HTML 11: Linebreaks and lists
Line Breaks
What if you had an element whose only job was to give you a line break when you need one?
Wouldn't the be nice? You'd actually be able to make the browser pay attention and insert some carriage returns for a change.
Turns out there is an element, the <br> element, just for that purpose. Here's how you use it:
<h2>July 14, 2005</h2>
<p>
I saw some Burma Shave style signs on the side
of the road today:
</p>
<blockquote>
<p>
Passing cars, <br>
When you can't see, <br>
May get you, <br>
A glipse, <br>
Of eternity. <br>
</p>
</blockquote>
<p>
I definitely won't be passing any cars.
</p>
Exercise 1
- Go ahead and add the <br> elements to Tony's index.html file.
- Save the file.
- Give it a test drive.
Exactly, it doesn't have any content.
The <br> element is an element that doesn't have any content. Why? Because it's just meant to be a line break, nothing else. So, when an element doesn't have any real content by design, we just use short hand to represent the element and it ends up looking <br>.
After all, if we didn't have this shorthand, you'd be writing <br> </br> every time you needed a line break, and how much sense does that make?
<br> isn't the only element like this. there are others, and we have a name for them: empty elements. In fact, we've already seen another empty element, the <img> element. We'll be coming back to look at the <img> element in detail in a couple of weeks.
Keep in mind, the reason for the shorthand isn't laziness so much as it is efficiency. It's more efficient to represent empty elements this way (efficient in typing, in the number of characters that end up on the page, and so on.) In fact, after reading HTML for a while, you'll find that it is easier on your eyes too.
Why Is <br> Called an "Empty" Element?
Because it has no content, as in element = opening tag + content + closing tag. So, it's empty because there's no content.
Think about an element like <h1> (or <p> or <a>.) The whole point of the element is to tag some content, like"
<h1>Don't wait, order now</h1>
With the <br> element, the point is just to insert a line break into your HTML. There is no content you are trying to mark up, so it's empty. Since it's empty, we don't need all the extra brackets and markup, so we just shorten it into a more convenient form.
Remember: Elements that don't have any HTML content by design are called empty elements. When you need to use an empty element, like <br> or <img>, you only use an opening tag.
