This is driving me nuts. I'm redesigning a home page for a charity and adding a Paypal donate button. There is too much white space above the paypal button in the sidebar widget, but I can't work out where it is coming from. Any ideas? http://it-teacher.co.uk/tpa/

What kind of widget are you using?
What do you have in the widget?

update: looks like there are a couple <br> in there that are adding the space

This is the bottom widget content, including button code from Paypal

TPAUK is a registered charity No. 1138608. Please support our hosting costs by making a donation. You don't need a Paypal account, you can use use your credit/debit card.<form action="https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr" method="post" target="_top">
<input type="hidden" name="cmd" value="_s-xclick">
<input type="hidden" name="hosted_button_id" value="[deleted]">
<input type="image" src="https://www.paypalobjects.com/en_US/GB/i/btn/btn_donateCC_LG.gif" border="0" name="submit" alt="PayPal – The safer, easier way to pay online.">
<img alt="" border="0" src="https://www.paypalobjects.com/en_GB/i/scr/pixel.gif" width="1" height="1">
</form>

There is no line break before the code.

I thought maybe the CSS was adding space thinking the button was an image or a form, but I can't find that much space anywhere.

Did you add any blank lines or is that exactly what is in the plugin?

It's not a plugin. I copied and pasted the content of the bottom part of the widget. This is the whole content:

Make your Amazon purchases (books, supplements, etc) through our links.
<a href="http://astore.amazon.co.uk/thypatadvuk-21">UK Amazon  </a>               
<a href="http://astore.amazon.com/thyrpatiadvo-20">  USA Amazon</a>

Purchase the <a href="http://tpauk.com/forum/content.php?601-THYROID-PROBLEMS-THE-TPA-GUIDEBOOK">TPA Guidebook</a>

TPAUK is a registered charity No. 1138608.  Please support our hosting costs by making a donation.  You don't need a Paypal account, you can use use your credit/debit card.<form action="https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr" method="post" target="_top">
<input type="hidden" name="cmd" value="_s-xclick">
<input type="hidden" name="hosted_button_id" value="[deleted]">
<input type="image" src="https://www.paypalobjects.com/en_US/GB/i/btn/btn_donateCC_LG.gif" border="0" name="submit" alt="PayPal – The safer, easier way to pay online.">
<img alt="" border="0" src="https://www.paypalobjects.com/en_GB/i/scr/pixel.gif" width="1" height="1">
</form>

see those blank lines? they become <br>'s and that is what is giving you the extra space.

No, I still don't see it. I want the blank lines between paragraphs.

There is no blank line between "you can use use your credit/debit card" and the start of the Paypal button code. But that's where there is a large amount of white space.

I just added that code to a text widget on my site and got this

		<aside id="text-2" class="widget widget_text cf">			<div class="textwidget">Make your Amazon purchases (books, supplements, etc) through our links.
<a href="http://astore.amazon.co.uk/thypatadvuk-21">UK Amazon  </a>               
<a href="http://astore.amazon.com/thyrpatiadvo-20">  USA Amazon</a>

Purchase the <a href="http://tpauk.com/forum/content.php?601-THYROID-PROBLEMS-THE-TPA-GUIDEBOOK">TPA Guidebook</a>

TPAUK is a registered charity No. 1138608.  Please support our hosting costs by making a donation.  You don't need a Paypal account, you can use use your credit/debit card.<form action="https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr" method="post" target="_top">
<input type="hidden" name="cmd" value="_s-xclick">
<input type="hidden" name="hosted_button_id" value="[deleted]">
<input type="image" src="https://www.paypalobjects.com/en_US/GB/i/btn/btn_donateCC_LG.gif" border="0" name="submit" alt="PayPal – The safer, easier way to pay online.">
<img alt="" border="0" src="https://www.paypalobjects.com/en_GB/i/scr/pixel.gif" width="1" height="1">
</form></div>
		</aside><aside id="search-2" class="widget widget_search cf"><form method="get" class="searchform" action="http://192.168.48.99/~paul/wp35/">
	<input type="text" class="field" name="s" value="" />
	<input type="submit" class="submit" name="submit" value="search" />
</form>
</aside>

on your site I see this

<aside id="text-3" class="widget widget_text cf"><h3><span>Support Us</span></h3>			<div class="textwidget"><p>Make your Amazon purchases (books, supplements, etc) through our links.<br />
<a href="http://astore.amazon.co.uk/thypatadvuk-21">UK Amazon  </a><br />
<a href="http://astore.amazon.com/thyrpatiadvo-20">  USA Amazon</a></p>
<p>Purchase the <a href="http://tpauk.com/forum/content.php?601-THYROID-PROBLEMS-THE-TPA-GUIDEBOOK">TPA Guidebook</a></p>
<p>TPAUK is a registered charity No. 1138608.  Please support our hosting costs by making a donation.  You don't need a Paypal account, you can use use your credit/debit card.<br />
<form action="https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr" method="post" target="_top">
<input type="hidden" name="cmd" value="_s-xclick"><br />
<input type="hidden" name="hosted_button_id" value="[deleted]"><br />
<input type="image" src="https://www.paypalobjects.com/en_US/GB/i/btn/btn_donateCC_LG.gif" border="0" name="submit" alt="PayPal – The safer, easier way to pay online."><br />
<img alt="" border="0" src="https://www.paypalobjects.com/en_GB/i/scr/pixel.gif" width="1" height="1"><br />
</form>
</div>
		</aside>

Notice the <p>'s and <br>'s in yours and not in mine?

do you have a tinymce plugin or something else that will change the text installed?

The only active plug-in is soliloquy lite for the slider. There aren't even any security plug-ins as it's only a test site.

GOT IT. Thanks. You see - you're always right and I knew you had to be.

I'd ticked "automatically add paragraphs". In fact, I need to add <br> to space the first paragraphs.

Glad to have helped - I removed the hosted_button_id value from all the posts and I'll mark this as solved. If you have any followup, you can reopen the thread