html (+css): denoting a preferred place for a line break
Let's say I have this text that I want to display in an HTML table cell:
Honey Nut Cheerios, Wheat Chex, Grape-Nuts, Rice Krispies, Some random cereal with a very long name, Honey Bunches of Oats, Wheaties, Special K, Froot Loops, Apple Jacks
and I want the line to break preferentially after one of the commas.
Is there a way to tell the HTML renderer to try breaking at some designated spot, and do that first before trying to break after one of the spaces, without using non-breaking spaces? If I use non-breaking spaces then it makes the width larger unconditionally. I want the line break to happen after one of the spaces, if the line-wrapping algorithm has tried it with the commas first and can't get the line to fit.
I tried wrapping text fragments in <span> elements but that doesn't seem to do anything helpful.
<html>
<head>
<style type="text/css">
div.box { width: 180px; }
table, table td {
border: 1px solid;
border-collapse: collapse;
}
</style>
</head>
<body>
<div class="box">
<table>
<tr>
<td>lorem ipsum</td>
<td>lorem ipsum</td>
<td>lorem ipsum</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>lorem ipsum</td>
<td>
<span>Honey Nut Cheerios,</span>
<span>Wheat Chex,</span>
<span>Grape-Nuts,</span>
<span>Rice Krispies,</span>
<span>Some random cereal with a very long name,</span>
<span>Honey Bunches of Oats,</span>
<span>Wheaties,</span>
<span>Special K,</span>
<span>Froot Loops,</span>
<span>Apple Jacks</span>
</td>
<td>lorem ipsum</td>
</tr>
</table>
</div>
</body>
</html>
note: It looks like the CSS3 text-wrap: avoid behavior is what I want, but I can't seem to get it to work.
Answer
By using
span.avoidwrap { display:inline-block; }
and wrapping the text I want to be kept together in
<span class="avoidwrap"> Text </span>
it will wrap first in preferred blocks and then in smaller fragments as needed.