Why won't JS rotating text animation recognize white spaces

Question

I am trying to alter this animation https://codepen.io/FTP-Group/pen/GoEZGZ. I would like to display a two word reveal phrase instead of a single word. It is basically not recognizing a space and smooshes the words together (twowords instead of two words). Here is the JS:

var words = document.getElementsByClassName('word');
var wordArray = [];
var currentWord = 0;

words[currentWord].style.opacity = 1;
for (var i = 0; i < words.length; i++) {
  splitLetters(words[i]);
}


function changeWord() {
  var cw = wordArray[currentWord];
  var nw = currentWord == words.length-1 ? wordArray[0] : wordArray[currentWord+1];
  for (var i = 0; i < cw.length; i++) {
    animateLetterOut(cw, i);
  }
  
  for (var i = 0; i < nw.length; i++) {
    nw[i].className = 'letter behind';
    nw[0].parentElement.style.opacity = 1;
    animateLetterIn(nw, i);
  }
  
  currentWord = (currentWord == wordArray.length-1) ? 0 : currentWord+1;
}

function animateLetterOut(cw, i) {
  setTimeout(function() {
        cw[i].className = 'letter out';
  }, i*80);
}

function animateLetterIn(nw, i) {
  setTimeout(function() {
        nw[i].className = 'letter in';
  }, 340+(i*80));
}

function splitLetters(word) {
  var content = word.innerHTML;
  word.innerHTML = '';
  var letters = [];
  for (var i = 0; i < content.length; i++) {
    var letter = document.createElement('span');
    letter.className = 'letter';
    letter.innerHTML = content.charAt(i);
    word.appendChild(letter);
    letters.push(letter);
  }
  
  wordArray.push(letters);
}

changeWord();
setInterval(changeWord, 2000);
delay(7000);

When using a space to separate two words, the animation did not recognize the space as a character. I tried using a non-breaking space, but it just spelled out the code. I am very new to JS and any help is greatly appreciated.

Answer 1

What to do:
Add white-space: pre; to the css rules for .letter.

Explanation:
.letter has display: inline-block, and for this and a few other values of display, by default the leading and trailing spaces are ignored.

This is also the same reason why a <div> element like the following:

<div>
   some text here
</div>

will be displayed as if it were just <div>some text here</div> (unless you set the values of some css properties).

In your case <span class="letter"> </span>, was originally displayed just like <span class="letter"></span> (i.e. without space).

But if you add white-space: pre, then the spaces and new line characters will not be ignored, but will be displayed just like the input.

---

I've copied the code from your codepen here, but I replaced some text and added .white-space: pre. Also, your delay is undefined so I commented it out.

var words = document.getElementsByClassName('word');
var wordArray = [];
var currentWord = 0;

words[currentWord].style.opacity = 1;
for (var i = 0; i < words.length; i++) {
  splitLetters(words[i]);
}


function changeWord() {
  var cw = wordArray[currentWord];
  var nw = currentWord == words.length-1 ? wordArray[0] : wordArray[currentWord+1];
  for (var i = 0; i < cw.length; i++) {
    animateLetterOut(cw, i);
  }
  
  for (var i = 0; i < nw.length; i++) {
    nw[i].className = 'letter behind';
    nw[0].parentElement.style.opacity = 1;
    animateLetterIn(nw, i);
  }
  
  currentWord = (currentWord == wordArray.length-1) ? 0 : currentWord+1;
}

function animateLetterOut(cw, i) {
  setTimeout(function() {
        cw[i].className = 'letter out';
  }, i*80);
}

function animateLetterIn(nw, i) {
  setTimeout(function() {
        nw[i].className = 'letter in';
  }, 340+(i*80));
}

function splitLetters(word) {
  var content = word.innerHTML;
  word.innerHTML = '';
  var letters = [];
  for (var i = 0; i < content.length; i++) {
    var letter = document.createElement('span');
    letter.className = 'letter';
    letter.innerHTML = content.charAt(i);
    word.appendChild(letter);
    letters.push(letter);
  }
  
  wordArray.push(letters);
}

changeWord();
setInterval(changeWord, 2000);
// delay(7000);

@import url(https://fonts.googleapis.com/css?family=Open+Sans:600);

body {
  font-family: 'Open Sans', sans-serif;
  font-weight: 600;
  font-size: 40px;
}

.text {
  position: absolute;
  width: 450px;
  left: 50%;
  margin-left: -225px;
  height: 40px;
  top: 50%;
  margin-top: -20px;
}

p {
  display: inline-block;
  vertical-align: top;
  margin: 0;
}

.word {
  position: absolute;
  width: 220px;
  opacity: 0;
}

.letter {
  display: inline-block;
  position: relative;
  float: left;
  transform: translateZ(25px);
  transform-origin: 50% 50% 25px;
  white-space: pre;
}

.letter.out {
  transform: rotateX(90deg);
  transition: transform 0.42s cubic-bezier(0.55, 0.055, 0.675, 0.19);
}

.letter.behind {
  transform: rotateX(-90deg);
}

.letter.in {
  transform: rotateX(0deg);
  transition: transform 0.48s cubic-bezier(0.175, 0.885, 0.32, 1.275);
}

.wisteria {
  color: #8e44ad;
}

.belize {
  color: #2980b9;
}

.pomegranate {
  color: #c0392b;
}

.green {
  color: #16a085;
}

.midnight {
  color: #2c3e50;
}

<div class="text">
  <p>Nachos are</p>
  <p>
    <span class="word wisteria">very tasty.</span>
    <span class="word belize">very good.</span>
    <span class="word pomegranate">very tasty.</span>
    <span class="word green">very good.</span>
    <span class="word midnight">so great.</span>
  </p>
  <p></p>
</div>