page-break-before property

Defines whether a page break occurs before the object.

Syntax

Property values

always: Always insert a page break before the object.
auto: Default. Neither force nor forbid a page break before the object.
avoid: Internet Explorer 8. Forbid a page break before the object, if possible.
empty string: Behaves the same as auto.
inherit: Internet Explorer 8. Inherit the value of the same property for the object's parent.
left: Currently behaves the same as always.
right: Currently behaves the same as always.

CSS information

Applies To	All elements
Media	visual
Inherited	no
Initial Value	none

Standards information

CSS 2.1, Section 13.3.1

Remarks

This property applies when printing the document. This property does not apply to the br or hr elements.

If there are conflicts between the value of this property and the page-break-after property of the object previously displayed in the browser, the value that results in the largest number of page breaks is used.

Page breaks are not permitted inside positioned objects.

Examples

The following example uses the page-break-before property to start printing on a new page.

Setting page-break-before to always for the h3 element specifies that a page break occurs before each h3 heading.

Code example: http://samples.msdn.microsoft.com/workshop/samples/author/dhtml/refs/page-break-before.htm

HTML


<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<head>
   <style type="text/css">
      h3 {
         page-break-before: always;
      }
   </style>
</head>
<body>
   <p>Because page-break-before is set to always, there will be a page break before the following H3 title when you print this page.</p>
   <h3>Start New Section on New Page</h3>
</body>
</html>