Cross-browser multi-line text overflow with ellipsis appended within a fixed width and height

Question

I made an image for this question to make it easier to understand.

Is it possible to create an ellipsis on a

with a fixed width and multiple

Answer 1

With this code there is no need for an extra wrapper div if the element has it's height limited by a max-height style.

// Shorten texts in overflowed paragraphs to emulate Operas text-overflow: -o-ellipsis-lastline
$('.ellipsis-lastline').each(function(i, e) {
    var $e = $(e), original_content = $e.text();
    while (e.scrollHeight > e.clientHeight)
        $e.text($e.text().replace(/\W*\w+\W*$/, '…'));
    $e.attr('data-original-content', original_content);
});

Also it saves the original text in a data attribute that can be displayed using only styles, eg. on mouse over:

.ellipsis-lastline {
    max-height: 5em;
}
.ellipsis-lastline:before {
    content: attr(data-original-content);
    position: absolute;
    display: none;
}
.ellipsis-lastline:hover:before {
    display: block;
}