This tag extends the alignment attributes of the <p> to groups of block like elements (paragraphs, tables and images). All the block like elements within a <div> container inherit their alignment attributes from the initial <div> tag unless, of course, the elements have their own alignment attributes.
The tag has a single attribute align with one of the three possible values left, center and right. It is not clear from the HTML standard whether the <div> tag shares the implicit closure property of <p> and <li>. I.e. the presence of a <div> tag implies a </div> at the end of a previous <div> container, however the standard does make it clear that a <div> tag implies the end of the previous paragraph.
Here's a sequence of three paragraphs that will be centre aligned as a consequence of enclosing <div> ... </div> with the align attribute set to center.
This is the first, rather brief paragraph.
This is a slightly longer paragraph that is intended to show the behaviour of the browser when rendering rather longer lines.
And this is the final of the three paragraphs that should have been centred as a result of the <div> tag's align attribute.
There was a </div> tag immediately before this line and the text alignment should now revert to the normal default left alignment of paragraphs.
Browsers
MOS3 and ARA do not honour this tag. All other browsers
handle it correctly.