Paragraphs and

4 - Paragraphs and

Normal text is automatically wrapped by the browser at the current window margin and adapts to changes in window size. The text is generally shown in a proportional font:

<P ID="p1">The P element acts as container for the text between the start
tag &lt;P&gt;*1 and end tag &lt;/P&gt;. You don't need to give the end
tag as it is implied by the context, e.g. the following &lt;P&gt; tag.
<P ID="p2">If you wish, you may think of the &lt;P&gt; tag as a paragraph
separator. This works since HTML+ formally doesn't require you to wrap
text up as paragraphs.

This would be rendered as:

The P element acts as a container for the text between the start tag and the end tag . You don't need to give the end tag as it is implied by the context, e.g. the following tag.

If you wish, you may think of the tag as a paragraph separator. This works since HTML+ formally doesn't require you to wrap text up as paragraphs.

The following samples of HTML+ all produce exactly the same results when displayed:

<H1>Different ways of using the P element</H1>
<P>The first piece of text</P><P>The second piece</P>
<H1>Different ways of using the P element</H1>
<P>The first piece of text<P>The second piece
<H1>Different ways of using the P element</H1>
The first piece of text<P>The second piece

They all produce:

In some situations you will want to preserve the original line breaks and spacing, for this you should use the LIT or PRE elements, these are described in a later section. You can force line breaks in normal paragraph text with the   element, but the browser may wrap lines arbitrarily at window margins prior to reaching the   element.

The ALIGN attribute can be used to center a paragraph, e.g. . Other possibilities are ALIGN=left (the default), ALIGN=right, ALIGN=justify and ALIGN=indent. This attribute is a hint and may be ignored by some browsers. Note that when using explicit line breaks (see Section 5.12) you may wish to switch off word wrap with WRAP=OFF.

Browsers, when parsing paragraphs, can choose to simply treat the  tag as denoting a paragraph break. If the paragraph style includes a blank line between paragraphs, then additional care is needed after headers and other major elements*2 to avoid inserting an unwanted blank line, e.g. when a  tag directly follows a header. This ability to perceive  as a paragraph break provides for continuity with HTML, and allows authors to graduate to treating it as a container in their own time.

HTML+ Discussion Document - November 8, 1993

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4 - Paragraphs and <P>