How to display big sentences in tables/cells

karib · November 1st, 2004, 12:46 PM

How do I tell a table cell not to display all text blocks-words in the same line, but broke the text to the next line?
I use Dreamweaver and I do not have the wrap text checked.
I tried the properties of table, td, tr marks but with no success.
My site is database-driven, so when I insert a record like this "wwwwwww,wwwww,wwwww,wwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww wwwwwwww,wwwwwwww,wwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww wwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww", then the html output is horrible, because my layout aparts from small sized tables and cells. Its' width is very small compared to the sentence above. So, this destructs my whole page layout.
I would like this block to be broken. This problem does not appear when separation mark like comma(,), but I am not always sure there are these things in the text.
I prefer the text block to be broken in some way even if it is not the best one, instead of a destruction of my page layout.

What is the appropriate setting in Dreamweaver? What do I have to select and what to change?

karib · November 1st, 2004, 01:19 PM

I forgot to say that if there is commas with blank spaces, everything is ok.
The problem exists when there are no commas or commas without spaces.

Imar · November 1st, 2004, 04:00 PM

Yeah, this is a known issues with almost any kind of HTML element.

The problem is caused by the fact that the browser cannot determine where to break a sentence, as they are no spaces in the text.

First of all: Is this a real issue? I have tried to tackle this problem before, only to realize that my users are able to come up with more sensible content that I, as a developer, tried to create. wwwwwww,wwwww,wwwww,wwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww wwwwwww,wwwwwwww,wwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww wwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww is something you don't see that often as real content ;)

I think the best (only??) way to overcome this is to have the element that holds your content is set to create scrollbars when necessary.

You can do this with use the Css property overflow, as in the next example:

Code:

<html>
<head>
</head>
<body>
  <div style="width:200px;border: 1px solid black;overflow: scroll">
    wwwww,wwwww,wwwww,wwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww,wwwwwwww,wwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww
  </div>
</body>
</html>

For more info: http://www.w3schools.com/css/pr_pos_overflow.asp

Cheers,

Imar
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Imar Spaanjaars
Everyone is unique, except for me.
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