ExpressionEngine Docs

# Text Formatting

- Auto XHTML
- Markdown
- Auto BR
- None

ExpressionEngine has a number of text formatting options that enable you to control how text is rendered within your channel entries and comments.

## Auto XHTML

The purpose of the Auto XHTML option is to make your content semantically and typographically correct. This feature does the following:

- Double Line Breaks are wrapped in paragraph tags: `<p>*content..*</p>`
- Single Line Breaks are turned into `<br />` tags.
- Double quotes are converted to curly double quotes: `"this"` becomes `“this”`
- Single quotes are converted to curly single quotes: `Joe's` becomes `Joe’s`
- Double dashes are converted to em-dashes: `This -- text` becomes `this—text`.
- Three periods are converted to ellipsis: `This...` becomes `this…`

In addition, the Auto XHTML feature intelligently handles text containing block level elements, like `<div>`, `<blockquote>`, etc. so that they are not wrapped in paragraph tags. Further, elements within `<pre>` tags are exempt from the paragraph conversion.

The Auto XHTML Feature can be found in the PUBLISH page of the Control Panel. You’ll see a menu below each entry field with this option. You can also configure your Comment Preferences so that any comments will be formatted this way.

Note: By default, all entries and comments are assigned to this formatting option.

## Markdown

The Markdown option parses all of your content through a Markdown parser and a SmartyPants parser—the parser follows Jon Gruber’s implementation of Markdown for the most part, but adds a few things as well. SmartyPants transforms normal quotes into curly quotes, consecutive dashes into en (`--` into –) and em (`---` into `—`) dashes, and three consecutive periods into an ellipsis (`...` into `…`).

## Auto BR

This Auto BR feature simply converts each line break into an HTML `<br />` tag.

This feature can be found in the PUBLISH page of the Control Panel. Youll see a menu below each entry field with this option. You can also configure your Comment Preferences so that any comments will be formatted this way.

## None

ExpressionEngine will use your text exactly as you have entered it. This includes disabling BBCode.