Style Sheet Properties

The table below provides a list of all CSS-1 and CSS-2 properties (marked with a superscript ² ) supported by Internet Explorer 4.0 (this will soon be updated to cover all of CSS-2). Each property is listed by property name, followed by a list of valid values and a sample declaration. The "Applies to" column indicates the HTML element types to which you can assign this property. The "Inherited" column indicates whether the property is inherited by subsequent elements in the document.

The properties have been split up into the following groups:

• Font Properties
• Color and Background Properties
• Text Properties
• Box Properties
• Classification Properties
• Positioning Properties
• Printing Properties
• Pseudo Classes and Other Properties

Font Properties

These seven properties control typography in the document.

When specifying a font family, you should also give an alternative generic font family. This will give the browser an idea as to the sort of type face required in the case when a specified font is not installed on the user's system. The browser will pick the font that it considers most appropriate to the family. Valid generic font families are:

• serif (such as Times New Roman)
• sans-serif (such as Arial)
• fantasy (such as Comic Sans)
• cursive (such as Brush Script)
• monospace (such as Courier)

Color and Background Properties

These seven properties control the color of the text and the background, as well as the placement and properties of an optional background image.

Text Properties

These seven properties control text alignment, spacing, and other formatting, such as underline and case (capitalization).

Box Properties

There are 32 box properties that control the formatting of the box associated with block and replaceable elements (as discussed in detail in the W3C CSS1 Recommendation  ).

Each box has a content area (e.g., text, an image, etc.) and optional surrounding padding, border, and margin areas; the size of each area is specified by properties defined in the above table. The following diagram shows how these areas relate and the terminology used to refer to pieces of margin, border, and padding:

The padding, border, and padding can be broken down into left, right, top, and bottom segments (e.g., in the diagram, 'LM' for left margin, 'RM' for right margin, 'TM' for top margin, 'BM' for bottom margin, etc.).

The perimeter of each of the four areas (content, padding, border, and margin) is called an 'edge', so each box has four edges:

content edge or inner edge

The content edge surrounds the element's rendered content.

padding edge

The padding edge surrounds the box padding. If the padding has 0 width, the padding edge is the same as the content edge. The padding edge of a box defines the edges of the containing block established by the box.

border edge

The border edge surrounds the box border. If the padding has 0 width, the border edge is the same as the padding edge.

margin edge or outer edge

The margin edge surrounds the box margin. If the margin has 0 width, the margin edge is the same as the border edge.

Each edge may be broken down into a left, right, top, and bottom edge.

Classification Properties

These five properties consist of "display" and "list" properties: display indicates whether the element is displayed in the document, and the list- properties control the formatting of HTML lists, such as <UL> and <OL>.

Positioning Properties

These nine properties provide a powerful level of control over the two- and three-dimensional appearance of elements in the document. CSS positioning merits special coverage both in the Internet Client SDK and in the W3C documents, and is worthy of special study.

Printing Properties

These two properties allow the developer to specify exact locations for page breaks that affect the printing of the document.

Pseudo Classes and Other Properties

This catch-all category includes the cursor property which controls the appearance of the mouse pointer as it passes over the element; the first-letter and first-line properties which allow you to define styles, such as drop capitals for the first letter or line of a block; and four pseudo-classes for the A attribute.