Find tag from just added HTML
<html> <head> <script type="text/javascript" src="js/jquery-1.3.2.js"></script> <script type="text/javascript"> $(document).ready(function(){ var newText = $("p").text().split(" ").join("</div> <div>"); $("p").html(newText).find("div").hover( function () { $(this).addClass("y"); }, function () { $(this).removeClass("y"); }); }); </script> <style> .y { background:yellow; } </style> </head> <body> <body> <p>a ab abc</p> </body> </html>