Web Page Design: HTML/CSS Tutorials: The DIV and SPAN Tags

The <div> and <span> Tags

The <div> tag defines divisions in your Web page such as the footer, navigation or other sections that are unique parts of each page. The primary attributes of the <div> tag are: style, class and ID. When creating a stylesheet, you use the pound sign "#" to indicate ID and a period "." to indicate class. Or if you are using inline CSS you would add the "style" attribute. If you are using both and ID and a class with a <div>, always define the ID first, then the class.

You can apply a class to a specific HTML tag such as <p>, or just as a general class. In the sample below we have defined a "container" division, a class that makes text a light gray, and a class to be applied to a <p> tag to format a quote.

<style type="text/css">
<!--
p {
  margin: 0px;
}
#container {
  font-size: 11px;
  font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;
  line-height: 15px;
  width: 300px;
  text-align: justify;
}
.lighttext {
  color: #666666;
}
p.quote {
  margin-top: 12px;
  padding-left: 24px;
  padding-right: 24px;
  padding-top: 4px;
  padding-bottom: 4px;
  border-top: 1px solid #000000;
  border-bottom: 1px solid #000000;
  text-align: left;
  font-style: italic;
}
-->
</style>

<div id="container">

<p>Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipisicing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exercitation ullamco laboris nisi ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat.</p>

<p class="quote">Duis aute irure dolor in reprehenderit in voluptate <span class="lighttext">velit esse cillum</span> dolore eu fugiat nulla pariatur. Excepteur sint occaecat cupidatat non proident, sunt in culpa qui officia deserunt mollit anim id est laborum.</p>

</div>

IDS vs. CLASSES

The most important thing to remember is that IDs identify a specific element and therefore must be unique on the page - you can only use a specific ID once per Web page. Many browsers do not enforce this rule but it is a basic rule of HTML/XHTML and should be observed. Classes mark elements as members of a group and can be used multiple times, so if you want to define a style which will be applied to multiple elements you should use a class instead.

Classes are useful to apply similar style to a variety of elements. For example, you may wish for all your links to be green and turn orange when a viewer hovers over the link. Using the class attribute in this case makes sense.

IDs are useful to uniquely identify a particular element. For example, you may wish to have all menu links be orange, while content links are green. Placing the menu inside an element which is ID'd as "menu" allows you to make contextual styling based on the section of the page.

What Can Be Done - Tableless!

The standard Lorem Ipsum passage, used since 1500's

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipisicing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exercitation ullamco.

“Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipisicing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exercitation ullamco laboris nisi ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat. Duis aute irure dolor.”

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipisicing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exercitation ullamco laboris nisi ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat. Duis aute irure dolor in reprehenderit in voluptate velit esse cillum dolore eu fugiat nulla pariatur. Excepteur sint occaecat cupidatat non proident, sunt in culpa qui officia deserunt mollit anim id est laborum. Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipisicing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Excepteur sint occaecat cupidatat.

<style type="text/css">
<!--
#container {
  font-family: times, times new roman, serif;
  font-size: 12px;
  width: 400px;
  line-height: 18px;
  color: #000000;
  background: #e6eec4;
  margin-left: auto;
  margin-right: auto;
}
.leftcol {
  float: left;
  width: 100%;
  background: #e6eec4;
  padding-top: 12px;
  padding-right: 0px;
  padding-bottom: 12px;
  padding-left: 12px;
}
p.main {
  text-align: justify;
  padding-left: 12px;
  padding-right: 24px;
}
.quote {
  float: right;
  width: 50%;
  font-size: 14px;
  line-height: 20px;
  text-align: left;
  padding-top: 12px;
  padding-right: 24px;
  padding-bottom: 12px;
  padding-left: 24px;
  font-style: italic;
}
.dropcapleft {
  font-size: 72px;
  line-height: 50px;
  float: left;
  width: 50px;
  color: #666666;
  font-weight: bold;
}
-->
</style>

<div id="container">

<div class="leftcol">

<p class="main" style="text-transform: uppercase;">The standard Lorem Ipsum passage, used since 1500's</p>

<p class="main">Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipisicing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exercitation ullamco.</p>

<div class="quote">

<!-- notice the spacer.gif cheat here -->

<img src="img/spacer.gif" width="1" height="100" align="right" alt="" border="0">

<p><span class="dropcapleft">&ldquo;</span>Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipisicing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exercitation ullamco laboris nisi ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat. Duis aute irure dolor.&rdquo;</p>

</div>

<p class="main">Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipisicing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exercitation ullamco laboris nisi ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat. Duis aute irure dolor in reprehenderit in voluptate velit esse cillum dolore eu fugiat nulla pariatur. Excepteur sint occaecat cupidatat non proident, sunt in culpa qui officia deserunt mollit anim id est laborum. Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipisicing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Excepteur sint occaecat cupidatat.</p>

<p class="main">Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipisicing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exercitation ullamco laboris nisi ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat. Duis aute irure dolor in reprehenderit in voluptate velit esse cillum dolore eu fugiat nulla pariatur.</p>

</div>

</div>

The <div> and <span> Tags

IDS vs. CLASSES

The <span> Tag

What Can Be Done - Tableless!