The link object reflects the link element. Note that many of the properties listed here are not available for scripting in the object unless their corresponding attributes are set initially in the HTML tag. Moreover, because the element's attributes act as directives while the document loads, assigning new values to the corresponding properties generally has no effect (even though the properties are read/write). This includes: href, rel, rev, and type. The media property is not available in the Macintosh version of IE 4. As a reminder, the disabled property (described among the shared properties earlier in this chapter) lets all supporting browsers turn on and off a linked style sheet.

Indicates the character encoding of the content at the other end of the link.

Specifies whether the element is available for user interaction. When set to true, the element cannot receive focus or be modified by the user, and it typically appears grayed out on the page. This property is available for all HTML element objects in IE 5.5 for Windows and later. For IE 4 and IE 5, it applies only to form controls, while Netscape 6 and later recognize the property for form controls and the style element object. A disabled form control's name/value pair is not submitted with its form.

Provides the URL specified by the element's href attribute. In IE/Windows, you can assign a new URL to this property to load in an alternate style sheet after the fact.

Specifies whether the element is available for user interaction. When set to true, the element cannot receive focus or be modified by the user, and it typically appears grayed out on the page. This property is available for all HTML element objects in IE 5.5 for Windows and later. For IE 4 and IE 5, it applies only to form controls, while Netscape 6 and later recognize the property for form controls and the style element object. A disabled form control's name/value pair is not submitted with its form.

Specifies the language code of the content at the destination of a link. Requires that the href attribute or property also be set.

Specifies the intended output device for the content of the destination document pointed to by the href attribute. The media property looks forward to the day when browsers are able to tailor content to specific kinds of devices such as pocket computers, text-to-speech digitizers, or fuzzy television sets. This property is not available in IE 4/Macintosh.

Returns the current download status of the object's content. If a script (especially one initiated by a user event) can perform some actions while the document is still loading, but must avoid other actions until the entire page has loaded, this property provides intermediate information about the loading process. You should use its value in condition tests. The value of this property changes during loading as the loading state changes. Each change of the property value fires an onReadyStateChange event (the event does not bubble).

Defines the relationship between the current element and the external item pointed to by the link. Also known as a forward link, not to be confused in any way with the destination document whose address is defined by the href attribute. This property is not fully exploited in mainstream browsers, but you can treat the attribute as a kind of parameter to be checked and/or modified under script control. See the discussion of the a element's rel attribute in Chapter 8 for a glimpse of how this property may be used in the future.

Defines the relationship between the current element and the destination of the link. Also known as a reverse link. This property is not fully exploited in mainstream browsers, but you can treat the attribute as a kind of parameter to be checked and/or modified under script control. See the discussion of the a element's rev attribute in Chapter 8 for a glimpse of how this property may be used in the future.

Returns a reference to the styleSheet object (CSSStyleSheet object in W3C DOM terminology) linked into the current document when a style sheet is specified as the target of the link element. IE for Windows provides a similar property: styleSheet.

This nonstandard convenience property returns a reference to the styleSheet object linked into the current document when a style sheet is specified as the target of the link element. Netscape 6 provides a similar property: sheet.

Indicates the window or frame name to be the recipient of linked content. Default value (equivalent of _self) is the desired setting for linked style sheets.

Indicates an advisory MIME type declaration about the data being loaded from an external source. For example, an external style sheet would be text/css. This information is usually set in the element tag's type attribute.