Div

Division Marker Support Key: [2\|3\|3.2\|4] [X1\|X1.1] [IE3A1\|M\|N2\|O2.1]	What is it? Attributes Tag Example	Parent/Content Model Tips & Tricks Browser Peculiarities
= Index DOT Html by Brian Wilson =

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Quick Statistics
End Tag:		Required
Standards Details:		In all HTML 4.x/XHTML DTDs
XHTML Modules:		Text
CSS 'display' Type:		"block"
CSS Mapping:		NA
Default Rendering:		NA
Official Docs:		HTML 4.x, XHTML 1.1

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 [-->Index DOT Css] mechanisms to be applied.

Common Attributes
%Core%: [2|3|3.2|4] [X1|X1.1] [IE3|M|N4B2|O3.5]
%Accessibility%: [2|3|3.2|4] [X1|X1.1] [IE4B1|M|N6|O5]
%Events%: [2|3|3.2|4] [X1|X1.1] [IE4B1|M|N6B1|O4]
%Language%: [2|3|3.2|4] [X1|X1.1] [IE4|M|N6B1|O]
%Data%: [2|3|3.2|4] [X1|X1.1] [IE4|M|N|O]
%Editing%: [2|3|3.2|4] [X1|X1.1] [IE5.5|M|N|O]
Specific Attributes
Align
[2|3|3.2|4] [X1|X1.1] [IE3A1|M|N2|O2.1]: Standards Details: Deprecated in HTML 4.x/XHTML 1.0; Dropped in XHTML 1.1.; 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] [X1|X1.1] [IE|M|N|O2.1-6.x]: Standards Details: NA; 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 left 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.]
Cols
[2|3|3.2|4] [X1|X1.1] [IE|M|N4-4.x|O]: Standards Details: NA; Required? No; Description:
This attribute makes the contents of this element behave just like the Netscape MULTICOL element. It indicates the number of columns the contained content will be split into. The browser should try to evenly distribute the content evenly across each of the columns in order to achieve roughly the same column height.; Values: Positive integers, default is 1
Gutter
[2|3|3.2|4] [X1|X1.1] [IE|M|N4-4.x|O]: Standards Details: NA; Required? No; Description:
This attribute controls the amount of pixel space between columns if the COLS attribute is greater than one, just as the corresponding attribute for the MULTICOL element does - otherwise this attribute is ignored.; Values: Specified as positive integers with the default being 10
Height
[2|3|3.2|4] [X1|X1.1] [IE|M|N|O4-6.x]: Standards Details: NA; Required? No; Description:
This attribute explicitly specifies the height of this block element in pixels.; Values: Positive integers.
NoWrap
[2|3|3.2|4] [X1|X1.1] [IE4|M|N|O]: Standards Details: NA; Required? No; Description:
This attribute specifies whether or not the content of the element will use normal HTML linebreaking conventions. If False, normal linebreaking behavior is used. If set to True, the element will not wrap to the rendering viewport unless explicit linebreaking elements are added.; Values: False (DEFAULT), True
May also be used as a standalone attribute, in which case the value is treated as TRUE.
Width
[2|3|3.2|4] [X1|X1.1] [IE|M|N4-4.x|O4-6.x]: Standards Details: NA; Required? No; Description:
As used by Opera, This attribute explicitly specifies the width of this block element in pixels. As used by Netscape, it defines the width of a multiple-column apparatus defined with the COLS and GUTTER attributes present. See the MULTICOL element page for details on the usage of this attribute.; Values: Positive integer pixel values or a percentage of the overall screen width.

Markup example and Tests

<div align="right" class="greensection" style="color: lime">div text</div>

Parent Model: %Block Parent%
Content Model: %In-line Content% | %Block Content%

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 also 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.
Netscape Usage Note: The usage of DIV as a substitute for the MULTICOL element does not appear to have ever been advertised by Netscape. I only found this information by looking through the Mozilla source.

Division Marker