white-space
Definition
The white-space property specifies how whitespace (spaces, tabs and hard returns) inside an element is handled. For example, a fixed width table may wrap text in table headings as show in the screen shot below.
Applying the white-space property with the value nowrap to the table headers (th), will instruct Web browser not to wrap text in table headers as shown in the screen shot below.
In XHTML, whitespace is collapsed. This means that multiple consecutive whitespace characters (spaces, tabs and hard returns) will be treated as a single space character. The white-space property can instruct Web browsers to change this behavior.
Example
th {white-space: nowrap}
Characteristics
Possible values
normal- Collapse whitespace.
pre- Preserve whitespace.
nowrap- Same as
normal but suppresses line breaks. pre-wrap- Preserve whitespace but wrap text.
pre-line- Collapse whitespace but preserve line breaks.
inherit- Use the same computed value as the parent element for this property.
Default value
normal
Applies to
All elements
Inherited
Yes