Insert ellipsis (...) into HTML tag if content too wide
I've got a solution working in FF3, Safari and IE6+ with single and multiline text
.ellipsis {
white-space: nowrap;
overflow: hidden;
}
.ellipsis.multiline {
white-space: normal;
}
<div class="ellipsis" style="width: 100px; border: 1px solid black;">Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipisicing elit</div>
<div class="ellipsis multiline" style="width: 100px; height: 40px; border: 1px solid black; margin-bottom: 100px">Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipisicing elit</div>
<script type="text/javascript" src="/js/jquery.ellipsis.js"></script>
<script type="text/javascript">
$(".ellipsis").ellipsis();
</script>
jquery.ellipsis.js
(function($) {
$.fn.ellipsis = function()
{
return this.each(function()
{
var el = $(this);
if(el.css("overflow") == "hidden")
{
var text = el.html();
var multiline = el.hasClass('multiline');
var t = $(this.cloneNode(true))
.hide()
.css('position', 'absolute')
.css('overflow', 'visible')
.width(multiline ? el.width() : 'auto')
.height(multiline ? 'auto' : el.height())
;
el.after(t);
function height() { return t.height() > el.height(); };
function width() { return t.width() > el.width(); };
var func = multiline ? height : width;
while (text.length > 0 && func())
{
text = text.substr(0, text.length - 1);
t.html(text + "...");
}
el.html(t.html());
t.remove();
}
});
};
})(jQuery);
The following CSS only solution for truncating text on a single line works with all browers listed at http://www.caniuse.com as of writing with the exception of Firefox 6.0. Note that JavaScript is totally unnecessary unless you need to support wrapping multiline text or earlier versions of Firefox.
.ellipsis {
white-space: nowrap;
overflow: hidden;
text-overflow: ellipsis;
-o-text-overflow: ellipsis;
}
If you need support for earlier versions of Firefox check out my answer on this other question.