span and div tags - a css comparison

For 2023 - we are now fully retired from IT training.
We have made many, many friends over 25 years of teaching about Python, Tcl, Perl, PHP, Lua, Java, C and C++ - and MySQL, Linux and Solaris/SunOS too. Our training notes are now very much out of date, but due to upward compatability most of our examples remain operational and even relevant ad you are welcome to make us if them "as seen" and at your own risk.

Lisa and I (Graham) now live in what was our training centre in Melksham - happy to meet with former delegates here - but do check ahead before coming round. We are far from inactive - rather, enjoying the times that we are retired but still healthy enough in mind and body to be active!

I am also active in many other area and still look after a lot of web sites - you can find an index ((here))

Both <span> and <div> tags allow you to set the style of your text - fonts, colours, weights, and so on. So what is the difference?

A <span>span tag allows you to alter the presentation style within the current hierarchical block, whereas the <div> tag starts a new block for you. And what does this mean? It means that you can specify options such as text alignment within a <div> but not within a <span>.

I understand people like to see these things in action:

Basic Text
A span - brown and should be right

A div - purple and will be right

More basic text

and here's the HTML:

<div style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; border-style: solid; border-color: green; padding: 3px;">
Basic Text<br />
<span style="text-align: right;color: brown;">A span - brown and <i>should</i> be right</span><br />
<div style="text-align: right;color: purple;">A div - purple and <i>will</i> be right</div>
More basic text</div>

Why did I use padding and not margin? Because padding goes into the element and margins go onto the element. That's "inside" v "outside"

Why did I put a <br /> after the brown but not after the purple? Because the <div> tag starts and ends its own block, so there's one there anyway unless you've set it to be inline, whereas there's no such block with the <span>.
(written 2007-01-02)

Associated topics are indexed as below, or enter http://melksh.am/nnnn for individual articles

W702 - Web and Intranet - Elements of cascading style sheets
  [994] Training on Cascading Style Sheets - (2006-12-17)
  [999] Cascading and the buses - (2006-12-18)
  [1017] css - handling white space and pre - (2007-01-01)
  [1677] CSS training - Cascading Style Sheets (UK course) - (2008-06-15)
  [1831] Text formating for HTML, with PHP - (2008-10-11)
  [1998] Text on a background image - (2009-01-16)
  [4037] Cascading Style Sheets and formatting your web page - (2013-03-10)

W509 - Web and Intranet - Style
  [1034] The new web site look spreads - (2007-01-15)
  [1519] Flipping images on your web page - (2008-01-26)
  [2223] CSS Style Diagrams - working out where attributes come from - (2009-06-08)

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