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**Category:** Rails\
**Created:** [March 19, 2006, 3:36am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/pretty-printing-x-html-output/55286 "2006-03-19T03:36:28Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 1
**Author:**  [@uberkorp](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/uberkorp)\
**Post date:** [March 19, 2006, 3:36am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/pretty-printing-x-html-output/55286/1 "2006-03-19T03:36:28Z")
I’ve gone down (hopefully the correct) route of breaking up my layout(s)
into
common/generic elements such as the html head etc, but when the page
renders
there is no consistency in indenting - it’s all over the place (I’ve
de-tabbed everything with the same result).
Is there a standard/existing way of pretty-printing output? I’ve
searched
without any real joy, only a brief mention of ‘pp’ which I don’t know
how to
use in this context (or even if it’s correct).
I’m utilising partials… my bad?
thanks in advance for any tips/solution
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**Author:**  [@uberkorp](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/uberkorp)\
**Post date:** [March 19, 2006, 4:12am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/pretty-printing-x-html-output/55286/2 "2006-03-19T04:12:42Z")
Alas Scott, html output seems to get no respect in the rails world…
The books, the
tutorials, the apidocs… nothing ever says what specific html the magic
rails
incantations will produce. And what it produced is thrown all
willy-nilly into the page.
Same thing in the java world though… no one cares about html. Sigh.
Anyway, I’ve seen folks recommend the ruby-tidy bridge[1]. Also I would
think that if you
built your pages with Builder[2] (as xhtml docs), that would probably
create a
pretty-printed dump.
Good luck,
b
[1][http://tidy.rubyforge.org/](http://tidy.rubyforge.org/)
[2][Peak Obsession](http://api.rubyonrails.com/classes/Builder/XmlMarkup.html)
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**Author:**  [@uberkorp](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/uberkorp)\
**Post date:** [March 19, 2006, 4:24am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/pretty-printing-x-html-output/55286/3 "2006-03-19T04:24:56Z")
Cheers Ben, I just thought I was missing something obvious - although I
guess
Builder could be called that! - “just output xml and stop mincing about
already!!!”
I _had_ overlooked one rhtml file’s tabs though so at least it’s all
coming
out neatly, if not indented, now.
builder test it is then, thanks again.