<p>Is it possible to to change a <code>&lt;span&gt;</code> tag (or <code>&lt;div&gt;</code>) to preformat its contents like a <code>&lt;pre&gt;</code> tag would using only CSS?</p>

Look at the
W3C CSS2.1 Default Style Sheet
or the
CSS2.2 Working Draft
. Copy all the settings for PRE and put them into your own class.
```
```
pre {
    display: block;
    unicode-bidi: embed;
    font-family: monospace;
    white-space: pre;
}
```
```