Marks, Orphans, and More Style Sheet Properties

outline-offset
IE n/a NN n/a Moz 1.8.1 Saf 1.2 Op n/a CSS 3

Inherited: No

Controls the distance beyond the element’s border (equally in each direction) where the outline is drawn.

CSS Syntax

outline-offset: length

Value                   A CSS length value. One value controls all sides of the outline.

Initial Value         0

Example         h2 {outline-offset: 3px}

Object Model Reference

[window.]document.getElementById("elementID").style.outlineOffset

outline-style
IE 5(Mac) NN n/a Moz 1.8 Saf 1.2 Op 7 CSS 2

Inherited: No

Controls the style of an outline around an element. These are the same edge designs as border styles.

CSS Syntax

outline-style: borderStyle

Value

Style values are constants that are associated with specific ways of rendering border lines. See border-style for a list and illustration. One value controls all sides of the outline.

Initial Value       none

Example

h2 {outline-style: solid}
div {outline-style: groove}

Applies To                   All elements.

Object Model Reference

[window.]document.getElementById("elementID").style.outlineStyle

outline-width
IE 5(Mac) NN n/a Moz 1.8.1 Saf 1.2 Op 7 CSS 2

Inherited: No

Controls the thickness of an outline around an element. To prevent surrounding content from rendering under the outline, you should consider adding a margin around the element.

CSS Syntax

outline-width: thin | medium | thick | length

Value

Three constants—thin | medium | thick—allow the browser to define exactly how many pixels are used to show the outline. For more precision, you can also assign a length value (see the discussion of length values at the beginning of this chapter). One value controls all sides of the outline.

Initial Value           medium

overflow

Example

h1 {outline-style: ridge; outline-width: 5px}
div {outline-style: solid; outline-width: 2px}

Applies To               All elements.

Object Model Reference

[window.]document.getElementById("elementID").style.outlineWidth

overflow
IE 4 NN n/a Moz all Saf all Op all CSS 2

Inherited: No

Defines how the element treats content with rendered dimensions that exceed the specified height and/or width of the container. Except for some types of content that demand a fixed width (a pre element, for instance), the default behavior of an element is to respect the width property setting and handle the issue of overflow in the height of the element. Assigning the overflow property to the body element in an attempt to control the display of scroll bars is risky business for cross-browser compatibility. Test your overflow code thoroughly on IE for Windows (in quirks and standards-compatible modes).

A setting of visible causes the containing block to expand to allow the full width (if fixed) and height of the content to be displayed. If borders, margins, and padding are set for the element, they are preserved around the expanded content block. If the element has height and width specified, as well as a background image or color, and if the content extends beyond the specified size, the results vary with browser family. IE for Windows in quirks mode expands the height of the background to accommodate the content, pushing succeeding content downward to accommodate the overflowing content. Recent browsers and IE 7 in standards-compatibility mode constrain the background rectangle to the specified size, but the content bleeds beyond the rectangle, and overlaps content that comes after the overflowing element. Because this is the default value for the overflow style property, it is best to specify some other overflow value (or clipping rectangle for a positioned element) whenever you restrict the size of an element.

A setting of hidden forces the block to observe its height and width settings, potentially causing the content to be clipped by the size of the block. Borders and padding are preserved, but margins may be lost along the edges that clip the content. No scrollbars appear with this value.

A setting of scroll usually generates a set of horizontal and vertical scrollbars inside the rectangle of the content block, whether they’re needed or not. The bars become active only if the content actually requires scrolling in any direction.

A setting of auto should generate scroll bars only if the content in the block requires it. In practice, browsers tend to add only a vertical scrollbar when the content is text that can adjust to the specified width of its container.

CSS Syntax

overflow: overFlowType

Value              Any of the following constants: auto | hidden | scroll | visible .

Initial Value           visible

Example

div.aside {position: absolute; top: 200px; left: 10px; height: 100px;
width: 150px; overflow: scroll}

Applies To               Block-level, replaced, and positioned elements.

Object Model Reference

[window.]document.getElementById("elementID").style.overflow

Please check back next week for the continuation of this article.