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Divvying up the <div> tags

March 24, 2006

The <div> tag is a block-level element that should be used to define the alignment and style of certain sections in your HTML document.

By identifying or labeling your <div> tag, it will call to your site’s CSS to grab up your desired formatting for whatever portion of text or block of space you are enclosing within the <div> tags.

This website’s left menu is defined by the following <div> tag.

Placed within the web page’s html code:

The open <div> tag is named ‘left-menu’ and then, of course, we cannot forget to close the </div> tag.

Placed within an external style sheet:

By applying a <div> tag and naming it to call to our site’s CSS we are able to define WHERE it rests on the page, how wide it is, how much padding we want, the background color, text color, and font-family.

Using <div> tags reduces bloated markup, and in addition, allows for quick site-wide changes to any block of text by manipulating the CSS above.

RE: Because the <div> tag is considered a block element, browsers will usually block it off much like the <p> element – with extra line spacing both before and after the tag.

To read up on <div> tags:

• W3Schools - HTML div Tag
• W3.org - Grouping Elements: The <div> and <span> elements
• Webmonkey - The Wonderful <div> Tag Makes Markup Easier