Text-overflow ellipsis is a CSS property that truncates text that overflows its container and replaces the remaining text with an ellipsis. This property is commonly used to make the text more readable and to avoid design issues. However, there are times when text-overflow ellipsis doesn’t work as intended, leaving you with incomplete or truncated text. In this article, we will go over some common reasons why text-overflow ellipsis may not be working and how to fix them.
As a website owner or developer, you know how important it is to have a clean and well-organized design. However, when it comes to displaying long blocks of text, it can be difficult to keep things looking neat and tidy. This is where the CSS property ‘text-overflow ellipsis’ comes in handy.
What is Text-Overflow Ellipsis?
Text-overflow ellipsis is a CSS property that allows you to truncate text that overflows its container. In other words, if you have a block of text that is too long to fit within a given space, text-overflow ellipsis will replace the overflowed text with an ellipsis (“…”) to indicate that there is more text that has been cut off.
Also, See:
How Does Text-Overflow Ellipsis Work?
Text-overflow ellipsis is actually a combination of three CSS properties: text-overflow, white-space, and overflow. Let’s break down what each of these properties does:
- Text-overflow: This property specifies what should happen when text overflows its container. There are three possible values for this property: clip, ellipsis, and string. The clip value simply clips the text that overflows, while the string value will add a custom string to the end of the text that overflows. The ellipsis value adds an ellipsis to the end of the text that overflows, which is what we’ll be focusing on in this article.
- White-space: This property specifies how white space should be handled within the text. There are three possible values for this property: normal, nowrap, and pre-wrap. The normal value allows text to wrap to the next line if it is too long, while the nowrap value prevents text from wrapping and instead truncates it. The pre-wrap value preserves white space and allows text to wrap to the next line if it is too long.
- Overflow: This property specifies how overflowed content should be handled. There are four possible values for this property: visible, hidden, scroll, and auto. The visible value allows overflowed content to be visible outside of its container, while the hidden value hides overflowed content. The scroll value adds scrollbars to the container, while the auto value adds scrollbars only when necessary.
Putting it all together, the text-overflow ellipsis property works by setting the text-overflow property to “ellipsis”, the white-space property to “nowrap”, and the overflow property to “hidden”. This tells the browser to truncate any text that overflows its container, add an ellipsis to the end of the truncated text, and hide any overflowed content that extends beyond the container.
How to Use Text-Overflow Ellipsis on Your Website
Now that you understand how text-overflow ellipsis works, let’s take a look at how you can use it on your website. Here are the steps you’ll need to follow:
- Identify the block of text that you want to truncate. This could be a paragraph of text, a heading, or any other block-level element.
- Set the width of the container that the text is in. This is important because the text-overflow ellipsis property will only work if the text is contained within a fixed-width container. You can set the width using CSS, for example:
.container {
width: 300px;
}- Apply the text-overflow ellipsis property to the container using the following CSS:
.container {
white-space: nowrap;
overflow: hidden;
text-overflow: ellipsis;
}- Save your changes.
How to Fix Text-Overflow Ellipsis Not Working
-
Check the container’s width
The first thing you should check when text-overflow ellipsis is not working is the width of the container. The container must have a fixed width for text-overflow ellipsis to work correctly. If the container has a percentage width or is set to auto, text-overflow ellipsis will not work.
To fix this, make sure the container has a fixed width that is greater than the width of the text it contains. You can set the width of the container using CSS like this:
.container {
width: 200px;
}
The overflow property controls what happens when the content of a container overflows its boundaries. By default, the overflow property is set to visible, which means that the overflow is not hidden, and the text-overflow ellipsis property will not work.
To fix this, set the overflow property to hidden, like this:
.container {
width: 200px;
overflow: hidden;
text-overflow: ellipsis;
}
-
Set white-space property to nowrap
The white-space property controls how white space inside an element is handled. By default, the white-space property is set to normal, which means that white space is collapsed, and the text-overflow ellipsis property will not work correctly.
To fix this, set the white-space property to nowrap, like this:
.container {
width: 200px;
overflow: hidden;
white-space: nowrap;
text-overflow: ellipsis;
}
-
Check the font size and line height
The font size and line height of the text inside the container can affect how text-overflow ellipsis works. If the font size is too large or the line height is too small, the text-overflow ellipsis property will not work as expected.
To fix this, adjust the font size and line height of the text inside the container. Make sure the font size is not too large and the line height is not too small. You can adjust the font size and line height using CSS like this:
.container {
width: 200px;
overflow: hidden;
white-space: nowrap;
text-overflow: ellipsis;
font-size: 16px;
line-height: 1.2;
}
-
Check the position property
The position property controls the positioning of an element inside its container. If the container has a position property set to relative, absolute, or fixed, text-overflow ellipsis may not work correctly.
To fix this, set the position property of the container to static, like this:
.container {
position: static;
width: 200px;
overflow: hidden;
white-space: nowrap;
text-overflow: ellipsis;
font-size: 16px;
line-height: 1.2;
}
Conclusion
Text-overflow ellipsis is a useful CSS property for truncating text that overflows its container and replacing the remaining text with an ellipsis. However, there are times when text-overflow ellipsis may not work correctly. By checking the container’s width, setting the overflow property to hidden, setting the white-space property, checking the font size and position property, you can easily fix the issue.
- Huawei Mate 40 RS Porsche Design Full Specifications and Price - March 9, 2025
- Huawei Y7a Full Specifications and Price - March 9, 2025
- Tecno Pova Full Specifications and Price - March 9, 2025