Wikimedia Bugzilla is closed!

Yes this is not a huge item. 

It's mostly because a situation exists where you _can't_ get mediawiki to render aligned, and sometimes it would be nice to. So a request for a minor markup addition to allow it.

Situation: for whatever reason you're presenting a bullet or numbered list where one item spans multiple lines. For example, a long analysis of an article issue or dispute, where point 1 might be 2 paragraphs, or (paragraph + indented quote from policy + paragraph) for example.

The only way to do this is <br /> code inline, or bullets/numbers with an appended ":" to prevent the bullet or number being rendered. But this is problematic for alignment. Examples:


:* Your first point is good, but your second is wrong. This was the actual quote:
:*: '''"(longish extract from policy indented for readability)"'''
:: Please check and let me know if that makes sense. ~~~~

OR

:* Your first point is good, but your second is wrong. This was the actual quote:<br />'''"(longish extract from policy indented for readability)"'''<br />Please check and let me know if that makes sense. ~~~~

We get by it by either using <br /> which doesn't allow indenting for ease of reading, or by using :: rather than :* to continue. 

But note that :* and :: don't indent to the same position.

Now suppose the list is numbered. Now you simply can't do it at all. This is the best you can do with markup if the indent would be helpful, and it renders * horribly *:

# Your first point is good, but your second is wrong. This was the actual quote:
#:: '''"(longish extract from policy indented for readability)"'''
#: Please check and let me know if that makes sense. ~~~~


So a request, to create one extra markup item, that can be used like this:


# Your first point is good, but your second is wrong. This was the actual quote:
#: '''"(longish extract from policy indented for readability)"'''
#! Please check and let me know if that makes sense. ~~~~

or some suitable symbol that doesn't often follow a # * or :, which the rendering engine interprets as "Indent to the same position as if it were a bullet or number, but do NOT add the bullet or number to the left, and do not increment the number". Thus:


:* Your first point is good, but your second is wrong. This was the actual quote:
:*: '''"(longish extract from policy indented for readability)"'''
:*! Please check and let me know if that makes sense. ~~~~

would cause the "please" to be alligned to the same position as an ordinary :* but without a bullet showing, so it would look like a continuation of the first line.

And:

# Your first point is good, but your second is wrong. This was the actual quote:
#: '''"(longish extract from policy indented for readability)"'''
#! Please check and let me know if that makes sense.
# Your second point is valid though. ~~~~

would treat the third line a bit like a "#:" only indented to the same position as the text after a normal #, so it is clearly a continuation of point 1.


I think this would be very useful. Willing to clarify if needed.