Web Design in a Nutshell, 3rd Edition

Affecting Form Appearance

The way a form control appears in the browser depends on that browser’s rendering engine. In HTML alone, there are no attributes for affecting the presentation of a form control other than specifying character lengths for text fields. We are left with the knowledge that controls will be rendered slightly differently on different browsers and platforms.

Using Cascading Style Sheets to change the presentation and positioning of the form controls , you can take measures to improve the appearance of your forms. Layout tables have also traditionally been used to align form elements, but tables for layout are no longer the preferred option now that CSS is better supported.