Reworked my first answer. Works a lot better now. See the fiddle. It is based on the idea that you split the paragraph on the pivot word. The pivotword and the last section are placed back in the paragraph. The first half (before the pivot word) is then split into an array, which is traversed backwards (each time popping the last element) to fill the span until it reaches its width. This will repeat itself until there are no more words left in the array. I am not a native English speaker, so I hope this will all make some sense.
<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<head>
<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=UTF-8">
<title></title>
<script type="text/javascript" src="js/jquery-1.9.0/jquery.min.js"></script>
<style type="text/css">
.container {
width: 500px;
border: 1px solid #ddd;
}
.pivotWord {
background-color: red;
color: white;
font-weight: bold;
}
</style>
</head>
<body>
<div class="container">
<p>
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipisicing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exercitation ullamco laboris nisi ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat. Duis aute irure dolor in reprehenderit in PIVOT voluptate velit esse cillum dolore eu fugiat nulla pariatur. Excepteur sint occaecat cupidatat non proident, sunt in culpa qui officia deserunt mollit anim id est laborum.
</p>
<p>
Duis aute irure dolor in reprehenderit in voluptate velit esse cillum dolore eu fugiat nulla pariatur. PIVOT Excepteur sint occaecat cupidatat non proident, sunt in culpa qui officia deserunt mollit anim id est laborum.
</p>
<p>
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipisicing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et PIVOT dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exercitation ullamco laboris nisi ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat. Duis aute irure dolor in reprehenderit in voluptate velit esse cillum dolore eu fugiat nulla pariatur. Excepteur sint occaecat cupidatat non proident, sunt in culpa qui officia deserunt mollit anim id est laborum.
</p>
<p>
Duis aute irure dolor in reprehenderit in voluptate velit esse cillum dolore eu fugiat nulla pariatur. Excepteur sint occaecat cupidatat non PIVOT proident, sunt in culpa qui officia deserunt mollit anim id est laborum.
</p>
</div>
<script type="text/javascript">
function pivotAround(pivotword){
$('p').each(function(){
//initialize a few things
var sentence = $(this).html();
var splittedSentence = sentence.split(pivotword);
var paragraphWidth = $(this).width();
$(this).html("");
//create elements from the sentence parts.
var pivotSpan = $("<span />", {
'class': 'pivotWord'
}).html(pivotword);
var postSpan = $("<span />", {
}).html(splittedSentence[1]);
//append them to the DOM
$(this).append(pivotSpan)
.append(postSpan);
//get size of pivotSpan
var pivotSpanWidth = pivotSpan.width();
//calculate where the pivot word should be
var pivotSpanLeftMargin = (paragraphWidth / 2) - (pivotSpanWidth / 2);
//make global array of splittedSentence[0]
preSpanArray = splittedSentence[0].split(' ');
distributeWithinMargin(pivotSpanLeftMargin, this);
//array not empty?
while(preSpanArray.length > 0){
distributeWithinMargin(paragraphWidth, this);
}
});
}
function distributeWithinMargin(margin, element) {
var span = $("<span />", {
'style': 'margin-left: -40000px'
});
$(element).prepend(span);
while (preSpanArray.length > 0 && span.width() <= margin) {
var lastElement = preSpanArray.pop();
span.prepend(lastElement + " ");
}
/*
* last word makes the span too wide, so push it back to the stack
* only do this when array not empty, or you will end up in an
* endless loop
*/
if (preSpanArray.length > 0) {
preSpanArray.push(lastElement);
//remove that word from the span
var firstSpaceIndex = $(span).html().indexOf(" ");
$(span).html($(span).html().substring(firstSpaceIndex + 1));
}
//calculate the text-indent from that value
var textIndent = margin - span.width();
$(span).css('margin-left', textIndent);
}
pivotAround("PIVOT");
</script>
</body>
</html>
` also the text PIVOT into container ``. Now using JS you would find the position of span element within p _(X offset)_. When the span position is in the **1st half** of the div you would increase p's CSS `text-indent` property so that you would end with the Pivot in the middle. If the PIVOT's span position is in the 2nd half. Do the same, but just before you reach the center, you'll have to isolate the first part and add it to ist own span container and the rest to other span container and continue with indention. http://jsfiddle.net/ruLEt/
– vlgalik May 15 '13 at 15:14