# Giving panel users indentation control in a textarea **URL:** \ **Category:** Questions\ **Tags:** v2\ **Created:** [September 16, 2016, 6:32am UTC](https://forum.getkirby.com/t/giving-panel-users-indentation-control-in-a-textarea/5270 "2016-09-16T06:32:10Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 12\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![simonxciv](https://dub1.discourse-cdn.com/flex017/user_avatar/forum.getkirby.com/simonxciv/32/1456_2.png) [@simonxciv](https://forum.getkirby.com/u/simonxciv)\ **Post date:** [September 16, 2016, 6:32am UTC](https://forum.getkirby.com/t/giving-panel-users-indentation-control-in-a-textarea/5270/1 "2016-09-16T06:32:10Z")
Hi again everyone, Hopefully a straightforward question, but perhaps not. For a site I’m working on at the moment, I’d like to be able to give users the ability to control the indentation inside a textarea field by entering spaces preceding lines of text. Currently, doing so would change the text to a code block. Is there any way to change this behaviour so the kirbytext processor turns each space preceding text on a new line into ` ` characters? Thanks in advance for any help or ideas 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![texnixe](https://dub1.discourse-cdn.com/flex017/user_avatar/forum.getkirby.com/texnixe/32/5754_2.png) [@texnixe](https://forum.getkirby.com/u/texnixe)\ **Post date:** [September 16, 2016, 6:56am UTC](https://forum.getkirby.com/t/giving-panel-users-indentation-control-in-a-textarea/5270/2 "2016-09-16T06:56:50Z")
What is your use case for this? ---
**Author:** ![simonxciv](https://dub1.discourse-cdn.com/flex017/user_avatar/forum.getkirby.com/simonxciv/32/1456_2.png) [@simonxciv](https://forum.getkirby.com/u/simonxciv)\ **Post date:** [September 16, 2016, 7:18am UTC](https://forum.getkirby.com/t/giving-panel-users-indentation-control-in-a-textarea/5270/3 "2016-09-16T07:18:37Z")
It’s an odd use case, but my users will be posting poetry that requires some quirky line indents. None of them are technical enough to know about adding classes to `

` tags for example, which is a solution I’d considered too. ---

**Author:** ![texnixe](https://dub1.discourse-cdn.com/flex017/user_avatar/forum.getkirby.com/texnixe/32/5754_2.png) [@texnixe](https://forum.getkirby.com/u/texnixe)\ **Post date:** [September 16, 2016, 7:23am UTC](https://forum.getkirby.com/t/giving-panel-users-indentation-control-in-a-textarea/5270/4 "2016-09-16T07:23:43Z")
You could probably use a kirbytext pre filter: [https://getkirby.com/docs/developer-guide/kirbytext/filters](https://getkirby.com/docs/developer-guide/kirbytext/filters) to prevent the default markdown behaviour and convert those spaces to ` ` characters, maybe this is possible with some regex voodoo. ---
**Author:** ![simonxciv](https://dub1.discourse-cdn.com/flex017/user_avatar/forum.getkirby.com/simonxciv/32/1456_2.png) [@simonxciv](https://forum.getkirby.com/u/simonxciv)\ **Post date:** [September 16, 2016, 8:04am UTC](https://forum.getkirby.com/t/giving-panel-users-indentation-control-in-a-textarea/5270/5 "2016-09-16T08:04:33Z")
Thanks for the link, I’ll check it out shortly 🙂 > [@texnixe](#): > > regex voodoo Those are two words that genuinely terrify me! Haha ---
**Author:** ![texnixe](https://dub1.discourse-cdn.com/flex017/user_avatar/forum.getkirby.com/texnixe/32/5754_2.png) [@texnixe](https://forum.getkirby.com/u/texnixe)\ **Post date:** [September 16, 2016, 8:07am UTC](https://forum.getkirby.com/t/giving-panel-users-indentation-control-in-a-textarea/5270/6 "2016-09-16T08:07:13Z")
Is there a pattern regarding the spaces? Are they only at the beginning of a line after a new line? ---
**Author:** ![simonxciv](https://dub1.discourse-cdn.com/flex017/user_avatar/forum.getkirby.com/simonxciv/32/1456_2.png) [@simonxciv](https://forum.getkirby.com/u/simonxciv)\ **Post date:** [September 16, 2016, 8:10am UTC](https://forum.getkirby.com/t/giving-panel-users-indentation-control-in-a-textarea/5270/7 "2016-09-16T08:10:02Z")
They will often be at the start of a new line inside a paragraph (after a `
`), or sometimes the beginning of a paragraph. ---
**Author:** ![texnixe](https://dub1.discourse-cdn.com/flex017/user_avatar/forum.getkirby.com/texnixe/32/5754_2.png) [@texnixe](https://forum.getkirby.com/u/texnixe)\ **Post date:** [September 16, 2016, 8:14am UTC](https://forum.getkirby.com/t/giving-panel-users-indentation-control-in-a-textarea/5270/8 "2016-09-16T08:14:02Z")
Maybe it would be easier to use a kirbytag? ```auto (spaces: 4) some text some more text (spaces: 2) and so on ``` ---
**Author:** ![simonxciv](https://dub1.discourse-cdn.com/flex017/user_avatar/forum.getkirby.com/simonxciv/32/1456_2.png) [@simonxciv](https://forum.getkirby.com/u/simonxciv)\ **Post date:** [September 16, 2016, 8:17am UTC](https://forum.getkirby.com/t/giving-panel-users-indentation-control-in-a-textarea/5270/9 "2016-09-16T08:17:54Z")
This seems like a great idea! Why hadn’t I thought of doing it that way? Thanks for your help, I’ll see how I go! ---
**Author:** ![lukasbestle](https://dub1.discourse-cdn.com/flex017/user_avatar/forum.getkirby.com/lukasbestle/32/11437_2.png) [@lukasbestle](https://forum.getkirby.com/u/lukasbestle)\ **Post date:** [September 16, 2016, 9:06am UTC](https://forum.getkirby.com/t/giving-panel-users-indentation-control-in-a-textarea/5270/10 "2016-09-16T09:06:21Z")
That Kirbytag could then also use a class with a left padding/margin instead of inserting spaces directly. Spaces are not very semantic as they are only used for presentation purposes in your use-case, so using CSS would make more sense. ---
**Author:** ![texnixe](https://dub1.discourse-cdn.com/flex017/user_avatar/forum.getkirby.com/texnixe/32/5754_2.png) [@texnixe](https://forum.getkirby.com/u/texnixe)\ **Post date:** [September 16, 2016, 9:17am UTC](https://forum.getkirby.com/t/giving-panel-users-indentation-control-in-a-textarea/5270/11 "2016-09-16T09:17:39Z")
Also may also want to check out this article: [http://www.vianegativa.us/2010/06/how-to-format-poetry-on-the-web-an-incomplete-guide/#css](http://www.vianegativa.us/2010/06/how-to-format-poetry-on-the-web-an-incomplete-guide/#css) ---
**Author:** ![distantnative](https://dub1.discourse-cdn.com/flex017/user_avatar/forum.getkirby.com/distantnative/32/11319_2.png) [@distantnative](https://forum.getkirby.com/u/distantnative)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2025, 4:55pm UTC](https://forum.getkirby.com/t/giving-panel-users-indentation-control-in-a-textarea/5270/12 "2025-02-06T16:55:15Z")
Archived on February 6, 2025, 4:55pm UTC