CSS

css set width of a span

span {    /* Normally a span has no width! */
  display: inline-block; /* This fixes it. */
  width: 50px; /* Whatever width you like. */
}
/* Does not work in FF2 and below. */

can span have width

/* An html span element does not have width or height,
because it is an inline element */
span{
  width: 10px; /* Does not work. Apparent width is still 0. */
}