The alignment property of the Paragraph tag has 4 attributes. They are:

1. <P align="Left"> (this is the default)
2. <P align="Right">
3. <P align="Center">
4. <P align="Justify">

But since web browsers interpret the <P> tag as <P align="Left"> most web developers do not
bother to specify an attribute when using the <P> tag. In doing so, they fail to make use
of the "Justify" attribute which happens to be the most powerful attribute of the <P> tag.

For instance, if you simply use <P> in your pages, the paragraphs will not look square and
professional. But if you use <P align="Justify">, all the sentences in your paragraphs will
line up perfectly from end to end.

To see an example of a web page where the justify property was used, click the link below:

http://www.ehow.com/how_5108402_justify-text-html.html

P.S: A poster read meanings into the original link I cited. Meanings which were totally
off base. I have therefore replaced the link with a more generic one to remove all doubts.

Here's a screen shot of a web page with paragraphs set to <P align="Justify">

Do you just want visitors to visit your site or you just want to teach what you know nothing about?
Who taught you that justify is the professional text-alignment style?
For your information, left align is the professional way to align your text.
Have you ever heard about text tracking and text-align: justify problem?
When you dont have enough text in some cases and you apply justify, you will force the text to add extra word spacing in order to fill every available gap horizontally and thereby making the text to look unprofessional.
Left align is always preferred by professional authors and webmasters.

Thank u.

@GraphicsPlus,

Despite the caustic tone of your response, you raised a few points that deserve addressing:

1. The article I referred to was published in 2010. So if I wanted to refer visitors to the
site, I should have used something more current.

2. As I said in my original post, left align is the most widely used Paragraph attribute.
Hence once you place a <p> tag and fail to declare the align property, the web browser will
simply assume you intended to write <P align="Left"> and interpret it as such. But that does
not mean that every web developer knows about the "Justify" alignment as you seem to think.

3. If extra word spacing is added to your paragraph when the "Justify" alignment is used,
then you should simply remove it. The "Justify" alignment is not meant for paragraphs that
are one or two sentences long which is what you seem to be referring to.

4. Finally, the fact that you know about the "Justify" alignment does not mean that every
other person knows it. I have been in this business for about 15 years but only learned
about the "Justify" alignment 5 years ago. They simply don't tell you about it in most HTML
books. If you know of any HTML book that mentions it, please let us have the title here. In
my time, I went through several HTML books and can't remember coming across it in any of them.

Text alignment is not taught in html. It's in css. We dont do styling with html. Any webmaster or graphics designer that do book layout that does not know about justify should be examined. That u just knew about it yesterday does not mean it's worth sharing. U claimed that justify is the professional way of aligning text. Go and tell that to elementary school pupils. Justify is mostly used by baby webmaster who enjoy seeing a clean left and right edge of a paragraph. They thought that the jagged one edge of left align makes it unprofessional. Pls stop styling ur paragraph like this. <p align ="justify">paragraph</p>. Html is not used for styling.

@all
I didn't know about justify and I have been coding websites since 1999. What does that make me?

There are plenty of ways to skin a cat. If I don't use justify and I can use myriads of other properties.

very good job, OP.

thanks for sharing.

@Yawatide, there is no other way to make a paragraph justify both in html and css.
I wonder why you didnt know about justify for the past 14 years.
Does that mean u never typed anything in MS Word, cdr, psd, ai or indd?
If u hav typed, i believe you must have used justify at one point.
If u have used it, I want to believe that for the last 14 years, u must have wondered how to achieve the same on the web.
And if u have wondered, u must have known about justify before now.
But if u didnt know before now, and the OP has educated you. Then, u ar lucky to have learned new thing today.

My point is that text-align:justify is not the professional way of aligning paragraph according to OP.
If someone want to post a tutorial-like stuff, he should do justice to it. And not writing as if justify is another big thing in web design.

^^^ Again, I say, no, I haven't. I also knew a DBA with over 20 years of experience who failed the MCDBA exam twice. Does that make the person stupid?

I have never used it and I have never heard of it and though I don't recall how, I am sure I have encountered this problem and solved it in my own way.

I guess if this were an interview question, I would have failed the question and thus the job opportunity.

Coming to think of it, do you know every single nuance of css and html? Be careful with your answer

@GraphicsPlus,

You have now said this more than once. I never said the "Justify" alignment is the
professional way of aligning paragraphs. Rather I said using "Justify" alignment will
make your paragraphs look professional. Re-read my original post. There is a big difference
between those two statements. Pick up any book near you. You will notice that the pages
all have the "Justify" alignment. If it is such a bad idea as you are implying, book publishers
will not be using it in such great numbers.

Regarding your assertion that text alignment is taught in CSS and not HTML, that is patently
false. Since the introduction of CSS, most HTML books devote at least a chapter or more to
CSS and other style sheet technologies. Moreover, the code I cited is pure HTML not CSS. For
the record, here it is again:

<P align="Justify">
Your paragraph goes here.
</p>

As you can see, this is HTML all the way. There is no CSS code or any reference to a CSS
file.

Justify doesnt make paragraph look professional.
It only makes it align equally on both sides.

@Yawatide, I bet you, there are things every web designer must know.
And all text-align properties are among them.
It's like asking me whether I know about positioning and box-model.

I dont believe you never heard about justify.
You said you encountered the problem some years back and solved it, but u cant remember how u solved it.
Pls there is no other way in web design and development to align text equally on both sides without using text-align: justify.

I know u can use <p align="justify"></p> in ur html. But since the advent of css, it is no longer required.
What if u have 100 paragraphs?

The "align" attribute is no longer used in HTML5.

bakenda: The "align" attribute is no longer used in HTML5.

It's still used. It's just text-align: center used for centering other elements that they removed.

@Graphics
I don't belong to the school of thought that says there are things that everyone must know. Sure, you may know it but you can't apply it to everyone else. Again, I state that there are things that as you said, you "must know" that you don't know. You don't have to admit it here. By the way, who defines things that go in the "must know" area?

In general, I always have a reset.css. Then I add necessary padding/margin where necessary. In 20 years, I have never heard of or used "justify". Does this make me less of a developer? Does this mean now that I have heard of it, I won't experiment with it or use it? Of course, the answers to these is "no".

GraphicsPlus: I know u can use <p align="justify"></p> in ur html. But since the advent of css, it is no longer required.
What if u have 100 paragraphs?

Yes, if you have 100 paragraphs, you can use CSS to set the alignment property once instead
of 100 times. But that may not be ideal. The Justify alignment is suited for dense paragraphs.
So if you have a paragraph that is only 3 or 4 sentences long, applying the justify alignment
will leave too many white spaces. Preferably, it should be applied as needed on page level not
globally.

@yawa-ti-de,

Do not pay too much attention to GraphicsPlus. Despite the fact that I learned HTML by hand
(meaning that I learned it the hard way with Notepad), I never knew about the Justify alignment
until a client specifically requested that his paragraphs line up perfectly both on the left
and right margins. After doing some research, I discovered it.

Two things, one is involved. If u learned html by urself or u were taught by an incompetent html tutor, then it's true u didnt know about justify. Justify, left, right and center align ar taught when a tutor start teaching about p tag. It's like telling me that u only know about a:link, that u dont know or hav heard about :hover. Funny. If u ar knowing about justify today and u hav been coding, then u really missed some html fundamentals. U will need to go back to the drawing board. If OP was talking about one of the html5 elements, i will agree, but to tell me we should start jumping up becos one newbie lectured us about the most powerful (according him) p align property. What makes justify most powerful. Just go to blogs, websites and investigate the one widely used. People dont use left align becos they dont know about the other three. They know, but they deliberately use left align becos is generally accepted and it's more professional. Using justify causes tracking problem even in some cases where u hav large text in a small container.

^^^ Actually I went for a long time not knowing about link, visit, hover, active, focus too

Dude, sorry, but with me, and as open-minded as I am, you won't be winning this debate. Maybe with someone else. Again, just because you were taught (self or otherwise) by a super genius doesn't mean everyone had the same opportunities. There are tons of stuff I don't know and when I encounter them, I google for it, find it, use it and store it in my subconscious. It is impossible to know all the "must know" stuff. Even the best of us doesn't know it all (though they won't tell you that )

Even if u are just knowing about image tag today, the issue remains that there are html basics every webmaster must know. I dont claim to know everything. But I know I know the basics of html. That is the first thing u learn in html. Every child that attended nursery school can read the alphabet. The point is that if the child grows, attended university and graduated and now working. Then all of a sudden, he start telling us that he just learned the alphabet today. Everybody will turn and look at him twice.

For instance, any webmaster that knows about css border knows that its not only solid that border has. Dashed, dotted and so on are there, but not usually used. It's not because webmasters dont know about them, but becos solid has been widely preferred.

It's like telling us that u have coded with php for 20 years and you are hearing about 'print' function today. Somebody close to u may want to knock ur head.

Let us debate till eternity, the point remains that the OP's post is irrelevant. Justify align is NOT the most powerful and it DOES NOT make a paragraph look professional.

^^^ I actually have never used print so I guess I need that knock

Again, what is basic to you is not basic to someone else. Universal basic includes the alphabets. Non-universal basics is, for instance, how to pronounce "z ("z" or "zed". It's all "tom-ay-to"/"tom-ah-to" to me.

You may have to know that there is a universal way of pronouncing z. Zee.
There are universal basics of html.

^^^ Again, universal by whose standards and if it were "universal", why did the British teach us "zed"?

British never taught us zed. It's zee.

GraphicsPlus:

It's still used. It's just text-align: center used for centering other elements that they removed.

text-align is a CSS property.

@GraphicPlus:
http://www.straightdope.com/columns/read/1632/why-do-the-british-pronounced-the-letter-z-zed
http://english.stackexchange.com/questions/6470/which-is-the-correct-way-to-refer-to-the-letter-z-zee-or-zed

bakenda:

text-align is a CSS property.

This thread is actually about paragraph alignment. But GraphicsPlus somehow turned it into
something else. That said, <P align="Left"> is HTML code. It can be used to achieve the
same result as text-align in CSS.

@Yawatide, in British English it's zed. In American English it's zee.
We are talking about web design and so, we must go for zee and not zed.
If your write 'colour' in your mark ups, you will not get any result. It's either American English or nothing.

^^^ But you didn't specify that at first.

Just in case you try to modify or delete the previous post, let me help remind you of what you wrote earlier in this regard:

You may have to know that there is a universal way of pronouncing z. Zee.
There are universal basics of html.

I think that well you dug for yourself is deep enough though if you think otherwise, keep on digging

I said that in reference to web design.

^^^ Then you should have specified.

Keep digging. I get shovel plenty plenty

@Yawatide, I dont have to specify. I was waiting for u to land first so that i will nail u.

It's ok. you have won. bye bye
I have to Unfollow now.

^^^ Wait o! What happened to "debating infinitely"?

No worries, this wasn't about winning and losing. My point is that there is no one who knows it all, or who should know all. I am woman enough to acknowledge my faults (maybe that is why I get into so much trouble ) and to acknowledge my ignorance.

I do want to thank you for not taking the, generally speaking, nigerian route of attacking the person when you can't attack the logic and for not getting this thread to deteriorate into beer parlour conversation. Hopefully many will learn from this

Enough said

@GraphicsPlus,

Below is a screen shot of a web page with paragraphs set to <P align="Justify">. Tell me, what's
wrong with that?