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CSS break-inside

The CSS break-inside property allows you to prevent an unwanted break within a multi-column layout.

For example, when working with multi-column layouts, you might prefer ordered lists to display within one column (instead of spilling over to the next column part-way through the list). In this case, you could use the break-inside property to avoid this unwanted break.

The examples on this page include browser-specific properties that start with extensions such as -webkit-, -moz-, etc. This is for browser compatibility reasons. See the bottom of this article for more on this.

Syntax: break-inside: auto | avoid | avoid-page | avoid-column;
Example
break-inside: avoid; /* W3C */
-webkit-column-break-inside: avoid; /* Safari & Chrome */
-moz-column-break-inside: avoid; /* Firefox */
-ms-column-break-inside: avoid; /* Internet Explorer */
-o-column-break-inside: avoid; /* Opera */
Note that this example includes various CSS extensions in addition to the W3C CSS3 property. This is for browser compatibility.
Try it yourself!


Possible Values:
auto
Specifies to neither force nor forbid a page/column break inside the element.
avoid
Specifies to avoid a page break inside the element.
avoid-page
Specifies to avoid a page break inside the element.
avoid-column
Specifies to avoid a column break inside the element.
Initial Value: auto
Applies to: block-level elements
Inherited: No
Media: Paged

Browser Compatibility

At the time of writing, CSS3 was still under development and browser support for many CSS3 properties was limited or non-existent. For maximum browser compatibility many web developers add browser-specific properties by using extensions such as -webkit- for Safari and Google Chrome, -ms- for Internet Explorer, -moz- for Firefox, -o- for Opera etc. As with any CSS property, if a browser doesn't support a proprietary extension, it will simply ignore it.

This practice is not recommended by the W3C, however in many cases, the only way you can test a property is to include the CSS extension that is compatible with your browser.

Be aware that if you choose to use the proprietary CSS extensions in a live environment, your code will not pass any W3C CSS validation, as the browser-specific properties are not valid W3C properties.

Many of the CSS3 examples on this website include these browser specific properties. If they weren't included, most of the examples wouldn't work for most users (at least, not until possibly years after the article was written).

The major browser manufacturers are working to support the W3C properties, and eventually, you will be able to omit these browser-specific properties.

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