Who the document is between / Delivery details block
A delivery details block with dates, carrier and terms
Dispatch date, expected arrival, carrier, consignment reference and delivery terms, gathered into one block near the top of a despatch document.
Why this block is harder than it looks
This block is a set of labelled pairs where roughly half are optional in any given document, which produces the same holes an address block produces and for the same reason. It also mixes types that want different alignment: dates want to be fixed-width and comparable, a carrier name is free text of unpredictable length, and a consignment reference is a code that must not wrap. Laying all three out on one grid means the grid has to be built for the code and the date rather than for the prose.
The decisions that make it work
Reasons rather than a description of the code. Each of these is a choice that has a wrong answer, and the wrong answer is usually the default.
- Build it as a two-column definition grid and omit any pair whose value is absent, rather than printing a label with nothing after it.
- Set dates in a fixed format with the month as a word, so a dispatch date and an arrival date can be compared at a glance.
- Keep the consignment reference on one line with white-space: nowrap, and set it in the monospace face so it can be read into a tracking box.
- Let the carrier name wrap and give it the full remaining width, because carrier names are long and unpredictable and are the one free-text value here.
- Print delivery terms as the agreed short form followed by the named place, since the term without a place is incomplete and the place without the term is meaningless.
- Keep the block together with break-inside: avoid. It is short, and half a delivery block at the top of a page is a page that has to be read twice.
The fragment
Markup and the CSS it needs, and nothing else. It expects a document that already has a page rule and a base stylesheet, so paste it into one rather than opening it on its own.
<dl class="delivery">
<dt>Dispatched</dt><dd class="date">14 March 2026</dd>
<dt>Expected</dt><dd class="date">17 March 2026</dd>
<dt>Carrier</dt><dd>Fenwick Freight and Pallet Services</dd>
<dt>Consignment</dt><dd class="ref">FFP-2026-0044187</dd>
<dt>Terms</dt><dd>Delivered, Sheffield S3 8NP</dd>
</dl>
<style>
.delivery {
display: grid;
grid-template-columns: auto 1fr;
column-gap: 10pt;
row-gap: 3pt;
margin: 0;
break-inside: avoid;
font-size: 9pt;
}
.delivery dt { color: #555; white-space: nowrap; }
.delivery dd { margin: 0; }
.delivery .date { white-space: nowrap; font-variant-numeric: tabular-nums; }
.delivery .ref {
font-family: "IBM Plex Mono", ui-monospace, monospace;
white-space: nowrap;
letter-spacing: 0.02em;
}
</style>What breaks when it is built the obvious way
Printing every label whether or not there is a value, so a document with no expected arrival date shows Expected followed by nothing. An empty label is worse than an absent one: it looks like the value was lost rather than never known.
How to prove it survived pagination
Render one document with every field present and one with only dispatch date and carrier. The second should have no empty rows and no gap where the missing pairs would have been. Then confirm the consignment reference did not wrap at its longest realistic length.
Where it sits in a finished document
This page is one block. The document it belongs to has a page rule, a base stylesheet, a header and everything else around it, and repeating all of that here would make thirty pages that say the same thing. The shipping label template is a complete file with this block already in it, so take that and change the fragment rather than assembling one from parts. The property doing most of the work here is covered on its own page, with the support caveats that belong there rather than here.
Frequently asked
Will this fragment work on its own?
Not as a whole document. It has no page rule, no margins and no base type, because those belong to the document rather than to the block, and duplicating them in every fragment would mean thirty copies to keep in step. Paste it into a template that already has them.
Why does it look right in a browser and wrong in the PDF?
Because a browser window is one continuous surface and a document is a stack of fixed rectangles. Nothing in a scrolling view exercises a page boundary, so every break rule in the fragment is inert until the content is paginated. Render the real thing with enough content to cross two or three boundaries, then look.
Do I need a special option on the render request for this?
No. Everything on this page is CSS and markup, which is your side of the boundary. What the render has to give you is a real page size with real margins, and after that the layout is decided by the stylesheet.
Other parts of a document
The blocks that sit next to this one, and one from the next group along so you are not sealed inside a single kind of problem.
A block of reference numbers that survives being quoted back
Purchase order number, contract reference, project code, job number and whatever else both parties use to match this document to their own records.
Three or more parties on one document without a wall of addresses
A document between more than two parties, where each needs identifying and the relationship between them has to be clear.
A list of people present, with roles and space to sign
Names, roles and organisations of the people present at a meeting, inspection or signing, sometimes with a signature space each.
An instalment schedule where the amounts visibly add to the total
A table of dated payments making up a total, used on staged contracts, payment plans and deposit-plus-balance arrangements.
Shipping label, as a complete file
The whole document with this block already in place, ready to copy and change.
overflow-wrap in paged output
The property carrying the weight here, with its real support status.
Every part of a document
The full list, grouped by the kind of problem the block poses.
Paste the fragment into the playground inside a page rule and see what it does at a real page size. That is the only way any of this gets confirmed.