Div

Division Marker End Tag: Required Support Key: 2 \| 3 \| 3.2 \| 4 \| IE3A1 \| M \| N2 \| O2.1	What is it? Attributes Tag Example	Parent/Content Model Tips & Tricks Browser Peculiarities
= Index DOT Html by Brian Wilson [bloo@blooberry.com] =

What is it?: The DIV element is a generic, catch-all Block Formatting element with an implied line break before and after. Within the realm of Style Sheets, this element is nestable to allow hierarchies of sections, subsections or chapters to be defined. This nesting ability also allows for powerful Style Sheet mechanisms to be applied.

The recent addition of the many linking attributes to DIV and SPAN appear to be an attempt to expand the generic block and in-line capabilities of these two elements.

Common Attributes
%Core%: 2 | 3 | 3.2 | 4 | IE3 | M | N4B2 | O
%Events%: 2 | 3 | 3.2 | 4 | IE4B1 | M | N | O
%Language%: 2 | 3 | 3.2 | 4 | IE4 | M | N | O
Specific Attributes
Align
2 | 3 | 3.2 | 4 | IE3A1 | M | N2 | O2.1: Required? No; Description:
This indicates the horizontal alignment of the Division block text in the browser window. These values can be over-ridden by style sheets values.; Values: Left [DEFAULT] | Center | Right | Justify
Clear
2 | 3 | 3.2 | 4 | IE | M | N | O2.1: Required? No; Description:
This attribute helps an author in situations with floating objects (images, tables, etc.) produced through the Left and Right ALIGN attributes. It allows content to stop being flowed around the floated element.; Values:
   None [DEFAULT - No special line breaking effects are applied relative to the floating element.]
   Left [breaks line after this element and moves down vertically until the right margin is clear of floated objects.]
   Right [breaks line after this element and moves down vertically until the right margin is clear of floated objects.]
   All [breaks line after this element and moves down vertically until both margins are clear of floated objects.]

Example: <div ALIGN="right" CLASS="greensection" STYLE="color: lime">text</div>

Tips & Tricks

The DIV element is an all-purpose, generalized HTML Block Structure. Use this element when you wish to define a block or section of Styled text, and SPAN when you wish to create a generalized in-line Character Formatting element.
Note that the DIV element was not listed in the Block Formatting section, even though it is a Block Level element. DIV is a generic element and does not attach any semantic meaning. It is of greatest use when working with Style Sheets, so it is grouped with other elements of this category.
DIV CLASSes can be nested. This allows for more powerful Style Sheet mechanisms. An author can abuse this capability by using negative margin values to create content that overlaps other content. This effect can be achieved more reliably using properties specified in the CSS positioning draft. The design possibilities using overlapping content are enormous - but understanding the issues of such constructs is essential.
Use of the CENTER element to center align text in a block is still recommended slightly over use of DIV because more older browsers support it. This difference in support is quickly changing though.
Along the same lines, HTML 3.2 classifies <center> as a shorthand notation of <div ALIGN="center">. This effectively makes the CENTER tag a "subset" of DIV.
DTD NOTE: Alignment attributes do not react very well with the MULTICOL element.

Browser Peculiarities

The 'justify' value of the ALIGN attribute is currently only supported in Netscape and Internet Explorer, versions 4.0 Beta 2 and above.

Division Marker