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<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0//EN"
"http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-html40/strict.dtd">
<html lang=en>
<head>
<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=ISO-8859-1">
<title>SPAN - Generic Inline Container</title>
<link rev=Made href="mailto:liam@htmlhelp.com">
<link rel=Start href="../index.html">
<link rel=StyleSheet href="../style.css" type="text/css">
<link rel=StyleSheet href="../aural.css" type="text/css" media=aural>
<meta name="author" content="Liam Quinn">
<meta name="description" content="A description of HTML 4.0's SPAN element for use as a generic inline container.">
<meta name="keywords" content="span element, generic, inline, container, HyperText Markup Language, HTML, HTML4, HTML 4.0, Web Design Group, WDG, <span> tag">
</head>
<body>
<h2><img src="../wdglogo1.gif" width=250 height=83 alt="The Web Design Group"></h2>
<h1>SPAN - Generic Inline Container</h1>
<table>
<tr valign=top>
<th>Syntax</th>
<td><strong class=required><SPAN></strong>...<strong class=required></SPAN></strong></td>
</tr>
<tr valign=top>
<th>Attribute Specifications</th>
<td>
<ul>
<li><a href="../attrs.html">common attributes</a></li>
</ul>
</td>
</tr>
<tr valign=top>
<th>Contents</th>
<td><a href="../inline.html">Inline elements</a></td>
</tr>
<tr valign=top>
<th>Contained in</th>
<td><a href="../inline.html">Inline elements</a>, <a href="../block.html">block-level elements</a></td>
</tr>
</table>
<p>The <strong class=html>SPAN</strong> element is a <em>generic inline container</em>. <strong class=html>SPAN</strong> carries no structural meaning itself, but it can be used to provide extra structure through its <strong class=html><a href="../attrs.html#lang">LANG</a></strong>, <strong class=html><a href="../attrs.html#dir">DIR</a></strong>, <strong class=html><a href="../attrs.html#class">CLASS</a></strong>, and <strong class=html><a href="../attrs.html#id">ID</a></strong> attributes. <a href="../../css/index.html">Style sheets</a> are often used to suggest a presentation for a given class or ID.</p>
<p><strong class=html>SPAN</strong> should only be used where no other <abbr class=initialism title="HyperText Markup Language">HTML</abbr> <a href="../inline.html">inline element</a> provides a suitable meaning. If a presentation such as bold or italic text would be suitable on visual browsers, authors may prefer to use an appropriate <a href="../fontstyle/index.html">font style element</a>. For example:</p>
<ol class=example>
<li><code class=html><P><SPAN LANG=fr><span lang=fr>La Rvolution Tranquille</span></SPAN> shook Quebec in the early 1960's.</code></li>
<li><code class=html><P><I LANG=fr><span lang=fr>La Rvolution Tranquille</span></I> shook Quebec in the early 1960's.</code></li>
</ol>
<p>These examples are identical in meaning, but the second example uses the <strong class=html><a href="../fontstyle/i.html">I</a></strong> element to suggest italic text.</p>
<p><strong class=html><a href="../block/div.html">DIV</a></strong> is a block-level equivalent of <strong class=html>SPAN</strong> for containing <a href="../block.html">block-level elements</a> such as <strong class=html><a href="../block/p.html">P</a></strong> and <strong class=html><a href="../tables/table.html">TABLE</a></strong>.</p>
<h2>More Information</h2>
<ul>
<li><a href="http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-html40/struct/global.html#edef-SPAN">SPAN in <abbr class=initialism title="World Wide Web Consortium">W3C</abbr> HTML4.0 Recommendation</a></li>
</ul>
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<address>Maintained by <a href="http://www.htmlhelp.com/%7Eliam/">Liam Quinn</a> <<a href="mailto:liam@htmlhelp.com">liam@htmlhelp.com</a>></address>
<p class=toolbar><img src="../wdglogo-small.gif" width=105 height=40 alt="Web Design Group ~"> <a href="../index.html" rel=Start>HTML4.0Reference</a>~ <a href="../olist.html">ElementsbyFunction</a>~ <a href="../alist.html">ElementsAlphabetically</a></p>
<p class=copyright>Copyright © 1998 by <a href="http://www.htmlhelp.com/%7Eliam/">Liam Quinn</a>. This material may be distributed only subject to the terms and conditions set forth in the Open Publication License, v1.0 or later (the latest version is presently available at <a href="http://www.opencontent.org/openpub/">http://www.opencontent.org/openpub/</a>).</p>
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