# Deprecated The **``** [HTML](https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/HTML) element is a [block-level element](https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/HTML/Block-level_elements) that displays its block-level or inline contents centered horizontally within its containing element. The container is usually, but isn't required to be, [`body`](body!). This tag has been deprecated in HTML 4 (and XHTML 1) in favor of the [CSS](https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/CSS) text-align property, which can be applied to the [`div`](div!) element or to an individual [`p`](p!). For centering blocks, use other CSS properties like margin-left and margin-right and set them to `auto` (or set margin to `0 auto`).