text-align Attribute | textAlign Property

Internet Development Index

Sets or retrieves whether the text in the object is left-aligned, right-aligned, centered, or justified.

Syntax

HTML { text-align : sAlign }
Scriptingobject.style.textAlign [ = sAlign ]

Possible Values

sAlignString that specifies or receives one of the following values:
leftDefault. Text is aligned to the left.
rightText is aligned to the right.
centerText is centered.
justifyText is justified.

The property is read/write for all objects except the following, for which it is read-only: currentStyle. The property has a default value of left. The Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) attribute is inherited.

Expressions can be used in place of the preceding value(s), as of Microsoft® Internet Explorer 5. For more information, see About Dynamic Properties.

Remarks

The property applies to block elements. The property is inherited by all block-level objects inside a div object. This parameter receives null if the attribute is not set.

The justify possible value is available as of Microsoft® Internet Explorer 4.0.

Examples

The following examples use the text-align attribute and the textAlign property to align text within the object.

This example uses p as a selector and two classes to call an embedded style sheet that aligns the text according to the respective rule.

<STYLE>
P { text-align:center }
.align1 { text-align:right }
.align2 { text-align:justify }
</STYLE>
</HEAD>
<BODY>
<P onclick= "this.className='align1'"
ondblclick="this.className='align2'">
. . . </P>
This feature requires Microsoft® Internet Explorer 4.0 or later. Click the following icon to install the latest version. Then reload this page to view the sample.

This example uses inline scripting to change the alignment of the text when an onmouseover event occurs.

<P STYLE="font-size:14"
onmouseover="this.style.textAlign='center'">
. . . </P>
This feature requires Microsoft® Internet Explorer 4.0 or later. Click the following icon to install the latest version. Then reload this page to view the sample.

Standards Information

This property is defined in Cascading Style Sheets (CSS), Level 1 (CSS1) Non-Microsoft link.

Applies To

BLOCKQUOTE, BODY, CENTER, currentStyle, DD, DIR, DIV, DL, DT, FIELDSET, FORM, hn, HR, INPUT type=password, INPUT type=text, LI, LISTING, MARQUEE, MENU, OL, P, PLAINTEXT, PRE, runtimeStyle, style, TABLE, TD, TEXTAREA, TH, TR, UL, XMP