jQuery append() - return appended elements

There's a simpler way to do this:

$(newHtml).appendTo('#myDiv').effects(...);

This turns things around by first creating newHtml with jQuery(html [, ownerDocument ]), and then using appendTo(target) (note the "To" bit) to add that it to the end of #mydiv.

Because you now start with $(newHtml) the end result of appendTo('#myDiv') is that new bit of html, and the .effects(...) call will be on that new bit of html too.

// wrap it in jQuery, now it's a collection
var $elements = $(someHTML);

// append to the DOM
$("#myDiv").append($elements);

// do stuff, using the initial reference
$elements.effects("highlight", {}, 2000);