DIV - Generic Block-level Container

Summary

Syntax	<DIV>...</DIV>
Attribute Specifications	ALIGN=[ left | center | right | justify ] (horizontal alignment) common attributes
Contents	Inline elements, block-level elements
Contained in	APPLET, BLOCKQUOTE, BODY, BUTTON, CENTER, DD, DEL, DIV, FIELDSET, FORM, IFRAME, INS, LI, MAP, NOFRAMES, NOSCRIPT, OBJECT, TD, TH

Details

The DIV element defines a generic block-level container, allowing authors to provide style or language information to blocks of content. The element may contain any inline or block-level element, including another DIV.

The DIV element is most useful in combination with the CLASS, ID, or LANG attributes. For example, a navigation bar could be contained within a DIV marked as CLASS=navbar, allowing the author to use style sheets to easily change the background of all navigation bars on a site, or to eliminate navigation bars when printing.

The deprecated ALIGN attribute suggests the horizontal alignment for the content of the division on visual browsers. Possible values are left, right, center, and justify. <CENTER> is a slightly better-supported alias for <DIV ALIGN=center>, though both methods of centering are deprecated in favor of style sheets, which provide greater flexibility in suggesting alignment.

SPAN is a text-level equivalent of DIV for use within paragraphs and inline elements.

More Information

• DIV in W3C HTML 4.0 Recommendation
• DIV in W3C HTML 3.2 Recommendation
• DIV in WDG HTML 3.2 Reference
• DIV in Learning HTML 3.2 by Examples

Copyright © John Pozadzides and Liam Quinn. All rights reserved.