Dynamic HTML: The Definitive Reference

Of Style Sheets, Elements, Attributes, and Values

Regardless of the syntax you use to define a style sheet, the basic concepts are the same. A style sheet is a collection of one or more rules. Each rule has two parts to it:

• One or more elements (or groups of elements) that are having style sheets defined for them

• One or more style sheet attributes that apply to the element(s)

In other words, each rule defines a particular look and feel and the item(s) in the document that are to be governed by that look and feel.

Style Attributes

A style attribute is the name of a (usually) visible property of a piece of content on the page. An attribute such as foreground color can apply to any element because that color can be applied to foreground content, such as text. Some attributes, such as borders and margins, can apply only to elements rendered as blocks on the page—they have a clear beginning and ending in both the HTML source code and in the layout. Details on all the CSS style sheet attributes can be found in Chapter 10, but Table 3.1 shows a summary of CSS1 attributes implemented in both Internet Explorer 4 and Navigator 4 (in both CSS and JavaScript syntax). Each browser also defines other style attributes that are noted in Chapter 10.

Table 3-1. Summary of CSS1 Style Sheet Attributes in Version 4 Browsers

Attribute Name—CSS Syntax (IE 4 and NN 4)	Attribute Name—JavaScript Syntax (NN 4)
Box Properties
border
border-top [a]
border-right [a]
border-bottom [a]
border-left ...