Should I use <br /> and in HTML to position elements, or should I just use CSS display:inline with padding/margin for positioning and all styling? what are pros and cons with both?
6 Answers
Use <br> to represent a linebreak inside a block element and use to represent a non-breaking space inside an inline element. Nothing more. For the remnant just use CSS the smart way with help of under each the display, float, padding and/or margin properties.
3 Comments
ajsie
when i use display:inline on a span element another element is still positioned to the right of the span element. shouldnt that one be in the next line?
prodigitalson
@noname: no a
span is an inline element and thus display inline does nothing to it. if you want the element on a new line use display: block.
BalusC
A
span is by default already inline. Either use a linebreak, or a block element, or close the parent block element and start a new block element.<br /> has its uses, but if you find yourself using   a lot, I would consider finding better ways to align things. is just ugly and clunky.
If it's tabular data, use a table. Your life will be much happier.
If it's not tabular data, use css, as BalusC suggests.
Comments
In HTML5 you also have the new http://html5doctor.com/element-index/#w
the answer is not black and white, it depends on your content, sometimes it should be
and in some cases the so the content will be on a single line.
if you want it as block you can use
Comments
Ideally you should position everything with css, and only use <br /> (line break) and inside <p>s.
But this isn't an ideal world ;)
Comments
<br /> Can really go either way. But if you find yourself using it to adjsut paragraph spacing orsomething like this then you really have to ask yourself "is there a reason why im using breaks instead of applying a class to adjust margins?" on the other rarely if ever makes any kind of sense outside of a paragraph (<p />) and half the time theres not much use for it ther any how as using text-indent is preferable for indenting the first paragraph and much to the chigirn of Editors everywhere im completely opposed to the double space prepending of senetences on the web - as far as im concerned that is a print only thing.
Comments
Using CSS margin and padding will give you greater flexibility to make adjustments later on.
and<br />unless you are drawing ASCII art. This is a major reason for the existence of CSS.