HTML-Pre formatted Text

HTML-Pre formatted Text

Using Preformatted Text

Is it absolutely necessary to use paragraph and line break elements for formatting text? Well, not really; HTML provides a container that can hold preformatted text. This is text that gives you, the author, much more control over how the viewer displays your document. The trade-off for this control is a loss of flexibility.
The most common and useful preformatting tag is the

 container. Text in a 
 container is basically free-form with line feeds causing the line to break at the beginning of the next clear line. Line break tags and paragraph tags are also supported. This versatility enables you to create such items as tables and precise columns of text. Another common use of the 
 element is to display large blocks of computer code (C, C++, and so on) that would otherwise be difficult to read if the browser reformatted it.

Text in a

 container can use any of the physical or logical text formatting elements. You can use this feature to create tables that have bold headers or italicized values. However, the use of paragraph-formatting elements such as 

 or any of the heading elements is not permitted. Anchor elements can be included within a 
 container.

The biggest drawback to the

 container is that any text within it is displayed in a monospaced font in the reader's viewer. This tends to make long stretches of preformatted text look clunky and out of place.