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Blockquotes

<blockquote> indents text on both sides
</blockquote> returns the text to normal margins

<blockquote> tags were designed to indent long excerpts or quotations - the kind you used in school to str-e-t-ch your papers. There might be a few occasions when you'll use these tags , but unless you're putting your life story online, you'll probably just use them to create margins.

Blockquotes are very easy. The HTML looks like this:

<blockquote>
Do you ever wonder if we will live on another planet? I don't think it is such a far-fetched idea anymore!
</blockquote>

And the paragraph appears like this:

Do you ever wonder if we will live on another planet ? I don't think it is such a far-fetched idea anymore!

Unless you tell it otherwise, the text on your Web page will stretch the entire width of the browser window. And depending on the size of the text (usually set by the reader) there may be too many words per line to read comfortably. (The human eye can read the length of about two alphabets - 52 characters - and still find its way to the next line. If the line's much longer, the eye loses its place)

The <blockquote> tag is one way to create margins, limiting the length of your lines and improving readability. With that in mind, note how much better the second paragraph looks:

Without blockquote:

Unless you tell it otherwise, the text on your Web page will stretch the entire width of the browser window. And depending on the size of the text (usually set by the reader) there may be too many words per line to read comfortably. (The human eye can read the length of about two alphabets - 52 characters - and still find its way to the next line. If the line's much longer, the eye loses its place)

With blockquote:

Unless you tell it otherwise, the text on your Web page will stretch the entire width of the browser window. And depending on the size of the text (usually set by the reader) there may be too many words per line to read comfortably. (The human eye can read the length of about two alphabets - 52 characters - and still find its way to the next line. If the line's much longer, the eye loses its place)

Talking about planets. Just recently you could look to the west, or was that east, and actually see Mars!!! It was very definitely red in color and bright. Lots of folks called the news station wondering exactly what the object was. It's strange isn't it, to be able to see Mars from here?

WANTED: Large, strong telescope to be able to gaze at the stars. Needed as soon as possible to quench my desire to learn as much as I can about the cosmos.

Maybe I really will get into this star gazing jazz. Who knows, maybe I'll even find a star that I'll name after myself. One of these days I may be on one of those other planets gazing towards earth and remembering "the good old days"!

You should note that early versions of Microsoft Internet Explorer displayed blockquotes in italics. The company abandoned that convention in later releases.

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