Div, Span and Display

What Is It?

Div groups a larger piece of content. Span groups a small piece inside a line of text.

What the Tags Mean

• div: a general container that normally starts on a new line.
• span: a general container that normally stays in the same line.
• class: names a group for styling.

Example 1

Save each example as index.html and open it in your browser. Each code block is a complete page.

<!DOCTYPE html>
<html lang="en">
<head>
  <meta charset="UTF-8">
  <meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1.0">
  <title>Div, Span and Display</title>
 
</head>
<body>
<div>
  <h2>My card</h2>
  <p>A short description.</p>
</div>
</body>
</html>

What you see: The heading and paragraph belong to one container.

Example 2: Another Use

Use span when only a few words need a different style.

<!DOCTYPE html>
<html lang="en">
<head>
  <meta charset="UTF-8">
  <meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1.0">
  <title>Div, Span and Display</title>
 
</head>
<body>
<p>My favourite color is <span style="color: blue">blue</span>.</p>
</body>
</html>

Simple Tip

Use a meaningful tag such as nav or main when it describes the content better than div.

Try It Yourself

Use span to color one word in a sentence.