Every HTML element has a default display
value that dictates if it can share horizontal space with other elements. Some elements fill the entire browser from left to right regardless of the size of their content. Other elements only take up as much horizontal space as their content requires and can be directly next to other elements.
In this lesson, we’ll cover three values for the display
property: inline
, block
, and inline-block
.
The default display
for some elements, such as <em>
, <strong>
, and <a>
, is called inline. Inline elements have a box that wraps tightly around their content, only taking up the amount of space necessary to display their content and not requiring a new line after each element. The height and width of these elements cannot be specified in the CSS document. For example, the text of an anchor tag (<a>
) will, by default, be displayed on the same line as the surrounding text, and it will only be as wide as necessary to contain its content. inline
elements cannot be altered in size with the height
or width
CSS properties.
To learn more about <em>inline</em> elements, read <a href="#">MDN documentation</a>.
In the example above, the <em>
element is inline
, because it displays its content on the same line as the content surrounding it, including the anchor tag. This example will display:
To learn more about inline elements, read MDN documentation.
The CSS display
property provides the ability to make any element an inline element. This includes elements that are not inline by default such as paragraphs, divs, and headings.
h1 { display: inline; }
The CSS in the example above will change the display of all <h1>
elements to inline
. The browser will render <h1>
elements on the same line as other inline elements immediately before or after them (if there are any).
Instructions
In index.html, add opening and closing <strong></strong>
tags around the word “Welcome”. Notice that the element does not move. That’s because <strong>
elements are inline, so they can share lines with other elements.