Posted by Toby Inkster on 03/30/06 09:20

Stan McCann wrote:

> How is a novice to tell the difference between an inline and block
> level element?

Say that inline elements are "phrase level" and block elements are
"paragraph level".

It's not strictly true 100% of the time, but I think that analogy shows
the "personality" of the groups of elements quite well. The details can
be taught after the personalities are grasped.

I think then they'll see why, say, <b><p>...</p></b> won't fly -- you
can't have a paragraph within a phrase -- it has to be the other way
around.

The main details that then need mentioning are:

* block elements are _typically_ rendered in a paragraph-
like manner, with a line break before and after, though
this may be changed in CSS-capable browsers.

* many block level elements _can't_ contain other block
level elements (e.g. P, H1...H6);

* others _may_ contain block level elements (e.g. DIV,
LI); and

* a handful _must_ either contain other block level elements
or remain completely empty (e.g. BLOCKQUOTE, UL, OL).

--
Toby A Inkster BSc (Hons) ARCS
Contact Me ~ http://tobyinkster.co.uk/contact

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