HTML, XHTML, and CSS Bible, Fourth Edition

Chapter 39. User Interface Styles

IN THIS CHAPTER

• Changing the cursor

• User interface colors

• User interface fonts

In Part III of this book you learned how to use CSS to style and format almost every part of an HTML document. However, there are several additional, user agent-related elements you can use styles to manipulate. This chapter shows you how to use styles on user interface elements — the mouse pointer, system colors, and system fonts.

Changing the Cursor

The CSS cursor property allows you to specify what cursor should be displayed when the cursor is over a specific element. This property is used like any other property, with a familiar format:

cursor: value;

The cursor property supports the values listed in Table 39-1.

The uri value takes the following familiar form:

url("uri_path_to_resource")

This value is unique in that it supports several values and can be followed by a default value if none of the uri resources can be found or used. For example, the following property definition defines two external pointer files that should be used and a fallback default of crosshair if those two resources cannot be used for some reason.

cursor: url("angle.cur"), url("simple.cur"), crosshair;

Table 39-1. Values for the Cursor Property

Value	Meaning
auto	The user agent displays an appropriate cursor for the current context.
crosshair	The cursor is set to the shape of a simple crosshair (resembling a narrow + sign).
default	The cursor is set to the platform's default cursor (typically an arrow).
pointer