User Tools

mbstring extension must be loaded in order to run mPDF

Context Breaks

Context breaks denote a break in the continuity of the narrative. It represents a shift in thought, time, location, or similar in a work of fiction or non-fiction. These changes are typically represented by a large blank space between paragraphs (double or triple paragraph breaks), which sometimes including asterisms and other decorations (traditionally when the shift occurs immediately at the bottom of a print page where it might not be apparent).

Often images are used to represent context breaks. Images are a suboptimal way to indicate a context change because they carry no semantic information.

For all context breaks, remove decorative image or content break and insert horizontal line.

  • Go to the Home Section of the Ribbon Menu
  • Select the dropdown menu for Borders
  • Select Horizontal line

This will convert to the <hr class="transition"> tag in EPUB.

Here is a link to a video tutorial for Inserting Horizontal Lines in Word.

Sometimes decorative breaks come right before or after a new section (heading). In these cases, we do not need to replace it, rather we can just remove it entirely since the headings imply thematic changes themselves.

Example of a context break

Types of context breaks

If you have any questions, check the archive below, if still not clear, post your question on the Production Q&A

==== Q&A Archive ==== ​

Q: Truth & Honour is using extra space between paragraphs in place of decorative breaks. Should I still treat it as a normal decorative break?​

A: Yes.

Return to main eText Page

public/nnels/etext/text-breaks.txt · Last modified: 2024/02/26 10:25 by rachel.osolen