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)

And if you want, you can put a blockquote inside a blockquote (though not all browsers will recognize the second blockquote):

I think I may be getting the hang of this webdesign stuff. It really doesn't seem that hard. But I'm not too comfortable making my own graphics and displaying them yet.

WANTED:  Someone to create personal graphics for me and walk me through the process.

At least till I'm more comfortable with it . . . I'd LOVE to have a personal trainer!

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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