Template:Aligned couplet
 | This template employs intricate features of template syntax.
You are encouraged to familiarise yourself with its setup and parser functions before editing the template. If your edit causes unexpected problems, please undo it quickly, as this template may appear on a large number of pages. You can conduct experiments, and should test all major changes, in either this template's sandbox, the general template sandbox, or your user space before changing anything here. |
{{Aligned couplet|top1|top2|top3|top4|....|btm1|btm2|btm3|btm4|....|bottom=|top=|height=}}
This template uses a small wiki table to display two lines, probably of poetry, broken into words or groups so that the groups on the two lines are (left) aligned with each other. The first half of the groups are placed on the top line and the second half on the bottom; if there are an odd number the one in the middle is placed at the end of the top line. Up to 10 groups on each line can be handled.
height= The height (with unit) of each line. The default is 2.3ex, found by experiment to give the same line spacing between the two lines as a <br> in normal text.
bottom= Adjust the bottom margin of the table to give a pleasing space before the following text. The default is -0.8ex, found by experiment to give the same spacing to a following text line as as a normal <br> between two text lines. A value of +0.6ex gives the same spacing to the first line of a second {{Aligned couplet immediately following; a positive value will give white space in between.
top= Adjust the top margin of the table to give a pleasing space after the preceding text. The default is -0.9ex, found by experiment to give the same spacing after a preceding text line as as a normal <br> between two text lines. A larger (less negative) value will produce white space after a preceding text line.
Example
[edit]{{Aligned couplet|margin=1ex
| Ti | rat | pari
| Am | I | living (my life)
}}
{{Aligned couplet
| Tiras | ta | kawahat
| You (who) | possess | the skies
}}
|
The non-breaking spaces above are aesthetic, adding a bit of space between the columns. But if an aligned group is intended to be blank, it may need to contain a non-breaking space. Otherwise it may be skipped when rendering, misaligning the rows. Example:
{{Aligned couplet
| a | | | a |
| | a | a | |
}}
| a | a | ||
| a | a |
{{Aligned couplet
| a | | | a |
| | a | a | |
}}
| a | a | |||
| a | a |