How to Use Line Breaks in HTML

The line break is a basic part of HTML. Before HTML wizards and add-on technologies, the line break was a real implementer of HTML format. When a designer wanted to create space, it was using line break commands. Line breaks still constitute a vital part of HTML coding, but may be hidden in code or changed to other tag formats as technologies like CSS and browser-oriented readers change the way web sites are coded.

Instructions

1. Learn the tag. It is simple: < br > is inserted anywhere in HTML that the designer wants to make a line break. (Note, because of formatting restrictions, here there are spaces between the brackets and the br characters. In your code, there should be no spaces there.)

2. Put your cursor where you want the line break to be.

3. Enter your tag.

4. Check that the tag is before the new line of text.

5. Go back to your page preview to make sure that the text is spaced the way you want it.

Tips & Warnings

• To use line breaks in HTML, you have to understand that HTML does not recognize the white space in your text editor. Typing in HTML code on a different line does not make the page text appear on a different line. That's what line breaks are for.

• As an example of line break usage, consider this: anywhere a line break is added, the text will be shifted down one line. For example: entering Hello < br > World in HTML will produce the following:
  Hello
  World

• If you need to really space text out, you can rely on a whole lot of line breaks. It works, but it's not very sophisticated. Try to find out about new technologies before trying to move a lot of text with line breaks.

Resources

• HTML help
• Includes W3s HTML tutorials