The paragraph is the most often used element in all of HTML. The paragraph, defined by the <P> tag, is an empty element, which means that it doesn't require an explicit ending. Instead, a paragraph element continues "in effect" until another HTML element turns it off. Let's take a look at the opening paragraph to the Declaration of Independence:
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<P>When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation. |
In HTML, white space in the file is completely ignored. Thus, you could put a blank line between each word in the above paragraph and it would still be displayed by the browser as a single paragraph!
If you need to force a line break, use the <BR> break element, which tells the browser to end the line and move to the next line (exactly similar to a Carriage Return on a typewriter -- for those of you old enough to remember typewriters!). Assume you want the opening phrase on a separate line above...you would type:
<P>When in the Course of human events,<BR>
it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have...
The browser displays:
When in the Course of human events,
it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have...
Horizontal Rules (<HR>) allow you to insert a divider line in your document to help separate sections. Simply enter the <HR> tag where you want a divider line, and the browser displays:
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