and re "those <p> tags:
inside the list items, they force (usually) a blank line which trails the content so that there's a blank line between bullets.

eg:

<ul>
<li><p>foo</p></li>
<li><p>foo1</p></li>
<li>foo2</li>
<li>foo3</li>
</ul>

[download]
will look like this: 
∙ foo

∙ foo1

∙ foo2
∙ foo3

And, as ikegami said, you can control the presentation with css -- http://www.w3schools.com/ has a decent tutorial if you're unfamiliar with style sheets. Once you have the basics, you may find it worthwhile to read the various css specs at http://www.w3.org/Style/CSS/.

For a example (anything more is well outside the scope of the Monastery), change the display of those updated for clarity the content of the list-items with something like this (inline for ease of display):

<ul>
<li><p style="color: red; background-color: transparent; font-size: 1.
+1em; font-weight:bold;">foo</p></li>
<li><p style="color: #000000; background-color: #dddddd;; font-size: 1
+.1em; font-weight:bold;">foo1</p></li>
<li style="color: blue; background-color: transparent; font-size: 1.1e
+m; font-weight:bold;">foo2</li>
<li style="font-size: 1.1em; font-weight:bold;">foo3</li>
</ul>

[download]

which would give you bold, slightly larger than normal-font-size type, with "foo" in red; "foo1" in black on a silver background; "foo2" in blue, and "foo3" in black again (assuming you had not used some other color as a default for the page.

Update ikegami provides a more technical (and CORRECT) answer; however, if you're just starting with css the code and descriptions of the rendering are correct; the statement re the placement of the blank lines is imprecise ok, admit it! wrong.

In reply to Re: Creating not so plain documentation by ww
in thread Creating not so plain documentation by punkish

Title:
Use:  <p> text here (a paragraph) </p>
and:  <code> code here </code>
to format your post, it's "PerlMonks-approved HTML":


  • Posts are HTML formatted. Put <p> </p> tags around your paragraphs. Put <code> </code> tags around your code and data!
  • Titles consisting of a single word are discouraged, and in most cases are disallowed outright.
  • Read Where should I post X? if you're not absolutely sure you're posting in the right place.
  • Please read these before you post! —
  • Posts may use any of the Perl Monks Approved HTML tags:
    a, abbr, b, big, blockquote, br, caption, center, col, colgroup, dd, del, details, div, dl, dt, em, font, h1, h2, h3, h4, h5, h6, hr, i, ins, li, ol, p, pre, readmore, small, span, spoiler, strike, strong, sub, summary, sup, table, tbody, td, tfoot, th, thead, tr, tt, u, ul, wbr
  • You may need to use entities for some characters, as follows. (Exception: Within code tags, you can put the characters literally.)
            For:     Use:
    & &amp;
    < &lt;
    > &gt;
    [ &#91;
    ] &#93;
  • Link using PerlMonks shortcuts! What shortcuts can I use for linking?
  • See Writeup Formatting Tips and other pages linked from there for more info.