BR - Line Break

Summary

Syntax	<BR>
Attribute Specifications	CLEAR=[ left | all | right | none ] (clear floating objects) core attributes
Contents	Empty
Contained in	Inline elements, block-level elements

Details

The BR element forces a break in the current line of text. BR can be useful in formatting addresses within the ADDRESS element, but it is often misused to break lines of text in a paragraph or table cell when it looks "nice" to the author. This usually results in an awkward presentation when viewed with a font size other than that used by the author.

The CLEAR attribute of BR is used to move below floating objects (typically images or tables). In the following example, the second paragraph should be rendered below the floating image:

<P><IMG SRC="toronto.jpg" ALIGN=left ALT="" TITLE="Toronto's CN Tower">Toronto is the largest city in Canada and the fourth largest in North America.</P>
<BR CLEAR=left>
<P>The city is highly multicultural, with over 80 ethnic communities from Africa, Asia, and Europe...

Style sheets provide more flexibility in controlling text flow around objects and eliminate the need to use BR for this purpose since CSS1's clear property can be applied to any element (such as the second paragraph in the preceding example).

More Information

• BR in W3C HTML 4.0 Recommendation
• BR in W3C HTML 3.2 Recommendation
• BR in HTML 2.0 Standard
• BR in WDG HTML 3.2 Reference
• BR in Learning HTML 3.2 by Examples

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