

This is a feature request.

I'd like to propose that a non-breaking space (Unicode: U+00A0) in VisualEditor:

  • Can be entered with Ctrl+Shift+Space.
  • Is displayed with the degree symbol (°, U+00B0).
  • Gets converted to   in wikitext.

This is the standard as provided in Microsoft Word and elsewhere.

The rationale is to allow for easy work with non-breaking spaces as required with units of measurements, acronyms, and elsewhere; to prevent the text from flowing over to the next line in inappropriate places.

Thank you for your attention and help regarding this.

Event Timeline

TadejM renamed this task from Convert Unicode nonbreaking space in VisualEditor to   to Feature request: Easy work with non-breaking spaces in VisualEditor.Feb 6 2021, 11:00 PM
Reedy renamed this task from Feature request: Easy work with non-breaking spaces in VisualEditor to Feature request: Easily work with non-breaking spaces in VisualEditor.Feb 7 2021, 3:18 AM

We've recently done some work related to non-breaking spaces – @TadejM I wonder if you wrote this after reading the note in Tech News, or if it's just a timely coincidence?

(If you'd like to test, please do so on https://en.wikipedia.beta.wmflabs.org/, it's not available on the production Wikimedia wikis yet due to a delay of the deployment train.)

Comparing to your "checklist":

Can be entered with Ctrl+Shift+Space.

Not currently implemented (it can only be entered through the insert symbol menu), but T53045 covers this request.

Is displayed with the degree symbol (°, U+00B0).

Rather than the symbol inspired by Microsoft Word, we went with a grey background inspired by LibreOffice Writer (T96666). It seemed less confusing, considering that we don't have a mode to display non-printing characters, so the symbol/background are always shown.

Gets converted to   in wikitext.

Yep, that works.

Hello, Matmarex. It was only a coincidence. Thank you for your feedback. I look forward to these features.