Difference between overflow-wrap and word-break?
The overflow-wrap property tames long unbreakable strings, forcing them to wrap within the container boundaries. Meanwhile, word-break goes all samurai by permitting breaks within words without asking for permission—this may affect readability, though.
To ensure long words don't exceed your container:
To allow chopping of words at any point:
Now, dealing with really long links/strings? You need to be a ninja: use both overflow-wrap: break-word; and word-break: break-all; to handle overflows gracefully, while keeping your layout sacred (and the readability alive!).
The Art of overflow-wrap
overflow-wrap, a.k.a. word-wrap in its past life, is an expert at wrapping long, unbreakable strings at the last possible spot. No word is harmed in the process; your line wraps, your code stays readable, your container's width is respected—harmony restored.
However, when dealing with the flexible nature of flex containers, be careful: overflow-wrap: break-word; can lead to container rebellion, forcing them to extrapolate their specified flex ratios. Also, remember the white-space property can interfere with overflow-wrap's noble intentions and influence its line-breaking behavior.
The Saga of word-break
Word-break is the reckless cousin to overflow-wrap. Where overflow-wrap gracefully wraps text around the container, word-break: break-all; is more gung-ho about it. Word boundaries in non-space? Psh, who cares? word-break will just smash through and split words between any two characters to prevent overflow.
Meanwhile, word-break: keep-all; tries to restore some order. This attribute is handy for languages without clear word boundaries defined by spaces—it keeps syllables together unless there's a break-marking character present.
Mix 'n Match
To wield your CSS katana like a master:
- Use
word-breakcombined withwhite-spacefor precision control. - Be cautious with
word-break: break-all;. Thewidth: min-contentcombo can wreak havoc on your layout! - Your containing box's dimensions are not just numbers—they affect the visual consistency. Keep that in mind when setting these properties.
- Don't shy away from mixing and matching various property combinations to suit different scenarios.
Browser Support
To serve your site well across all browsers with stable layout, compliant long link readability, it's crucial to ensure cross-browser compatibility. Use tools like caniuse.com to check the current browser support for these text-slinger properties, ensuring your styling kung-fu is appreciated universally.
Despite it being classified as deprecated, keep the alias word-break: break-word; in your arsenal. Contrary to the common myth, it's not a substitute for overflow-wrap: break-word;, but it will ensure backward compatibility across elder browsers.
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