Learning HTML 3.2 by Examples, section 5 Descriptions of HTML 3.2 tags:

BR - line break

Purpose

To force a line break.

Typical rendering

A line break (but not paragraph break).

Basic syntax

<BR>

Possible attributes (Not in HTML 2.0!)

attribute name possible values meaning notes
CLEAR LEFT, RIGHT, ALL, NONE control of text flow default is NONE; this attribute is deprecated in HTML 4.0

The attribute can be used to move down past floating images on either margin. <BR CLEAR=LEFT> moves down past floating images on the left margin, <BR CLEAR=RIGHT> does the same for floating images on the right margin, while <BR CLEAR=ALL> does the same for such images on both left and right margins.

Allowed context

Text container, i.e. any element that may contain text elements. This includes most HTML elements.

Contents

None.

Examples

A rather typical example where BR is used for getting some text into a line of its own:

Example BR-1.html:

<P>
You should always end the terminal session with the command
<BR>
<KBD>logout</KBD>
<BR>
or some other operation with the same effect.
</P>

Notes

Typical uses of BR:

You should not use BR elements just in order to force the text to be of some particular width which you regard as suitable. It is much better to let browsers do such formatting according to each browsing situation.

See notes on division into lines and the use of blanks and tabs.

Some people use multiple BR elements to force vertical white space. This need not work in all browsers. If you wish to force empty vertical space, consider using a suitable PRE element.



Date of last update: 2010-12-16.
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