I feel silly for not being able to figure this out, but how do I turn off wordwrap? the css word-wrap
property can be forced on with break-word
, but cannot be forced off (only can be left alone with normal
value).
How do I force word wrap off?
Jon
425k79 gold badges733 silver badges803 bronze badges
asked Jan 10, 2011 at 23:19
Alexander BirdAlexander Bird
38k42 gold badges124 silver badges159 bronze badges
2
You need to use the CSS white-space
attribute.
In particular, white-space: nowrap
and white-space: pre
are the most commonly used values. The first one seems to be what you ‘re after.
answered Jan 10, 2011 at 23:21
0
Added webkit specific values missing from above
white-space: -moz-pre-wrap; /* Firefox */
white-space: -o-pre-wrap; /* Opera */
white-space: pre-wrap; /* Chrome */
word-wrap: break-word; /* IE */
answered Jul 7, 2015 at 15:07
I wonder why you find as solution the «white-space» with «nowrap» or «pre», it is not doing the correct behaviour: you force your text in a single line!
The text should break lines, but not break words as default. This is caused by some css attributes: word-wrap, overflow-wrap, word-break, and hyphens. So you can have either:
word-break: break-all;
word-wrap: break-word;
overflow-wrap: break-word;
-webkit-hyphens: auto;
-moz-hyphens: auto;
-ms-hyphens: auto;
hyphens: auto;
So the solution is remove them, or override them with «unset» or «normal»:
word-break: unset;
word-wrap: unset;
overflow-wrap: unset;
-webkit-hyphens: unset;
-moz-hyphens: unset;
-ms-hyphens: unset;
hyphens: unset;
UPDATE: i provide also proof with JSfiddle: https://jsfiddle.net/azozp8rr/
answered May 12, 2018 at 9:55
zodzod
3773 silver badges4 bronze badges
2
white-space: nowrap;
: Will never break text, will keep other defaults
white-space: pre;
: Will never break text, will keep multiple spaces after one another as multiple spaces, will break if explicitly written to break(pressing enter in html etc)
answered Nov 13, 2020 at 20:28
1
This worked for me to stop silly work breaks from happening within Chrome textareas
word-break: keep-all;
answered Oct 2, 2019 at 21:54
If you want a HTML only solution, we can just use the pre
tag. It defines «preformatted text» which means that it does not format word-wrapping. Here is a quick example to explain:
div {
width: 200px;
height: 200px;
padding: 20px;
background: #adf;
}
pre {
width: 200px;
height: 200px;
padding: 20px;
font: inherit;
background: #fda;
}
<div>Look at this, this text is very neat, isn't it? But it's not quite what we want, though, is it? This text shouldn't be here! It should be all the way over there! What can we do?</div>
<pre>The pre tag has come to the rescue! Yay! However, we apologise in advance for any horizontal scrollbars that may be caused. If you need support, please raise a support ticket.</pre>
answered Nov 4, 2020 at 19:41
corn on the cobcorn on the cob
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In this snippet, we’re going to demonstrate how you can disable word wrapping in HTML. Actually, this can be done with a few steps using some CSS properties.
To prevent the text from wrapping, you can use the CSS white-space property with the “nowrap” or “pre” value. In this snippet, you can see examples with both of them.
- Usa an <h2> element and add a <div> element.
<h2>Example</h2>
<div>
Lorem Ipsum is simply dummy text.Lorem Ipsum is simply dummy text. Lorem Ipsum is simply dummy text. Lorem Ipsum is simply dummy text.Lorem Ipsum is simply dummy text. Lorem Ipsum is simply dummy text. Lorem Ipsum is simply dummy text. Lorem Ipsum is simply dummy text.
</div>
- Set the white-space property to “nowrap” for the <div> element.
div {
white-space: nowrap;
}
Now, let’s see the result.
Example of disabling word wrapping with the “nowrap” value of the white-space property:
<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<head>
<title>Title of the document</title>
<style>
div {
white-space: nowrap;
border: 1px solid #cccccc;
}
</style>
</head>
<body>
<h2>Example</h2>
<div>
Lorem Ipsum is simply dummy text.Lorem Ipsum is simply dummy text. Lorem Ipsum is simply dummy text. Lorem Ipsum is simply dummy text.Lorem Ipsum is simply dummy text. Lorem Ipsum is simply dummy text. Lorem Ipsum is simply dummy text. Lorem Ipsum is simply dummy text.
</div>
</body>
</html>
Result
Lorem Ipsum is simply dummy text.Lorem Ipsum is simply dummy text. Lorem Ipsum is simply dummy text. Lorem Ipsum is simply dummy text.Lorem Ipsum is simply dummy text. Lorem Ipsum is simply dummy text. Lorem Ipsum is simply dummy text. Lorem Ipsum is simply dummy text.
Example of disabling word wrapping with the “pre” value of the white-space property:
<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<head>
<title>Title of the document</title>
<style>
div {
white-space: pre;
}
</style>
</head>
<body>
<h2>Example</h2>
<div>
Lorem Ipsum is simply dummy text.Lorem Ipsum is simply dummy text. Lorem Ipsum is simply dummy text. Lorem Ipsum is simply dummy text.Lorem Ipsum is simply dummy text. Lorem Ipsum is simply dummy text. Lorem Ipsum is simply dummy text. Lorem Ipsum is simply dummy text.
</div>
</body>
</html>
Using CSS it is possible to remove word wrapping in following ways.
Note: read this article how to disable line wrapping, beacuse indirectly it solves the problem of world wrapping.
1. word-wrap: keep-all
example
This solution prevents of long words breaking.
// ONLINE-RUNNER:browser;
<!doctype html>
<html>
<head>
<style>
p {
border: 1px solid black;
width: 200px;
word-wrap: keep-all;
}
</style>
</head>
<body>
<p>
Very__long__web__page__text__here: 1 2 3 4 5 ...
Very long web page text here: 1 2 3 4 5 ...
</p>
</body>
</html>
See also
- CSS — how to disable line wrapping in HTML?
Merged quastions
- CSS — how to turn off world wrapping in HTML?
- CSS — how to remove world wrapping in HTML?
Труднопереносимыми бывают не только люди, но и слова. К примеру, химическое соединение метилпропенилендигидроксициннаменилакрилическая кислота очень похожа на некоторых людей с «подвывертом»! Не знаем, как справляться с такими трудными личностями, но реализовать перенос текста CSS точно поможет.
- Зачем переносить «непереносимое»
- Решаем проблему переноса слов с помощью HTML
- Как реализовать CSS перенос слов
- Как реализовать запрет переноса слов CSS
В большинстве случаев при отображении текстового содержимого веб-страниц в браузере перенос слов не применяется. Если слово не вмещается целиком в область экрана, то по умолчанию оно полностью «переезжает» на следующую строчку.
Частичный перенос применяется лишь к длинным и сложным словам, состоящим из нескольких терминов и разделенных дефисом. Вот тут и возникают проблемы отображения этих слов на разных по диагонали экранах и в разных браузерах. При этом точно предугадать, как длинное слово будет «выглядеть» на клиентской стороне трудно, поэтому задавать переносы «вручную» бессмысленно:
Перед тем, как рассмотреть CSS перенос слов , изучим возможности решения этой проблемы с помощью языка гипертекста.
Для этого в HTML имеется несколько вариантов:
- Использование символа мягкого разрыва — позволяет задать место разрыва сложного слова. При изменении размеров окна браузера на следующую строку переносится только часть длинного слова, стоящая после ­, а после первой половины выводится знак переноса, похожий на дефис:
<body> <p>Пример сложного химического соединения и текста - метилпропенилендигидрок­сициннаменилакрилическая кислота</p> </body>
- Использование тега — элемент появился в HTML 5. Он также служит для указания браузеру места для разрыва сложного или длинного слова. Но в отличие от предыдущего спецсимвола этот тег не выводит в месте «разлома» знак переноса, что может негативно сказаться на читаемости всего текста:
<style> wbr { display: inline-block; } </style> </head> <body> <p>метилпропенилен<wbr>дигидроксицинна<wbr>менилакрилическая кислота</p> </body>
В некоторых браузерах поддержка тега <wbr> реализована некорректно. В них он будет работать, если для него в коде CSS прописано свойство display со значением inline-block.
Перед тем, как реализовать CSS перенос слов, давайте рассмотрим несколько свойств, способных разрешить основную проблему:
- word-wrap – описывает, как производить перенос слов, которые по длине не помещаются в установленные размеры контейнера. Сразу стоит предупредить, что с валидацией этого свойства возникают проблемы, и с реализацией его поддержки в CSS консорциум W3C еще не определился. Поэтому специализированные валидаторы при наличии word-wrap в коде будут выдавать ошибку:
Тем не менее, это свойство «воспринимается» всеми современными браузерами и является эффективным решением проблемы переноса длинных слов. word-wrap принимает следующие значения:
- normal – слова не переносятся;
- break-word – автоматический перенос слов;
- inherit – наследование значения родителя.
Пример, иллюстрирующий применение этого свойства:
<style> .container{ background-color: rgb(204,204,204); padding:10px; width:200px; } .content{ word-wrap: break-word; } </style> </head> <body> <div class="container"> <p class="content">метилпропенилендигидроксициннаменилакрилическая кислота</p> </div> </body>
В новой спецификации CSS свойство word-wrap было переименовано в overflow-wrap. Оба свойства принимают одинаковые значения. Но поддержка overflow-wrap пока реализована слабо, поэтому лучше использовать старую версию свойства:
Как видно на расположенном выше скриншоте, новое свойство поддерживается Google Chrome, но не поддерживается в IE. Поэтому overflow-wrap лучше не использовать того чтобы реализовать CSS перенос слов.
- word-break – устанавливает правила переноса строк внутри контейнера, если они не помещаются в него по ширине. Это новое свойство, и его поддержка была реализована в CSS3. Оно является валидным, но предназначено для работы со строками, поэтому перенос слов может производиться грамматически неправильно.
Свойство принимает три значения:
- normal – используются правила переноса, установленные по умолчанию;
- word-break – перенос строк осуществляется автоматически, чтобы слово поместилось в установленные по ширине размеры контейнера;
- keep-all – отключает автоматический перенос слов в китайском, японском и корейском. Для остальных языков действие значения аналогично normal.
Пример:
<style> .content { font-size: 30px; background: rgb(51,204,153); width: 170px; padding: 10px; word-break:break-all; } </style> </head> <body> <div class="content"> <p>Синхрофазотрон</p> <p>Обеспокоенное состояние</p> <p>Одиннадцатиклассница</p> <p>метоксихлордиэтиламинометилбутиламин</p> </div> </body>
hyphens – новое свойство, которое появилось с выходом CSS3. Оно устанавливает, как браузер будет осуществлять перенос слов в выводимом тексте. Свойство принимает несколько значений:
- none – отключает CSS перенос слов;
- manual (значение по умолчанию) – слова переносятся в тех участках текстового блока, где это задано с помощью тега <wbr> или мягкого переноса ();
- auto – браузер автоматически переносит слова на основе своих настроек.
Для корректной работы свойства в теге <html> или <p> должен присутствовать атрибут lang со значением «ru» (lang=»ru»).
Свойство поддерживается последними версиями IE, Opera и Firefox. Для каждого из них прописывается своя строчка CSS. Hyphens не поддерживается Google Chrome. Пример:
<style> .container{ background-color: rgb(153,255,204); padding:10px; width:200px; } .content{ -webkit-hyphens: auto; -moz-hyphens: auto; -ms-hyphens: auto; } </style> </head> <body> <div class="container"> <p class="content" lang="ru">метилпропенилендигидроксициннаменилакрилическая кислота</p> </div> </body>
Иногда нужно сделать так, чтобы строка отображалась полностью без разрыва. Запрет использовать CSS перенос слов можно реализовать несколькими способами:
- С помощью неразрывного пробела  , который устанавливается в местах переноса строки или слов;
- Задав свойству white-space значение «nowrap» (white-space: nowrap).
Пример реализации:
<style> .container{ background-color: rgb(153,255,204); padding:10px; width:200px; } .content{ -webkit-hyphens: auto; -moz-hyphens: auto; -ms-hyphens: auto; } .nowrap { white-space: nowrap; } </style> </head> <body> <div class="container"> <p>метилпропенилендигидроксициннаменилакрилическая кислота раз</p> <p class="content" lang="ru">метилпропенилендигидроксициннаменилакрилическая два</p> <p class="nowrap">метилпропенилендигидроксициннаменилакрилическая кислота три</p> <p>метилпропенилендигидроксициннаменилакрилическая кислота четыри</p> </div> </body>
Теперь вы сможете переносить с помощью CSS даже самые длинные слова. Но вот с проблемой труднопереносимых людей вам придется разбираться самостоятельно. Попробуйте воздействовать на них методами CSS – может и получиться, хотя мы сами не проверяли.
Editor’s note: This complete guide to word-wrap
, overflow-wrap
, and word-break
in CSS was last updated 24 February 2023 to reflect the reflect the most recent version of CSS, include interactive code examples, and include a section on how to wrap text using CSS. To learn more about the overflow
property, check out our guide to CSS overflow
.
Making a site responsive so that it displays correctly on all devices is very important in this day and age. Unfortunately, despite your best efforts to do so, you may still end up with broken layouts. Broken layouts can happen when certain words are too long to fit in their container. Content overflow can occur when you are dealing with user-generated content you have no control over, such as the comments section of a post. Therefore, you need to apply styling to prevent content from overflowing their container.
Content overflow is a common problem for frontend developers. On the web, overflow occurs when your content doesn’t fit entirely within its containing element. As a result, it spills outside. In CSS, you can manage content overflow mainly using the overflow
, word-wrap
, overflow-wrap
, and word-break
CSS properties. However, our focus in this article will be on the word-wrap
, overflow-wrap
, and word-break
CSS properties.
Jump ahead:
- Using
word-wrap
,overflow-wrap
, andword-break
CSS properties- How does content wrapping occur in browsers?
- What is the difference between a soft wrap break and a forced line break?
- Understanding the
Word-wrap
andoverflow-wrap
CSS propertiesNormal
Anywhere
Break-word
- Implementing the
Word-break
CSS property- Setting
word-break
toNormal
- The
Break-all
value - Using the
Keep-all
value
- Setting
- What is the difference between
overflow-wrap
andword-break
? - How to wrap text using CSS
- Troubleshooting CSS content overflow with Chrome DevTools
Using word-wrap
, overflow-wrap
, and word-break
CSS properties
You can use the word-wrap
, overflow-wrap
, or word-break
CSS properties to wrap or break words that would otherwise overflow their container. This article is an in-depth tutorial on the word-wrap
, overflow-wrap
, and word-break
CSS properties and how you can use them to prevent content overflow from ruining your nicely styled layout. Before we get started, let us understand how browsers wrap content in the next section.
How does content wrapping occur in browsers?
Browsers and other user agents perform content wrapping at allowed breakpoints, referred to as soft wrap opportunities. A browser will wrap content at a soft wrap opportunity, if one exists, to minimize content overflow. In English and other similar writing systems, soft wrap opportunities occur by default at word boundaries in the absence of hyphenation. Because words are bound by spaces and punctuation, that is where soft wraps occur.
Although soft wraps occur in space characters in English texts, the situation might be different for non-English writing systems. Some languages do not use spaces to separate words, meaning that content wrapping depends on the language or writing system. The value of the lang
attribute you specify on the HTML
element is mostly used to determine which language system is used.
This article will focus mainly on the English language writing system. The default wrapping at soft wrap opportunities may not be sufficient if you are dealing with long, continuous text, such as URLs or user-generated content, which you have very little or no control over. Before we go into a detailed explanation of these CSS properties, let’s look at the differences between soft wrap break and forced line break in the section below.
What is the difference between a soft wrap break and a forced line break?
Any text wrap that occurs at a soft wrap opportunity is referred to as a soft wrap break. For wrapping to occur at a soft wrap opportunity, you need to make sure you’ve enabled wrapping. For example, setting the value of white-space
CSS property to nowrap
will disable wrapping. Forced line breaks are caused by explicit line-breaking controls or line breaks marking the end or start of blocks of text.
Understanding the Word-wrap
and overflow-wrap
CSS properties
The name word-wrap
is the legacy name for the overflow-wrap
CSS property. Word-wrap
was originally a non-prefixed Microsoft extension and was not part of the CSS standard, though most browsers implemented it with the name word-wrap
. According to the draft CSS3 specification, browsers should treat word-wrap
as a legacy name alias of the overflow-wrap
property for compatibility.
Most recent versions of popular web browsers have implemented the overflow-wrap
property. The draft CSS3 specification refers to the overflow-wrap
property as:
This property specifies whether the browser may break at otherwise disallowed points within a line to prevent overflow when an otherwise-unbreakable string is too long to fit within the line box.
If you have a white-space
property on an element, you need to set its value to allow wrapping for overflow-wrap
to have an effect. Below are the values of the overflow-wrap
property:
overflow-wrap: normal; overflow-wrap: anywhere; overflow-wrap: break-word;
You can also use the global values inherit
, initial
, revert
, and unset
with overflow-wrap
, but we won’t cover them here. In the subsections below, we will look at the values of the overflow-wrap
CSS property outlined above to understand the behavior of this property.
Normal
Applying the value normal
will make the browser use the default line-breaking behavior of the system. For English and other related writing systems, line breaks will therefore occur at whitespaces and hyphens, as shown below:
.my-element{ overflow-wrap: normal; }
In the example below, there is a word in the text that is longer than its container. Because there is no soft wrap opportunity and the value of the overflow-wrap
property is normal
, the word overflows its container. It describes the default line-breaking behavior of the system:
See the Pen
overflow-wrap-normal by Joseph Mawa (@nibble0101)
on CodePen.
Anywhere
Using the value anywhere
will break an otherwise unbreakable string at arbitrary points between two characters. It will not insert a hyphen character even if you apply the hyphens
property on the same element.
The browser will break the word only if displaying the word on its line will cause an overflow. If the word still overflows when placed on its line, it will break the word at the point where an overflow would otherwise occur. When you use anywhere
, the browser will consider the soft wrap opportunities introduced by the word break when calculating min-content
intrinsic sizes:
.my-element{ overflow-wrap: anywhere; }
Unlike in the previous section, where we used overflow-wrap: normal
, in the example below, we are using overflow-wrap: anywhere
. The overflowing word that is otherwise unbreakable is broken into chunks of text using overflow-wrap: anywhere
so that it fits in its container:
See the Pen
overlow-wrap-anywhere by Joseph Mawa (@nibble0101)
on CodePen.
Most recent versions of desktop browsers support overflow-wrap:
anywhere
. However, support for some mobile browsers is either lacking or unknown. The image below shows the browser support:
Break-word
The value break-word
is like anywhere
in terms of functionality. If the browser can wrap the overflowing word to its line without overflowing, that is what it will do. However, if the word still overflows its container even when it is on its line, the browser will break it at the point where the overflow would otherwise occur:
.my-element{ overflow-wrap: break-word; }
The example below shows how the browser breaks the overflowing text when you apply overflow-wrap: break-word
:
See the Pen
overflow-wrap-break-word by Joseph Mawa (@nibble0101)
on CodePen.
Notice that the text appears the same as in the last subsection. The difference between overflow-wrap: anywhere
and overflow-wrap: break-word
is in the min-content
intrinsic sizes.
The difference between anywhere
and break-word
is apparent when calculating the min-content
intrinsic sizes. With break-word
, the browser doesn’t consider the soft wrap opportunities introduced by the word break when calculating min-content
intrinsic sizes, but it does with anywhere
. For more about min-content
intrinsic sizes, check out our guide here.
The value break-word
has decent coverage among the most recent versions of desktop browsers. Unfortunately, you cannot say the same about their mobile counterpart. It is, therefore, safer to use the legacy word-wrap: break-word
instead of the more recent overflow-wrap: break-word
.
The image below shows browser support for overflow-wrap: break-word
:
The most recent versions of desktop browsers have support, while support for some mobile browsers is unknown.
Implementing the Word-break
CSS property
Word-break
is another CSS property you can use to specify soft wrap opportunities between characters. You can use this property to break a word at the exact spot where an overflow would occur and wrap it onto the following line.
The draft CSS3 specification refers to the word-break
CSS property as:
This property specifies soft wrap opportunities between letters, i.e., where it is “normal” and permissible to break lines of text. It controls what types of letters the browser can glom together to form unbreakable “words” — causing CJK characters to behave like non-CJK text or vice versa.
Below are the possible values of the word-break
CSS property. Like overflow-wrap
, you can use the global values inherit
, initial
, revert
, and unset
with word-break
, but we won’t cover them here:
word-break: normal; word-break: break-all; word-break: keep-all;
Break-word
is also a value of the word-break
CSS property, though it was removed. However, browsers still support it for legacy reasons. Specifying this property has the same effect as word-break: normal
and overflow-wrap: anywhere
.
Now that we know the break-word
CSS property and its corresponding values, let us look at them in the subsections below.
Setting word-break
to Normal
Setting the value of the word-break
property to normal
will apply the default word breaking rules:
.my-element{ word-break: normal; }
The example below illustrates what happens when you apply the styling word-break: normal
to a block of text that contains a word longer than its container:
See the Pen
word-break-normal by Joseph Mawa (@nibble0101)
on CodePen.
What you see is the browser’s usual word-breaking rules in effect.
The Break-all
value
The value break-all
will insert a line break at the exact point where the text would otherwise overflow for non-Chinese, non-Japanese, and non-Korean writing systems. It will not put the word on its own line, even if doing so will prevent the need to insert a line break:
.my-element{ word-break: break-all; }
In the example below, I am applying word-break: break-all
styling to a p
element of width 240px
containing an overflowing text. The browser will insert a line break at the point where an overflow would occur and wrap the remaining text to the following line:
See the Pen
word-break-break-all by Joseph Mawa (@nibble0101)
on CodePen.
Using break-all
will break a word between two characters at the exact point where an overflow would occur in English and other related language systems. However, it won’t apply the same behavior to Chinese, Japanese, and Korean (CJK) texts.
It doesn’t apply the same behavior for CJK texts because CJK writing systems have their own rules for applying breakpoints. Creating a line break between two characters arbitrarily just for the sake of avoiding overflow might significantly change the overall meaning of the text. For CJK systems, the browser will apply line breaks at the point where such breaks are allowed.
Using the Keep-all
value
If you use the value keep-all
, the browser will not apply word breaks to CJK texts, even if there is content overflow. The effect of applying keep-all
value is the same as that of normal
for non-CJK writing systems:
.my-element{ word-break: keep-all; }
In the example below, applying word-break: keep-all
will have the same effect as word-break: normal
for a non-CJK writing system such as English:
See the Pen
word-break-keep-all by Joseph Mawa (@nibble0101)
on CodePen.
The image below shows the browser support for word-break: keep-all
:
This value has support in most popular desktop browsers. Unfortunately, it is not the case for mobile browsers. Now that we have looked at the overflow-wrap
and word-break
CSS properties, what is the difference between the two? The section below will shed light on that.
What is the difference between overflow-wrap
and word-break
?
You can use the CSS properties overflow-wrap
and word-break
to manage content overflow. However, there are differences in the way the two properties handle it.
Using overflow-wrap
will wrap the entire overflowing word to its line if it can fit in a single line without overflowing its container. The browser will break the word only if it cannot place it on a new line without overflowing. In most cases, the overflow-wrap
property or its legacy name word-wrap
might manage content overflow. Using word-wrap: break-word
will wrap the overflowing word onto a new line and goes ahead to break it between two characters if it still overflows its container.
Word-break
will ruthlessly break the overflowing word between two characters even if placing it on its line will negate the need for word break. Some writing systems, like the CJK writing systems, have strict word breaking rules the browser takes into consideration when creating line breaks using word-break
.
How to wrap text using CSS
As hinted above, if you want to wrap text or break a word overflowing the confines of its box, your best bet is the overflow-wrap
CSS property. You can also use its legacy name, word-wrap
. Try the word-break
CSS property if the overflow-wrap
property doesn’t work for you. However, be aware of the differences between overflow-wrap
and word-break
highlighted above.
Below is an illustration of the overflow-wrap
and word-wrap
CSS properties. You can play with the CodePen to understand their effects:
See the Pen
how-to-wrap-text by Joseph Mawa (@nibble0101)
on CodePen.
Troubleshooting CSS content overflow with Chrome DevTools
More often than not, you might need to fix broken layouts caused by content overflow, as complex user interfaces are now commonplace in frontend development. Modern web browsers come with tools for troubleshooting such layout issues, such as Chrome DevTools.
It provides the capability to select an element in the DOM tree so that you can view, add, and remove CSS declarations and much more. It will help you track down the offending CSS style in your layout and fix it with ease.
To open the Chrome DevTools, you can use the F12
key. When open, it looks like in the image below. Selecting an element in the DOM tree will display its corresponding CSS styles. You can modify the styles and see the effect on your layout as you track down the source of the bug:
As already mentioned, if you have white-space
property on an element, set its value to allow wrapping for overflow-wrap: anywhere
or overflow-wrap: break-word
to work.
Setting the value of overflow-wrap
property to anywhere
or break-word
on a table
content won’t break an overflowing word like in the examples above. The table will overflow its container and create a horizontal scroll if necessary. To get the table to fit within its container and overflow-wrap
to work, set the value of the table-layout
property to fixed
and set the table width to 100%
or to some fixed value.
Conclusion
As pointed out in the above sections, overflow-wrap
and word-break
are similar in so many ways, and you can use both of them for line-breaking controls. The name overflow-wrap
is an alias of the legacy word-wrap
property. Therefore, you can use the two interchangeably. However, it is worth mentioning that the browser support for the newer overflow-wrap
property is still low. You are better off using word-wrap
instead of overflow-wrap
if you want near-universal browser support.
According to the draft CSS3 specification, browsers and user agents should continue supporting word-wrap
for legacy reasons. If you are looking to manage content overflow, overflow-wrap
or its legacy name word-wrap
might be sufficient. You can also use word-break
to break a word between two characters if the word overflows its container. Just like overflow-wrap
, you need to tread with caution when using word-break
because of limitations in the browser support.
Now that you know the behavior associated with the two properties, you can decide where and when to use them. Did I miss anything? Leave a comment in the comments section. I will be happy to update this article.
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