<HR>

Display a divider

Creates a divider between sections of text by displaying or horizontal bar or graphic.

        <html>
        <head>
        <title>Some Title</title>
        </head>
        <body>
            .
            .
==>>    <hr>
            .
            .
        </body>
        </html>

HTML 3.0 Draft

The draft has added a few attributes to the horizontal rule to allow it to be manipulated the same as other elements.

Image specific attributes include SRC and MD.

SRC: Specifies the image to appear in the context of where this attribute is used.
MD: Specifies a message digest or cryptographic checksum that is used to validate the linked item you retrieve is in fact the item you expect it to be.
An example of these attributes in use is:: <HR SRC="BlueLine.gif" MD="md5:faV2O5+ddsuHKbd87UYjf/WecvFc">

An attribute common to almost all of the block style tags is CLEAR.

CLEAR: Used to specify the vertical positioning of a block element. This lets you start a block below a figure or table, or next to it if there is a certain amount of space for your divider. You can specify left, right or all to indicate that you want the left margin, right margin or both margins clear before you display your divider.
Instead of clearing the margins you can also tell the browser that if there is a certain amount of space next to a table or figure then it can display your divider. You do this by putting in an amount of space in "en" units or in pixels. You would put a value such as "50 en" for 50 "en" spaces or "130 pixels" for 130 pixels.
An example of this attribute in use is:: <HR CLEAR="50 pixels">

Attributes common to almost all of the tags permitted in the document body include ID and CLASS. You probably won't be using any of these tags for a while but I've included them so you know they are coming.

ID: A name to be used as a target for links or for naming particular elements in a style sheet. These take the place of the HTML 2.0 <A NAME="somename">Some Name</A> construct that defines internal document links.
CLASS: Used to assign a class name to a tag.
An example of these attributes in use is:: <HR ID="topicone" CLASS=section>

Netscape

Implements four attributes, SIZE, WIDTH, ALIGN, and NOSHADE. These let you have more control over the appearance of the standard horizontal rule.

SIZE: This attribute lets you specify how thick you want the line to be. You specify this value as the number of pixels. There's no stated limit on the value but I think it's around 99 pixels.
WIDTH: This attribute lets you specify how far across the page you want the line to reach. You can specify this value as the absolute number of pixels or as a percentage of the reader's page width. The pixel value seems to accept just about anything from 0 (which it seems to take as 1) to whatever. I tried 1280 and it displayed across my large monitor just fine. Percentage values seem to range from 0 (which shows 1 pixel wide) to 100% or higher. I tried 120% and it displayed wider than the page size I had set - 20% wider to be exact. If you use the WIDTH without the ALIGN attribute Netscape wants to center the resulting divider.
ALIGN: This attibute determines the hoizontal position of the divider if it is less than a full page wide. You are allowed to specify left, right, or center. Left starts the divider flush with the left margin, right ends the divider flush with the right margin, and center displays the divider between the two margins.
NOSHADE: This attribute lets you create a solid bar. It turns off Netscape's 3-D rendering of the horizontal rule.
An example of these attributes in use is:: <HR SIZE=6 WIDTH=50% ALIGN=center NOSHADE>

Microsoft IE

Nothing special.

Internationalization

Adds the DIR attribute.

The Rusk Family . . . "the Legend Continues"

Michael T. Rusk
Comments to author: mrusk@radix.net