Implement line breaks

[natcohen]

I know, it's a frequent posted issue and I already found the solutions but I think we should be able to implement it so it becomes transparent to the user. Here is what I do to keep the format and add break lines:

{#multilines}{line}
{\multilines}

And in my JavaScript code, I break my text as follow:

var multilines = [];
for(var int = 0; int < text.split('\n').length; int++){
    multilines.push({'line': text.split('\n')[int]});
}

So my question is, if we can do it like that, would it be possible to use normal variable in the docx {text} and detect line breaks in the JavaScript library and implement it transparently so the user doesn't need to take care of this? The line break is so useful that I really think we should find a way to make it work by default...

What do you think?

[edi9999]

I have just added a section about this problem in the new FAQ : http://docxtemplater.readthedocs.org/en/latest/faq.html#how-to-insert-linebreaks

It permits you to write {@text|rawHtml} when text is 'line1\nline2'

What do you think ?

[natcohen]

@edi9999 I don't really like this solution because it doesn't keep the formatting from the docx. Imagine you have different docx with different formatting and you want to add some text with line breaks... The solution I propose keeps the formatting.
I was just wondering if we can make it transparent to the user meaning that if the text has line breaks, we automatically change the docx from a normal {text} to what I proposed...is that possible?

[edi9999]

The problem is that it is not possible to do the transformation :

{text}
to:

{#multilines}{line}
{\multilines}

because {text} is an inline element. And

{#multilines}{line}
{\multilines} 

are inline elements separated by a block element.

I think it would be possible to keep the formatting when inserting linebreaks only if you implement some logic to copy the style from one paragraph to the other. However, I don't wish that to be in docxtemplater core. But I think it would be a great opportunity to create a module : https://github.com/open-xml-templating/docxtemplater#modules

[edi9999]

If the docx was html (which is similar to xml), it would like to be the following:

<p>
<span>Hello <b>{text}</b>
</span>
</p>

<p>
<span>Hello <b>{text}</b>
</span>
</p>

<p>
<span>Hello <b>{text}</b>
</span>
</p>

with text = "john \n mary \n henry" should be transformed into :

<p>
<span>Hello <b>John</b>
</span>
</p>
<p>
<span><b>Mary</b>
</span>
</p>
<p>
<span><b>Henry</b>
</span>
</p>

I think that shows you the complexity.

[araneta]

i tried this http://docxtemplater.readthedocs.io/en/latest/faq.html#how-to-insert-linebreaks it works but the font family changed to times new roman instead of arial. and the text location is changed to the left side instead of on the right side.
what should i do?

[edi9999]

Can you open a new issue for this @araneta ?

[araneta]

@edi9999 i opened new issue line break bug #407

[edi9999]

This is now fixed in version 3.8.0 with the option :

doc.setOptions({linebreaks: true});