jQuery using append with effects

Having effects on append won't work because the content the browser displays is updated as soon as the div is appended. So, to combine Mark B's and Steerpike's answers:

Style the div you're appending as hidden before you actually append it. You can do it with inline or external CSS script, or just create the div as

<div id="new_div" style="display: none;"> ... </div>

Then you can chain effects to your append (demo):

$('#new_div').appendTo('#original_div').show('slow');

Or (demo):

var $new = $('#new_div');
$('#original_div').append($new);
$new.show('slow');

The essence is this:

1. You're calling 'append' on the parent
2. but you want to call 'show' on the new child

This works for me:

var new_item = $('<p>hello</p>').hide();
parent.append(new_item);
new_item.show('normal');

or:

$('<p>hello</p>').hide().appendTo(parent).show('normal');

Another way when working with incoming data (like from an ajax call):

var new_div = $(data).hide();
$('#old_div').append(new_div);
new_div.slideDown();

Something like:

$('#test').append('<div id="newdiv">Hello</div>').hide().show('slow');

should do it?

Edit: sorry, mistake in code and took Matt's suggestion on board too.