Footline colobox spacing problems in Beamer?

Question

I've been trying to customize the footline in a beamer template but when I added a fourth box, the spacing went wacko.

Here's my template:

\DeclareOptionBeamer{compress}{\beamer@compresstrue}
\ProcessOptionsBeamer

\mode<presentation>

\useoutertheme[subsection=false]{miniframes}

% Define colors
\definecolor{beamer@blendedblue}{RGB}{26,89,142}
\definecolor{beamer@darkblue}{RGB}{17,59,94}

% Title block
\setbeamercolor*{title}{use=structure,fg=white,bg=beamer@darkblue}
\setbeamertemplate{title page}[default][colsep=-4bp,rounded=true,shadow=true]

% Bottom infolines
\setbeamertemplate{footline}
{
\leavevmode%
\hbox{%
% Name and institution
\begin{beamercolorbox}[wd=0.3\paperwidth,ht=2.3ex,dp=1.25ex,center]{title in head/foot}%
\usebeamerfont{title in head/foot}\insertshortauthor~~\beamer@ifempty{\insertshortinstitute}{}{(\insertshortinstitute)}
\end{beamercolorbox}%
% Short title
\begin{beamercolorbox}[wd=0.4\paperwidth,ht=2.3ex,dp=1.25ex,center]{author in head/foot}%
\usebeamerfont{anthor in head/foot}\insertshorttitle
\end{beamercolorbox}%
% Date
\begin{beamercolorbox}[wd=0.2\paperwidth,ht=2.3ex,dp=1.25ex,center]{title in head/foot}%
\usebeamerfont{title in head/foot}\insertshortdate{}
\end{beamercolorbox}
% Frame counter

\begin{beamercolorbox}[wd=0.1\paperwidth,ht=2.3ex,dp=1.25ex,center]{title in head/foot}%
\usebeamerfont{title in head/foot}\insertframenumber{}\hspace*{1pt}/\hspace*{1pt}\inserttotalframenumber
\end{beamercolorbox}}%
\vskip0pt%
}

% Set themes
\useinnertheme{circles}
\usecolortheme{whale}
\usecolortheme{orchid}

% Set colors
\setbeamercolor{structure}{fg=beamer@blendedblue}
\setbeamercolor{titlelike}{parent=structure}
\setbeamercolor{frametitle}{fg=black}
\setbeamercolor{title}{fg=white}
\setbeamercolor{item}{fg=beamer@blendedblue}

\mode
<all>

And my MWE is:

\documentclass[compress]{beamer}

\usetheme{Bread} % Custom theme (listed above)

\title[Uncertainty in Life]{Uncertainty in Life}
\author[Mr. Smith]{John Smith}
\institute[UN]{University of Nowhere}
\date{November 28, 2012}

\begin{document}
\begin{frame}
\end{frame}
\end{document}

As you can tell from the example, there is a slight space between the first and second box, and a large space between the third and fourth box.

Answer 1

You forgot to add a % at the end of \end{beamercolorbox} on the third box, just on the line above the % Frame counter comment line.

Remember that newline characters count as a space, so adding a comment right at the end of the line sometimes fixes spacing issues as in this case. Also, take into account that blank lines instruct the TeX engine to start a new paragraph.