vs.
is a non breaking space, which represents an empty space where no line break occurs.
If I use
If I understand your issue this should work
&emsp—the em space; this should be a very wide space, typically as much as four real spaces. &ensp—the en space; this should be a somewhat wide space, roughly two regular spaces. &thinsp—this will be a narrow space, even more narrow than a regular space.
Sources: http://hea-www.harvard.edu/~fine/Tech/html-sentences.html