Identifying line breaks caused by browsers or CSS forced line breaks

Question

Identifying line breaks caused by browsers or CSS forced line breaks

<p style="width:60px"> This is just a sample text. It is a piece of text that doesn't really say anything meaningful.</p>

When this text is rendered as HTML, it would look like this:

This is just 
a sample 
text. It 
is a piece 
of text 
that doesn't 
really say 
anything 
meaningful.

If we were to split the above paragraph into separate paragraphs, line by line, the expected result would be:

<p style="width:60px">This is just</p>
<p style="width:60px">a sample</p>
<p style="width:60px">text. It</p>
<p style="width:60px">is a piece</p>
<p style="width:60px">of text</p>
<p style="width:60px">that doesn't</p>
<p style="width:60px">really say</p>
<p style="width:60px">anything</p>
<p style="width:60px">meaningful.</p>

Is it feasible to achieve this using Javascript?

By splitting the text in this way, I will be able to create my own pagination system for lengthy HTML content. Each group of paragraphs, within a certain height limit, will be contained in a single

<div class="page"></div>

. Ultimately, the entire HTML structure would be organized as follows:

<div id="page1" class="page">
   <p>complete content</p>
   <p>upper part of XXX</p>
</div>

<div id="page2" class="page">
   <p>bottom part of XXX</p>
   <p>...</p><p>...</p>
</div>

javascript html css pdf-generation

Answer 1

Answer №1

Suppose your text is contained within a <p id='wholeText'> element:

var element = document.getElementById("wholeText");

var wholeText = element.innerHTML;

var splitText = wholeText.split("\r\n");

var newHtml = null;

for(var i = 0; i < splitText.length; i++)
{
   newHtml += "<p class='each-line'>"+splitText[i]+'</p>';
}

You can then utilize the newHtml variable to insert the formatted text back into the DOM. For example, to append it to the same <p> element from which you extracted the text:

element.innerHTML = newHtml; // remember element refers to the <p> with the ID of wholeText

It's recommended to encapsulate the above code within a function and invoke the function once the window has finished loading.

window.addEventListener("load", function(){

// insert the code here
}, false);

If your text does not include line breaks, consider using this plugin : http://jsfiddle.net/nathan/qkmse/

The plugin mentioned above is applicable to this Stack Overflow query:

detecting line-breaks with jQuery?

Answer 2

Suppose your text is contained within a <p id='wholeText'> element:

var element = document.getElementById("wholeText");

var wholeText = element.innerHTML;

var splitText = wholeText.split("\r\n");

var newHtml = null;

for(var i = 0; i < splitText.length; i++)
{
   newHtml += "<p class='each-line'>"+splitText[i]+'</p>';
}

You can then utilize the newHtml variable to insert the formatted text back into the DOM. For example, to append it to the same <p> element from which you extracted the text:

element.innerHTML = newHtml; // remember element refers to the <p> with the ID of wholeText

It's recommended to encapsulate the above code within a function and invoke the function once the window has finished loading.

window.addEventListener("load", function(){

// insert the code here
}, false);

If your text does not include line breaks, consider using this plugin : http://jsfiddle.net/nathan/qkmse/

The plugin mentioned above is applicable to this Stack Overflow query:

detecting line-breaks with jQuery?

Answer 3

Answer №2

If you're looking to format text as if the CSS properties

word-wrap:break-word; word-break:break-all;

were applied to the p element (as mentioned in a comment), and each resulting line is converted into a paragraph, you can achieve this by processing the p element character by character. This involves fitting as many characters as possible within a given width on each line. If the width limit is exceeded, a new p element is constructed to continue the text. This process involves writing the characters to an invisible inline block and checking its rendered width.

Here's an example code snippet that demonstrates this technique (note that this method is most effective when the paragraph only contains text, without any additional markup):

<p style="width:60px" id=p> I am some random text. I am Some text.blabla</p>
<script>
var width = 60;
var p = document.getElementById('p');
var parent = p.parentNode;
var line = document.createElement('span');
line.style.display = 'inline-block';
line.style.visibility = 'hidden';
var content = p.innerHTML;
document.body.appendChild(line);
var start = 0;
var i = 1;
while(i < content.length) {
  line.innerHTML = content.substring(start, i);
  console.log(i + ' ' + content.length);
  if(line.clientWidth > width) {
     var newp = document.createElement('p');
     newp.style.width = width + 'px';
     newp.innerHTML = content.substring(start, i - 1);
     parent.insertBefore(newp, p);
     start = i - 1;
     i = start + 1;
   }
   else {
     i++;
   }
}
newp = document.createElement('p');
newp.style.width = width + 'px';
newp.innerHTML = content.substring(start);
parent.insertBefore(newp, p);
parent.removeChild(p);
</script>

It's important to note that there may be alternative approaches to solving the underlying problem you're facing, but without a detailed description of the issue, it's challenging to provide specific guidance.

Answer 4

If you're looking to format text as if the CSS properties

word-wrap:break-word; word-break:break-all;

were applied to the p element (as mentioned in a comment), and each resulting line is converted into a paragraph, you can achieve this by processing the p element character by character. This involves fitting as many characters as possible within a given width on each line. If the width limit is exceeded, a new p element is constructed to continue the text. This process involves writing the characters to an invisible inline block and checking its rendered width.

Here's an example code snippet that demonstrates this technique (note that this method is most effective when the paragraph only contains text, without any additional markup):

<p style="width:60px" id=p> I am some random text. I am Some text.blabla</p>
<script>
var width = 60;
var p = document.getElementById('p');
var parent = p.parentNode;
var line = document.createElement('span');
line.style.display = 'inline-block';
line.style.visibility = 'hidden';
var content = p.innerHTML;
document.body.appendChild(line);
var start = 0;
var i = 1;
while(i < content.length) {
  line.innerHTML = content.substring(start, i);
  console.log(i + ' ' + content.length);
  if(line.clientWidth > width) {
     var newp = document.createElement('p');
     newp.style.width = width + 'px';
     newp.innerHTML = content.substring(start, i - 1);
     parent.insertBefore(newp, p);
     start = i - 1;
     i = start + 1;
   }
   else {
     i++;
   }
}
newp = document.createElement('p');
newp.style.width = width + 'px';
newp.innerHTML = content.substring(start);
parent.insertBefore(newp, p);
parent.removeChild(p);
</script>

It's important to note that there may be alternative approaches to solving the underlying problem you're facing, but without a detailed description of the issue, it's challenging to provide specific guidance.

Identifying line breaks caused by browsers or CSS forced line breaks

Answer №1

Answer №2

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