-ms-word-wrap Attribute | wordWrap Property

Gets or sets whether to break words when the content exceeds the boundaries of its container.

Syntax

CSS	{ -ms-word-wrap : sWrap }
Scripting	[ sWrap = ] object.style.wordWrap

Possible Values

sWrap

String that specifies or receives one of the following values. normal Default. Content exceeds the boundaries of its container. break-word Content wraps to next line, and a word-break occurs when necessary.

The property is read/write for all objects except the following, for which it is read-only: currentStyle. The property has a default value of normal. The Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) attribute is inherited.

DHTML expressions can be used in place of the preceding value(s). As of Internet Explorer 8, expressions are supported in IE7 Standards mode and IE5 (Quirks) mode only. For more information, see About Dynamic Properties and Defining Document Compatibility.

Remarks

Windows Internet Explorer 8. The -ms-word-wrap attribute is an extension to CSS, and can be used as a synonym for word-wrap in IE8 Standards mode.

Use this property to enable the browser to break up otherwise unbreakable strings.

This differs from the whiteSpace property, which turns wrapping of the text on and off. The wordWrap property addresses only whether wrapping is permitted to occur at a place in the word that is not otherwise allowed by the language rules in effect.

The standards referenced below define this property's behavior as being dependent on the setting of the "text-wrap" property. However, wordWrap settings are always effective in Internet Explorer because Internet Explorer does not support the "text-wrap" property.

This property is read-only for the currentStyle object.

This property applies to elements that have layout. An element has layout when it is absolutely positioned, is a block element, or is an inline element with a specified height or width.

Examples

The word "blonde" is not wrappable under typical English rules. But, when wordWrap is set to break-word, the word "blonde" can be split onto two lines in any way the browser chooses: such as "b" and "londe", or "blo" and "nde".

The following example shows how to use the break-word value of the wordWrap property to break one long word onto multiple lines. This value avoids horizontal scrolling and can be useful for printing. The p element in this example has layout, because its width is set.

Copy

<P STYLE="word-wrap:break-word;width:100%;left:0">
LongWordLongWord...LongWordLongWord</P>

Code example: http://samples.msdn.microsoft.com/workshop/samples/author/dhtml/refs/wordWrap.htm

Standards Information

This property is defined in Cascading Style Sheets (CSS), Level 3 (CSS3).

Applies To

A, ABBR, ACRONYM, ADDRESS, APPLET, B, BDO, BIG, BLOCKQUOTE, BODY, BUTTON, CENTER, CITE, CODE, CSSStyleDeclaration, currentStyle, CUSTOM, DD, DEL, DFN, DIR, DIV, DL, DT, EM, EMBED, FIELDSET, FONT, FORM, hn, HR, HTML, I, IMG, INPUT, INPUT type=button, INPUT type=checkbox, INPUT type=file, INPUT type=hidden, INPUT type=image, INPUT type=password, INPUT type=radio, INPUT type=reset, INPUT type=submit, INPUT type=text, INS, ISINDEX, KBD, LABEL, LEGEND, LI, LISTING, MENU, NOBR, OBJECT, OL, OPTION, P, PLAINTEXT, PRE, Q, RT, RUBY, runtimeStyle, S, SAMP, SELECT, SMALL, SPAN, STRIKE, STRONG, style, SUB, SUP, TD, TEXTAREA, TH, TT, U, UL, VAR, XMP, CSSCurrentStyleDeclaration Constructor, CSSRuleStyleDeclaration Constructor, CSSStyleDeclaration Constructor

See Also

lineBreak, wordBreak, whiteSpace