Dynamic HTML: The Definitive Reference

Name

position — NN 4 IE 4 CSS 2

Synopsis

Inherited: No

Sets whether the element is positionable, and if so, what type of positionable element it is. The two primary types of positionable elements are set with values relative and absolute. See Chapter 4, for details and examples.

CSS Syntax

position: positionConstant

Value

Browsers and the CSS standard recognize different sets of constant values for this attribute:

Value	NN 4	IE 4	CSS2
absolute	•	•	•
fixed	-	-	•
normal	-	-	•
relative	•	•	•
static	-	•	-

IE 4’s static value is the same as CSS2’s normal value: the element is rendered according to its regular inline behavior as an HTML element, generally meaning that any position-oriented attributes (such as top and left) are ignored by the browser.

Initial Value

static (IE 4); normal (CSS2); none (NN 4).

Applies To

You can apply the absolute value to: APPLET, DIV, EMBED, FIELDSET, HR, IFRAME, INPUT, MARQUEE, OBJECT, SPAN, TABLE, and TABLE elements.

You can apply the relative value to most other block-level elements.

Object Model Reference

IE

[window.]document.all.elementID.style.position

Notes

Navigator 4 treats elements that set the CSS syntax position attribute in the following ways: an absolute-positioned element is turned into the same kind of element as that created as a LAYER element; a relative-positioned element is turned into the same kind of element as that created as an ILAYER element.