HTML Reference - Paragraph Formatting

HTML Reference

Paragraph Formatting

Division Tag

The <div> tag was added to HTML with version 3. It can be used to control the alignment of a section (or the whole) of a document.

Syntax	HTML	Text
`<div align=left> ... </div> <div align=center> ... </div> <div align=right> ... </div>`	`<div align=center>All the paragraphs. <p>Will be centered</div>`	All the paragraphs. Will be centered

The align attribute has another option, justify, but it is not support by any browsers, yet.

Paragraph Tag

HTML provides only limited paragraph formatting commands. The most fundamental is the paragraph tag itself! Each paragraph should begin with a start paragraph tag <p> and should end with an end paragraph tag </p>. In reality, most people ignore the end paragraph tag. In many cases people skip the start paragraph tag when it's superfluous such as after another end tag.

Syntax HTML Text

Syntax	HTML	Text
`<p> ... </p>`	`<p>this is the first paragraph, it will continue until the end tag</p> <p>or until another start paragraph tag <p>is encountered.`	this is the first paragraph, it will continue until the end tag or until another start paragraph tag is encountered.
`<p align=left> ... </p> <p align=center> ... </p> <p align=right> ... </p>`	`<p align=center>this paragraph is centred</p>`	this paragraph is centred

<p> ... </p>

<p>this is the first
        paragraph,

        it will continue until the end

        tag</p>

        <p>or until another start

        paragraph tag

        <p>is encountered.

this is the first paragraph, it will continue until the end tag

or until another start paragraph tag

is encountered.

<p align=left> ...
        </p>

        <p align=center> ... </p>

        <p align=right> ... </p>

<p align=center>this
        paragraph

        is centred</p>

this paragraph is centred

Break Tag

The break tag <br> is used to force the browser to start a new line! The break tag <br> has been extended to allow image alignment to be terminated.

Syntax	HTML	Text
`<br>`	`this text will have<br>a break in the middle!`	this text will have a break in the middle!
`<br clear=left\|right\|all>`	`<img src="star.gif" align=left width=30 height=30>this text will wrap around the image <br clear=left> until the break.`	this text will wrap around the image until the break.

See "Image Attributes" for information on image alignment.

No Break Tag

The no break tag <nobr> is a Netscape extension to HTML that ensures that the browser does not start a new line within the text with the tag. This tag should be used with care, because if too much text is included in the tags then it may make it difficult for the browser to format the text, or the result could look ragged.

Syntax	HTML	Text
`<nobr> ... text ... </nobr>`	`Today's date is <nobr>Sunday 16th July 1995.</nobr>`	Today's date is Sunday 16th July 1995.

Heading Tags

There are six tags used to mark Headings: <h1> to <h6>. The higher the number the smaller the heading should be. Remember that the character formatting (font, size etc) can be set by each user... so don't assume that the font (or the font size) is the one you see on your browser!

<h1>Major
        Title</h1>

The heading tags are binary tags, so make sure you remember to include the closing tag.

Blockquote

Blockquote produces text that is indented in from both the left and right margins. The tag is intended to be used, as the name suggests, for paragraphs quoted from some source.

Syntax	HTML	Text
`<blockquote> ... text ... </blockquote>`	`<blockquote> Mary had a little lamb, its fleece was white as snow, and it was <b>bold</b> and quite <i>italic!</i></blockquote>`	Mary had a little lamb, its fleece was white as snow, and it was bold and quite italic!

Note that blockquote can be used with other tags...

Preformat

The <pre> tag is used to get fixed-width characters. In addition, the browser places new lines wherever they occur in the text. Normally the browser will ignore any new lines or spaces that are in the text, it will write the text across the page until it reaches the edge of the window!

Syntax	HTML	Text
`<pre> ... text ... </pre>`	<pre> As you can see the <b>Pre-Format</b> tag can be very useful!!! </pre>	As you can see the Pre-Format tag can be very useful!!!

Code Example

The <xmp> tag is very similar to <pre> but it ignores any tags (or special characters) that are placed in the text. For example, if you include <h1> in the text, it is treated like any text...

It's important to note that the browser will also ignore any character formatting such as <b> - the tag will simply be displayed like any other text.

Syntax	HTML	Text
`<xmp> ...text... </xmp>`	<xmp> All HTML tags are ignored until the end tag is encountered, so if you put <h1> inside <xmp> text, it is treated like any text! This is very useful when giving examples of HTML! </xmp>

Address Tag

This tag is used to enclose information such as "address, signature and authorship" (for more details see "HTML Document Structure"), the text in the tag is normally shown as italic.

Syntax	HTML	Text
`<address> ...text... </address>`	`<address> written by Stephen Peter<br> School of Architecture, UNSW </address>`	written by Stephen Peter School of Architecture, UNSW

Note that break and paragraph tags are allowed within the tag.

Center Tag

This tag is absolete use <div align=center> or <p align=center> instead!

Center does exactly what you would guess! All the information from the start tag <center> to the end tag </center> is centred. The tag is also an implied break tag, Netscape will start a new line for the centred text. Inside tables use <td align=center>.

Syntax	HTML	Text
`<center> ...text... </center>`	`All good fish <center> swim round and round </center> in the water!`

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Last Updated: 28 September 1998