CSS- Display

CSS Layout - The display Property

The display property is the most important CSS property for controlling layout.
The display Property
The display property specifies if/how an element is displayed.
Every HTML element has a default display value depending on what type of element it is. The default display value for most elements is block or inline.
Click to show panel

• This panel contains a <div> element, which is hidden by default (display: none).
• It is styled with CSS, and we use JavaScript to show it (change it to (display: block).

Block-level Elements

A block-level element always starts on a new line and takes up the full width available (stretches out to the left and right as far as it can).

Examples of block-level elements:

• <div>
• <h1> - <h6>
• <p>
• <form>
• <header>
• <footer>
• <section>

Inline Elements

An inline element does not start on a new line and only takes up as much width as necessary.
This is  a paragraph.
Examples of inline elements:

• <span>
• <a>
• <img>

Display: none;

display: none; is commonly used with JavaScript to hide and show elements without deleting and recreating them. Take a look at our last example on this page if you want to know how this can be achieved.
The <script> element uses display: none; as default.

Override The Default Display Value

As mentioned, every element has a default display value. However, you can override this.

Changing an inline element to a block element, or vice versa, can be useful for making the page look a specific way, and still follow the web standards.
A common example is making inline <li> elements for horizontal menus:
Example

li {

  display: inline;

}

Note: Setting the display property of an element only changes how the element is displayed, NOT what kind of element it is. So, an inline element with display: block; is not allowed to have other block elements inside it.
The following example displays <span> elements as block elements:
Example

span {

  display: block;

}

The following example displays <a> elements as block elements:
Example

a {

  display: block;

}