Important Notice

The pages on this site contain documentation for very old MS-DOS software, purely for historical purposes. If you're looking for up-to-date documentation, particularly for programming, you should not rely on the information found here, as it will be woefully out of date.

                                                      ◄Up► ◄Next► ◄Previous►
────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
 
 :dl [tsize=width] [compact] [break={all | fit | none}].
 
The :dl tag starts a definition list. A definition list is a two-column
list. For each row in the list, the left column contains a word or phrase
and the right column contains one or more lines of descriptive text.
 
In the help source file, the definition list must start with the :dl tag,
end with the :edl tag, and contain one or more combinations of the :dt,
.dupd, :dthd, and :ddhd tags.
 
Parameter  Description
────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
 
tsize      Specifies the width (in characters) of the left column. The
           width value must be an integer. If this parameter is not
           specified, the default width is 10 characters.
 
compact    Removes blanks lines from between rows in the list. If this
           parameter is not specified, the list has one blank line between
           each row.
 
break      Specifies whether the text in the right column of a row starts on
           a new line (that is, a line different from the start if the
           left-column text). It can be one of the following values:
 
           Value  Meaning
           ─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
           all    Right-column text in all rows starts on a new line.
 
           fit    Right-column text starts on a new line only if the
                  left-column text exceeds the width of the left column.
 
           none   Right-column text always starts on the same line as the
                  left-column text. If the left-column text does not fit the
                  left column, the right-column text starts immediately
                  after the left-column text, separated by a space.
 
           The default value is none.
 
Comments
 
Although the width of the left column is specified in characters, the actual
width of the column depends on the average character width of the font used
to display the text. For example, specifying a width of 10 characters does
not guarantee that the letter M repeated 10 times will fit in the column.
 
The break and compact parameters do not affect the headings specified by the
.dupthd and :ddhd tags.
 
You can insert additional paragraphs in a definition description by using
the :p tag following the description paragraph. Other tags that you want to
nest within the definition list should follow the dd tag within the list.
 
Example
 
This example uses the :dl tag to start a definition list:
 
    :dl compact tsize=20.
    :dthd.Item
    :ddhd.Description
    :dt.Tree
    :dd.Plant life in forest
    :dt.Orange
    :dd.Fruit on tree
    :dt.Cow
    :dd.Animal on farm
    :edl.
 
When displayed, the definition list looks like this:
 
    Item                Description
    Tree                Plant life in forest
    Orange              Fruit on tree
    Cow                 Animal on farm
 
See Also
 
 :dd, :ddhd, :edl, :dt, :dthd
 
                                      ♦