HTML Text Wrap Versus Scroll

Question

I have a table with column contents that could be potentially long. From a design/usability standpoint, is it better to wrap the text or provide a scroll bar within the column to view the entire text?

Personally, I think wrapping the text is better. But I wanted to know what have others done in such a situation?

you should consider answering some of your questions before asking more here... — Jason, May 06 '11 at 17:53
You should also consider asking this on http://ux.stackexchange.com/ as it is a design issue and not a programming issue (and providing more detail). — Quentin, May 06 '11 at 18:06

score 1 · Answer 1 · answered May 06 '11 at 18:06

I ALWAYS page my content rather than wrapping or scrolling. It's super easy with jQuery DataTables and it gives the user further opportunities to filter, limit, and sort the data.

This solution also gives you the option to scroll data as well, and to dynamically adjust columns or do show/hides. But I've never gotten to that point. One one of my applications, using Ajax and Pipelining (which are supported by the plugin) it handles 3+ million records without a hiccup. Also, note that it can use jQuery's Themeroller, which can style the table simply and even from the user end on the fly if so desired.

score 0 · Accepted Answer · answered May 06 '11 at 17:53

0

I usually let the text wrap into the cell. But, what do you mean by "potentially long"?

answered May 06 '11 at 17:53

Piccolomomo

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1
11

The column contents can vary based on user input. So, the text could be abc or abccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccc – user330973 May 06 '11 at 17:57
Warning, long text without spaces can cause problems to some browsers: [How to wrap long lines without spaces in HTML?](http://stackoverflow.com/q/363425/609436) – Piccolomomo May 06 '11 at 18:01

score 0 · Answer 3 · answered May 06 '11 at 18:06

I use a calendar plugin and sometimes the title gets long- i made the decision to break the string in the middle if needed- Supported in CSS3 only- other wise it just wraps

My css

.fc-event-title {
text-wrap: unrestricted;
word-wrap: break-word;
}

and will only happen if mywordisexteremlylong and wont fit properly in a small cell

But this is very extreme so that it does not overflow into the next cell.

But otherwise i dont break the word if there is enough space.

HTML Text Wrap Versus Scroll

3 Answers3