Line/paragraph breaks in text fields

[Marc]

Hello,

I can't seem to get the paragraph or line breaks to work in the text fields per the manual. I've tried <p>, <br>, <lb> all with various iterations of spacing (or not). 

I can get the emphasis 'bold' tag to work, so I know some of the formatting is taking (I'm in the Content Description field, not that it should matter).

Anyone else have this issue or a solution?

Thanks,
Marc

-

Acquisition Archivist

State of Michigan Archives

[Sfirri, Sam]

Hi Marc,

We just discovered some finding aids with no line breaks in some open text fields and this very simple trick solved the issue: you can simply hit return twice in the user interface, like this:

I hope this helps!

Sam

Sam Sfirri, MLIS, DAS (he/him)

Collections Archivist, Z. Smith Reynolds Library

Wake Forest University

336.758.5089 | sfi...@wfu.edu

https://zsr.wfu.edu/special/

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[Marc]

Hi Sam; I appreciate the tip. It didn't work unfortunately.

[boz...@nd.edu]

Hi, Marc.

I suspect the reason the bold tag (nowadays known as the "bring attention to element" tag) works is that you used both an opening and closing tag like <b>bold text</b>. You have to do the same thing with other HTML tags to make them compliant with XML. Like this: <p>This is a paragraph.</p> or "Here is a break<br /> in a line." Notice the break tag is self-closing.

I hope this'll work for you.

Andy

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[Marc]

Andy,

Thanks for the reply; I've tried all the iterations (in the Content Description and Location/User Defined fields), to no avail. It shows it working in the manual in "any text" field but I've had no luck.

"Trying to see if format is kept. This is a longer string to get to the end of the text box; not sure if it will work or not, but I need to try all the things.<br />Paragraph 4 has single line break between. Paragraph 5 after insert. Hitting enter twice: did that work?"

Neither of these worked (and I've tried the <p> tag as well).

Best,

Marc

[Blake Carver]

What does the HTML look like? Are the tags just being stripped out?

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Subject: Re: [ArchivesSpace Users Group] Line/paragraph breaks in text fields

 

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[Marc]

Hi Blake,

No HTML; I'm just entering plain text into the field and trying to use the tags (see attached for the result).

Best,

Marc

[Sfirri, Sam]

Hi Marc,

Here is what the XML looks like for a scope note with line breaks. You'll see that they are simply <p> tags:

It is worth mentioning that our web services librarian has built out our finding aid portal to anticipate this tag (in DSpace), so I wonder if this is a web formatting rather than an ASpace issue. Just thinking out loud.

Sam

Sam Sfirri, MLIS, DAS (he/him)

Collections Archivist, Z. Smith Reynolds Library

Wake Forest University

336.758.5089 | sfi...@wfu.edu

https://zsr.wfu.edu/special/

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[Nancy Kennedy]

Marc, 

You mentioned that you're editing the 'Content Description'... Are you working in the Accession records, vs Resource records?  Accessions fields do not have as many note rendering options as the Resource/Archival Object record Notes sub-records. 

Nancy

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[Marc]

Nancy,

Perhaps this is the issue as I'm working with an Accession record.

Thanks!

Marc

[Sfirri, Sam]

Nancy’s response sounds right to me.

Sam

Sam Sfirri, MLIS, DAS (he/him)

Collections Archivist, Z. Smith Reynolds Library

Wake Forest University

336.758.5089 | sfi...@wfu.edu

https://zsr.wfu.edu/special/

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[McLaughlin, Brianna Jean]

Hi Marc,

 

For what it’s worth, I opened a ticket about line breaks and other text formatting in accession records that is ready to be included in a future ArchivesSpace release. Feel free to watch/like/comment on the ticket to get updates!

 

Best,

 

Bri McLaughlin, she/her/hers

Digital Collections Librarian

Indiana University 

812-856-3321

Please note that my e-mail address has changed from brij...@indiana.edu to brij...@iu.edu

 

 

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Subject: [External] Re: [ArchivesSpace Users Group] Line/paragraph breaks in text fields

 

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Nancy,

 

Perhaps this is the issue as I'm working with an Accession record.

Thanks!

Marc

On Thursday, April 30, 2026 at 12:10:23 PM UTC-4 Nancy Kennedy wrote:

Marc, 

You mentioned that you're editing the 'Content Description'... Are you working in the Accession records, vs Resource records?  Accessions fields do not have as many note rendering options as the Resource/Archival Object record Notes sub-records. 

 

Nancy

 

 

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Sent: Thursday, April 30, 2026 11:58 AM
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Cc: Blake Carver <blake....@lyrasis.org>

Subject: Re: [ArchivesSpace Users Group] Line/paragraph breaks in text fields

Hi Blake,

No HTML; I'm just entering plain text into the field and trying to use the tags (see attached for the result).

Best,

Marc

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