I have a few templates to which I pass extended blocks of text. These can be multi-paragraph with new lines in them that are supposed to break into paragraphs.

The template looks like this:

<div class="wmd-cite-heading"> ==='''[{{{web link}}} {{{title}}} - {{{date}}}]''' {{ #if: {{{author|}}}|by [[{{{author}}}]]}} - [[{{{source}}}]]=== {{ #if: {{{extract|}}}|<div class="wmd-cite"><span class="wmd-cite-sechead">Extract:</span>{{{extract}}}</div>}} </div>

When I pass {{{extract}}} I seem to get unpredictable behaviour. Sometimes the blank lines between paragraphs turn into paragraphs with <p> ... </p> tags and sometimes they don't. I've tracked down the issue and it seems to be that I need to pass at least three paragraphs! If I pass two (exactly) then they run together:

{{Web citation |web link=http://www.google.com |title=Test |author=Me |date=Month dd, YYYY |source=none |wmdsays= |extract=para1

para2}}

{{Web citation |web link=http://www.google.com |title=another test |author=someone else |date=July 1, 2002 |source=Some place on the net |extract=A longer para1.

Para2

Para3}}

Gives:

<div class="wmd-cite"><span class="wmd-cite-sechead">Extract:</span>para1 para2</div>

and <div class="wmd-cite"><span class="wmd-cite-sechead">Extract:</span>A longer para1. <p>Para2

</p> Para3</div>

OK... Para1 and Para3 are not inside <p></p> but I'll cope but why must I have 3 paras not 2?

Bit of an esoteric question but I'd love to know.

Gadgetdoctor

Is there some speciall secret when passing multi line parameters?