Dynamic HTML: The Definitive Reference

Name

<SPAN> — NN 4 IE 3 HTML 4

Synopsis

<SPAN>...</SPAN>

End Tag: Required

The SPAN element gives structure and context to any inline content in a document. Unlike some other structural elements that have very specific connotations attached to them (the P element, for instance), the author is free to give meaning to each particular SPAN element by virtue of the element’s attribute settings and nested content. Each SPAN element becomes a generic container for all content within the required start and end tags.

It is convenient to use the SPAN element as a wrapper for a small inline chunk of content that is to be governed by a style sheet rule. For example, if you want to differentiate a few words in a paragraph with the equivalent of a small caps look, you would wrap the affected words with a SPAN element whose style sheet defines the requested font and text styles. Such a style sheet could be defined as an inline STYLE attribute of the SPAN element or assigned via the CLASS or ID attribute depending on the structure of the rest of the document.

If you need an arbitrary container for block-level content, use the DIV element.

HTML 4.0 defines many more attributes for the SPAN element than are implemented in Version 4 browsers. The breadth of HTML attributes indicates the potential powers of this generic element to include links to related resources and many advisory attributes about those links. The same set of attributes apply to the DIV element in the HTML 4.0 specification.

Example ...