In its most generic sense, a style object is the access point for scripts to read and write individual style attributes for a given element. This style object exposes (or has the potential to expose) every style sheet attribute supported by the browser (the kinds of CSS attributes described in Chapter 11).

For IE 5 and later running under Windows 2000 or newer version of Windows, users can set a preference to highlight an accelerator key for commands (or web page accessKey letters) when the user presses the Alt key. The accelerator key property controls whether the element is treated as a highlightable accelerator key string. Available as a property of the IE currentStyle (read-only) and runtimeStyle (read/write) objects only.

This large group of properties comes from CSS attributes intended for browsers that use speech synthesis techniques to vocalize document content. You don't have to be vision-impaired to benefit from this possibility, but Netscape 6 does not include this feature by default. Conceivably, other specialty browser makers will build a speech synthesized browser from the Mozilla engine. They'll have the hooks ready in the Mozilla DOM to permit scripting of these style properties. In the meantime, they're simply placeholders within Netscape 6. You can read about these CSS attributes in Chapter 11.

Provides the element's style sheet background attribute. This is a shorthand attribute, so the scripted property consists of a string of space-delimited values for the backgroundAttachment, backgroundColor, backgroundImage, backgroundPosition, and backgroundRepeat property values. One or more values may be in the background value, and the individual values may be in any order. Available in IE as a property of the style and runtimeStyle objects only.

Sets how the image is "attached" to the element. The image can either remain fixed within the viewable area of the element (the viewport) or it may scroll with the element as the document is scrolled. During scrolling, the fixed attachment looks like a stationary backdrop to rolling credits of a movie.

Provides the background color of the element. If you also set a backgroundImage, the image overlays the color. Transparent pixels of the image allow the color to show through.

URL of the background image of the element. If you also set a backgroundColor, the image overlays the color. Transparent pixels of the image allow the color to show through.

Indicates the top and left location of a background image relative to the element's content region (plus padding). Positions may be specified as length values (with numbers and units or percentages) or according to a combination of constants top, right, bottom, left, and center. The property has no effect on a background images set to repeat along both axes. Some value types don't work (or work correctly) in IE 4. Available as a property of the IE style and runtimeStyle objects only.

Indicate the top and left locations of the background image relative to the element's content region (plus padding). Useful if you wish to adjust the background image along only one axis while not disturbing the other. The same IE 4 cautions for backgroundPosition apply to these two properties.

Specifies whether a background image (specified with the backgroundImage property) should repeat and, if so, along which axes. You can use repeating background images to create horizontal and vertical bands with some settings.

Controls whether an IE Windows external behavior is assigned to the element.

Returns the writing script direction of the current element. Available as a property of the IE currentStyle object only.

Provides a shorthand property for getting or setting the borderColor, borderStyle, and/or borderWidth properties of all four borders around an element in one statement. You must specify a border style (see borderStyle) for changes of this property to affect the display of the element's border (a missing style is interpreted as no style, ergo no border). Numerous other properties allow you to set the width, style, and color of individual edges or groups of edges if you don't want all four edges to be the same. Only those component settings explicitly made in the element's tag attributes are reflected in the property, but you may assign components not part of the original tag. Available in IE as a property of the style and runtimeStyle objects only.

These are shorthand properties for getting or setting the borderColor, borderStyle, and/or borderWidth properties for a single edge of an element in one statement. You must specify a border style (see borderStyle) for changes of these properties to affect the display of the element's border (a missing style is interpreted as no style, ergo no border along the specified edge). If you want all four edges to be the same, see the border attribute. Only those component settings explicitly made in the element's tag attributes are reflected in the property, but you may assign components not part of the original tag. Available in IE as properties of the style and runtimeStyle objects only.

Provide the color of a single border edge of an element. It is easy to abuse these properties by mixing colors that don't belong together. See also the borderColor attribute for setting the color for groups of edges in one statement.

Provide the line style of a single border edge of an element. The edge-specific attributes let you override a style that has been applied to all four edges with the border or borderStyle properties. See also the borderStyle property for setting the style for groups of edges in one statement.

Provide the width of a single border edge of an element. See also the borderWidth property for setting the width for groups of edges in one statement.

Controls which table border model the table element should observe.

A shortcut attribute that lets you set multiple border edges to the same or different colors. You may supply one to four space-delimited color values. The number of values determines which sides receive the assigned colors.

Controls the spacing between table cells when the table is in (the default) separate borders mode, similar to a table object's cellSpacing property. IE 5 for the Macintosh doesn't respond to changes of this property's value. Available in IE as a property of the style object only.

This is a shortcut property that lets you set multiple border edges to the same or different style. You may supply one to four space-delimited style values. The number of values determines which sides receive the assigned colors.

This is a shortcut property that lets you set multiple border edges to the same or different width. You may supply one to four space-delimited width length values. The number of values determines which sides receive the assigned widths.

For an absolute-positioned element, defines the position of the bottom edge of an element's box (content plus bottom padding, border, and/or margin) relative to the bottom edge of the next outermost block content container. IE for Windows and Netscape 6 do something unexpected when the positioned element uses the root positioning context. Instead of using the bottom of the document as the comparative edge, these browsers use the bottom of the browser window space (the viewport in CSS terminology). This means that the precise bottom position of the element varies with the user's browser window size. IE 5 for the Macintosh uses the document's bottom as the comparative edge. This discrepancy makes it more practical to use the bottom property for a positioned element nested inside another positioned element. When the element is relative-positioned, the offset is based on the bottom edge of the inline location where the element would normally appear in the content.

Controls the location of a caption element (nested inside a table element) relative to the table's box.

Defines whether the element allows itself to be displayed in the same horizontal band as a floating element. Typically, another element in the vicinity has its float style attribute set to left or right. To prevent the current element from being in the same band as the floating block, set the clear property to the same side (left or right). If you aren't sure where the potential overlap might occur, set the clear property to both. An element that has its clear property set to a value other than none is rendered at the beginning of the next available line below the floating element.

Defines a clipping region of a positionable element. The clipping region is the area of the element layer in which content is visible. Clipping may not work properly in Internet Explorer 4 for the Macintosh. Available in IE as a property of the style and runtimeStyle objects only.

Return a clipping edge of a positionable element. Available in IE as a property of the currentStyle object only.

Sets the foreground (text) color style sheet attribute of the element. For some graphically oriented elements, such as form controls, the color attribute may also be applied to element edges or other features. Such extracurricular behavior is browser specific and may not be the same across browsers.

Defines extra content that is to be displayed before or after and element (in concert with the :before and :after pseudo-classes. Although the property is available for IE 5 Macintosh and Netscape 6, the values are empty strings and the rendered content (which appears in Netscape 6 only) does not change if you assign it a new value.

These properties are placeholders for future implementations of automatic counter mechanisms specified in the CSS specification. They are not yet functional in the browsers shown above.

Controls the CSS float attribute for an element, allowing adjacent text content to wrap around block elements, such as images. Changing the value in IE 5 for Macintosh has no effect. The "css" prefix for this property name deflects potential conflicts with the float reserved JavaScript keyword.

Returns a string of the entire CSS style sheet rule applied to the element. If the rule included shorthand style attribute settings (such as border), browsers return modified versions according to their ideas of what the value means. If you set the style attribute of an element to style="border: groove red 3px", IE for Windows reports the cssText property for that element as:

BORDER-RIGHT: red 3px groove; BORDER-TOP: red 3px groove; 
BORDER-LEFT: red 3px groove; BORDER-BOTTOM: red 3px groove

Returns a style object with properties that reflect the effective values being applied to the element. This property takes into account style sheet rules defined in a style element, imported from external style sheet files, and inline style attributes. Because the style property reflects only inline style attributes, the currentStyle property is more valuable for reading initial values after a document loads. To modify style attributes, you can use the element's style object properties. For similar capabilities in Netscape 6, see the window.getComputedStyle( ) method.

See azimuth.

Specifies the shape of the cursor when the screen pointer is atop the element. The precise look of cursors depends on the operating system. Before deploying a modified cursor, be sure you understand the standard ways that the various types of cursors are used within the browser and operating system. Users expect a cursor design to mean the same thing across all applications. Figure 11-3 in Chapter 11 offers a gallery of Windows and Macintosh cursors for each of the cursor constant settings provided by Internet Explorer and the Netscape 6 group.

Returns the writing script direction of the current element. Intended primarily for elements inside documents with mixed writing script directions (e.g., French text intermingled among Arabic).

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.

Controls the CSS box type used to render the element. The most common settings for body content dictate whether an element is rendered as a block or inline element. When set to none, the element is hidden, and surrounding content cinches up to fill the space. Some box types are specific to tables and lists.

See azimuth.

When a table is set to render the separate cell box format (the default), and a border is established for td elements in that table, the emptyCells style property controls whether the table renders borders around cells that have no content.

Sets the visual, reveal, or blend filter used to display or change content of an element. A visual filter can be applied to an element to produce effects such as content flipping, glow, drop shadow, and many others. A reveal filter is applied to an element when its visibility changes. The value of the reveal filter determines what visual effect is to be applied to the transition from hidden to shown (or vice versa). This includes effects such as wipes, blinds, and barn doors. A blend filter sets the speed at which a transition between states occurs. Although the filter property is present in Internet Explorer for Macintosh, it does not operate there.

This is a shorthand property that lets you set one or more font-related propertiesfontFamily, fontSize, lineHeight (which must be preceded by a / symbol in this property), fontStyle, fontVariant, and fontWeightwith one assignment statement. A space-delimited list of values (in any sequence) is applied to the specific font properties for which the value is a valid type. Or, you can short-circuit these individual settings by choosing one of the default (operating-system-dependent) system fonts: caption | icon | menu | message-box | small-caption | status-bar.

Provides a prioritized list of font families to be used to render the object's content. One or more font family names may be included in a comma-delimited list of property values. If a font family name consists of multiple words, the family name must be inside a set of inner quotes. Available in IE as a property of the style and runtimeStyle objects only, but the individual font properties are available in currentStyle, as well.

Indicates the font size of the element. The font size can be set in several ways. A collection of constants (xx-small, x-small, small, medium, large, x-large, xx-large) defines what are known as absolute sizes. In truth, these are absolute only in a single browser in a single operating system, since the reference point for these sizes varies with browser and operating system (analogous to the old HTML font sizes of 1 through 7). But they do let the author have confidence that one element set to large is rendered larger than medium.

Provides the font aspect value, usually of the first font family in a font-family attribute sequence, forcing alternative font families to calculate their rendered font size to closely match that of the primary font family. Although this property is a member of the style object in IE 5/Mac and Netscape 6, neither the style attribute nor scripted changes to it affect the font display.

Provides the character spacing for the element, based on available spacing widths available for the current font family. Although this property is a member of the style object in IE 5/Mac and Netscape 6, neither the style attribute nor scripted changes to it affect the font display.

Specifies whether the element is rendered in a normal (roman), italic, or oblique font style. If the fontFamily includes font faces labeled Italic and/or Oblique, the setting of the fontStyle attribute summons those particular font faces from the browser's system. But if the specialized font faces are not available in the system, the normal font face is usually algorithmically slanted to look italic. Output sent to a printer with such font settings relies on the quality of arbitration between the client computer and printer to render an electronically generated italic font style. Personal computer software typically includes other kinds of font rendering under the heading of "Style." See fontVariant and fontWeight for other kinds of font "styles."

Specifies whether the element should be rendered in all uppercase letters in such a way that lowercase letters of the source code are rendered in smaller uppercase letters. If a font family contains a small caps variant, the browser should use it automatically. More likely, however, the browser calculates a smaller size for the uppercase letters that take the place of source code lowercase letters. In practice, Internet Explorer 4 renders the entire source code content as uppercase letters of the same size as the parent element's font, regardless of the case of the source code. Later IE versions and Netscape 6 use two different uppercase sizes.

Sets the weight (boldness) of the element's font. CSS provides a weight rating scheme that is more granular than most browsers render on the screen, but the finely tuned weights may come into play when the content is sent to a printer. The scale is a numeric rating from 100 to 900 at 100-unit increments. Therefore, a fontWeight of 100 would be the least bold that would be displayed, while 900 would be the boldest. A setting of normal (the default weight for any font) is equivalent to a fontWeight value of 400; the standard bold setting is equivalent to 700. Other settings (bolder and lighter) let you specify a weight relative to the parent element's weight.

Indicate the height and width (and their units) of the element. Because the values are strings containing the assigned units, you cannot use these properties for calculation. Grab copies of the numbers by using parseFloat( ) on the values; or for IE, use pixelHeight, pixelWidth, posHeight, and posWidth properties. Changes to these properties may not be visible unless the element has its position style attribute set.

Controls the presence of the Input Method Editor in IE for Windows for browser and system versions that support languages such as Chinese, Japanese, and Korean.

Intended primarily for languages that display characters in vertical sentences, controls the progression of content. Replaced starting with IE 5.5 for Windows by the writingMode property.

This is a shorthand property that lets you set one or more layout grid properties (layoutGridChar, layoutGridLine, layoutGridMode, and layoutGridType) with one assignment statement. These attributes are used primarily with Asian language content.

Dictates the size of Asian language character grid for block-level elements.

Dictates the line height of Asian language character grid for block-level elements.

Specifies whether the Asian language character grid should be one- or two-dimensional.

Controls how the layout grid responds to characters of varying width..

For positionable elements, defines the position of the left edge of an element's box (content plus left padding, border, and/or margin) relative to the left edge of the next outermost block content container. When the element is relative-positioned, the offset is based on the left edge of the inline location of where the element would normally appear in the content.

Specifies the spacing between characters within an element. Browsers normally define the character spacing based on font definitions and operating system font rendering. Assigning a negative value tightens the spacing, but be sure to test the effect on the selected font for readability on different operating systems.

Controls line breaking rules for Japanese text.

Indicates the height of the inline box (the box holding one physical line of content). See the line-height style attribute in Chapter 11 for details on browser quirks and inheritance traits of different types of values.

This is a shorthand property for setting up to three list-style properties in one assignment statement. Whichever attributes you don't explicitly set with this attribute assume their default values. These properties define display characteristics for the markers automatically rendered for list items inside ol and ul elements. This is available in IE as a property of the style and runtimeStyle objects only, but individual properties are properties of currentStyle, as well.

Provides the URL for an image that is to be used as the marker for a list item. Because this attribute can be inherited, a setting (including none) for an individual list item can override the same attribute or property setting in its parent.

Specifies whether the marker is inside or outside (outdented) the box containing the list item's content. When listStylePosition is set to inside and the content is text, the marker appears to be part of the text block. In this case, the alignment (indent) of the list item is the same as normal, but without the outdented marker.

Specifies the kind of item marker to be displayed with each item. This attribute is applied only if listStyleImage is none (or not specified). The constant values available for this attribute are divided into two categories. One set is used with ul elements to present a filled disc, an empty circle, or a filled square (except empty square on IE 4 for Macintosh). The other set is for ol elements, which has list items that can be marked in sequences of arabic numerals, roman numerals (uppercase or lowercase), letters of the alphabet (uppercase or lowercase), and some other character sequences of other languages if the browser and operating system supports those languages.

This is a shortcut property that can set the margin widths of up to four edges of an element with one statement. A margin is space that extends beyond the border of an element to provide extra empty space between adjacent or nested elements, especially those that have border attributes set. You may supply one to four space-delimited margin values. The number of space-delimited values determines which sides receive the assigned margins.

All four properties set the width of a single margin edge of an element. A margin is space that extends beyond the element's border and is not calculated as part of the element's width or height.

Controls the space between list item markers (which occupy their own box in the CSS box model) and the box that contains the list item text. Although the property is available for Netscape 6, the value is an empty string and the rendered content does not change if you assign it a new value.

Sets crop mark type for an @page rule. Although the property is available for IE 5 Macintosh and Netscape 6, the values are empty strings and the rendered content does not change if you assign it a new value.

Define loose heights and widths for an element so that, for "max" properties, an element is allowed to grow no bigger in the designated dimension, or, for "min" properties, an element can expand in the designated dimension to accommodate more than expected content or rendering situations. Although the property is available for IE 5 Macintosh and Netscape 6, it is either ignored (IE 5 for Mac) or buggy (Netscape 6). IE 6 for Windows supports only the minWidth property, and it can be used only for tr, th, and td elements.

Points to the URL of an XML document designed to enhance an existing element or create a new interface element. Based on Mozilla XBL (Extensible Bindings Language). For more details, visit http://www.mozilla.org/unix/customizing.html.

Defines the level of opacity of the element. The lower the value, the more transparent the element becomes. This is the proprietary Mozilla version of the proprietary Microsoft opaque filter.

For a block-level element's content that spreads across page boxes, specify the minimum number of lines of the element that must appear at the bottom of the page (orphans) or at the top of the next page (widows). Although these properties are members of the style object in IE 5/Mac and Netscape 6, neither the style attribute nor scripted changes to it affect the printed output.

This is a shorthand property for getting or setting the outlineColor, outlineStyle, and/or outlineWidth properties of an outline around an element in one statement. You must specify an outline style (see outlineStyle) for changes of this property to affect the display. An outline is like a border, but overlays the element without occupying any content space or affecting the element's dimensions. Although this property is a member of the style object in IE 5/Mac and Netscape 6, only IE 5/Mac renders the outline.

Controls the color of an outline.

Controls the line type of an outline.

Controls the thickness of the outline lines.

Specifies how a positioned element should treat content that extends beyond the boundaries established in the style sheet rule. See the discussion of the overflow style sheet attribute in Chapter 11 for details.

Specify how a positioned element should treat content that extends beyond the horizontal (overflowX) or vertical (overflowY) boundaries established in the style sheet rule.

This is a shortcut property that can set the padding widths of up to four edges of an element with one statement. Padding is space that extends around the content box of an element up to but not including any border that may be specified for the element. Padding picks up the background image or color of its element. As you add padding to an element, you increase the size of the visible rectangle of the element without affecting the content block size. You may supply one to four space-delimited padding values. The number of values determines which sides receive the assigned padding.

All four properties set the width of a single padding edge of an element. Padding is space that extends between the element's border and content box. Padding is not calculated as part of the element's width or height.

Points to the name of an existing @page rule (when the rule contains an identifier, such as @page figures {size: landscape}) in order to apply that rule to the current block-level element. Although this property is a member of the style object in IE 5/Mac and Netscape 6, neither the style attribute nor scripted changes to it affect the printed output.

Define how content should treat a page break around an element when the document is sent to a printer. Page breaks are not rendered in the visual browser as they may be in word processing programs; on screen, long content flows in one continuous scroll on the screen. Also see the extensive discussion of page breaks in the listing for the page-break-after and page-break-before style attributes in Chapter 11.

Defines whether the element allows itself to be split across printed pages. Although this property is a member of the style object in IE 5/Mac and Netscape 6, neither the style attribute nor scripted changes to it affect the printed output.

See azimuth.

For positionable elements, these properties define the pixel position of the edges of an element's box (content plus padding, border, and/or margin) relative to the corresponding edges of the next outermost block content container. When the element is relative-positioned, the measure is based on the edges of the inline location of where the element would normally appear in the content. Use these properties for calculation (including path animation) instead of the bottom, left, right, and top properties, which store their values as strings with the unit names. Available as a property of the IE style and runtimeStyle objects only.

Specify the height and width of the element in pixels. Use these properties for calculation instead of properties such as height and width, which return strings including units. Changes to these properties may not be visible unless the element has its position style attribute set. Available as a property of the IE style and runtimeStyle objects only.

See azimuth.

For positionable elements, these properties define the position of the edges of an element's box (content plus padding, border, and/or margin) relative to the corresponding edges of the next outermost block content container. When the element is relative-positioned, the measure is based on the edges of the inline location where the element would normally appear in the content. Most importantly, these properties' values are numeric and in the unit of measure set in the CSS bottom, left, right, or top attribute. Use these properties for calculation (including path animation) instead of the bottom, left, right, and top properties, which store their values as strings with the unit names. All math is in the specified units. Also contrast these properties with the pixelBottom, pixelLeft, pixelRight, and pixelTop properties, which are integer values for pixel measures only. Available as a property of the IE style and runtimeStyle objects only.

Specify the numeric height and width of the element in the units set by the CSS positioning-related attributes. Use these properties for calculation instead of properties such as height and width, which return strings including units. All math is in the specified units. Also contrast these properties with the pixelHeight and pixelWidth properties, which are integer values for pixel measures only. Available as a property of the IE style and runtimeStyle objects only.

For positionable elements, returns the value assigned to the style sheet position attribute. This property is actually read/write, but you cannot change a positioned element into a static one or vice-versa.

Assigns pairs of characters to be used as quote marks (especially for the q element). Although the property is available for IE 5 Macintosh and Netscape 6, only Netscape 6 responds to the CSS attributes, and neither responds to reading or writing the quotes property value.

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).

See azimuth.

For an absolute-positioned element, defines the position of the right edge of an element's box (content plus right padding, border, and/or margin) relative to the right edge of the next outermost block content container.

Controls alignment of content in a ruby element. Changes to this property affect IE for Windows only. Ruby-related styles are defined in CSS3.

Controls text overhang characteristics of content in a ruby element. Changes to this property affect IE for Windows only. Ruby-related styles are defined in CSS3.

Controls whether ruby (rt element) text renders on the same line or above its related ruby base (rb element) text. Changes to this property affect IE for Windows only. Ruby-related styles are defined in CSS3.

Controls the colors for specific components of a scrollbar user interface element associated with an applet, body, div, embed, object, or textarea element. See the description of these CSS attributes in Chapter 11 for details about which component each property governs.

For a page context defined by an @page rule, this property controls the page size or orientation. Although the property is available for Netscape 6, the value is an empty strings and the property has no influence over the page context.

See azimuth.

Specifies on which side of the containing box the element aligns so that other content wraps around the element. When the property is set to none, the element appears in its source code sequence, and at most one line of surrounding text content appears in the same horizontal band as the element. See the float style attribute in Chapter 11 for more details. IE 5 for Macintosh duplicates this property as cssFloat, the DOM 2 version, which is also supported (by itself) in Netscape 6.

Acts as a switch at load time to direct the browser to start rendering the table based on column widths set by the first row, or wait until the table data is loaded so that the browser can calculate optimum column widths based on cell contents. Changes to this property have no effect on a rendered table.

Determines the horizontal alignment of text within an element's box.

Determines the horizontal alignment of the last line of text within an element's box. This style attribute may be helpful to obtain the desired look if you use some of the other proprietary text alignment style attributes in IE 5.5 or later for Windows.

Controls the spacing between ideographic (typically Asian languages) and nonideographic characters.

Specifies additions to the text content of the element in the form of underlines, strikethroughs, overlines, and (in Navigator and CSS) blinking. Browsers use this style attribute internally to assign by default underlines to a elements and strikethroughs to strike elements, so the default value varies with element type. You may specify more than one decoration style by supplying values in a space-delimited list. While browsers accept the (CSS optional) blink value, they (thankfully) do not cause the text to blink. Text decoration has an unusual parent-child relationship. Values are not inherited, but the effect of a decoration carries over to nested items in most cases. Therefore, unless otherwise overridden, an underlined p element underlines a nested b element within. Internet Explorer also includes Boolean properties for each decoration type.

Specifies whether the specified text decoration feature is enabled for the element. Each of these properties corresponds to a value that can be assigned to the text-decoration style attribute in CSS (see Chapter 11). Internet Explorer does not blink text, so the textDecorationBlink property is ignored. Setting textDecorationNone to true sets all other related properties to false. Setting these properties on the Macintosh version of IE 4 does not alter the content. Use the textDecoration property insteadgood practice all around.

Specifies the size of the indent at the first line of a block of inline text (such as a p element). Only the first line is affected by this setting. A negative value can be used to outdent the first line, but be sure the text does not run beyond the left edge of the browser window or frame.

Specifies detailed character distribution techniques for any block-level element that has a text-align CSS attribute or a textAlign style property set to justify.

For Arabic text in a block-level element with a text alignment style that is set to justify, controls the ratio of kashida expansion to white space expansion.

Controls whether text content that overflows a fixed box should display an ellipsis (...) at the end of the line to indicate more text is available. The element should also have its overflow style attribute or property set to hidden.

Controls the specifications for shadow effects on the element's text. Although this property is a member of the style object in IE 5/Mac and Netscape 6, neither the style attribute nor scripted changes to it affect the element's text display.

Controls the capitalization of the element's text. When a value other than none is assigned to this attribute, the cases of all letters in the source text are arranged by the style sheet, overriding the case of the source text characters.

Controls whether an underline (i.e., an element with a text-decoration style set to underline) is rendered above or below the text.

For positionable elements, defines the position of the top edge of an element's box (content plus top padding, border, and/or margin) relative to the top edge of the next outermost block content container. When the element is relative-positioned, the offset is based on the top edge of the inline location of where the element would normally appear in the content.

Controls the embedding of bidirectional text (such as a mixture of French and Arabic) in concert with the direction style attribute.

Specifies the vertical alignment characteristic of the element. This property operates in two spheres, depending on the selection of values you use. See the in-depth discussion of the vertical-align style sheet property in Chapter 11 for details.

Specifies the state of the positioned element's visibility. Surrounding content does not close up the space left by an element that has its visibility property set to hidden.

See azimuth.

Controls intepretation of whitespace (such as leading spaces and line breaks) from the source code.

See orphans.

See height.

Specifies the word-break style for ideographic languages or content that mixes Latin and ideographic languages.

Governs the length of space between words. IE 5 for Macintosh may exhibit overlap problems with the word-spacing of elements nested inside the one being controlled.

Specifies the word-wrapping style for block-level, specifically-sized inline, or positioned elements. If a single word (i.e., without any whitespace) extends beyond the width of the element containing box, the normal behavior is to extend the content beyond the normal box width, without breaking. But you can force the long word to break at whatever character position occurs at the edge of the box.

Intended primarily for languages that display characters in vertical sentences, this controls the progression of content, left-to-right, or right-to-left.

For a positioned element, this specifies the stacking order relative to other elements within the same parent container. See Chapter 4 for details on relationships of element layering amid multiple containers.

Governs the magnification of rendered content. Particularly useful for output that might be displayed on monitors with very high pixel density. See screen.logicalXDPI property.

Returns an object that represents a CSS value. In the W3C DOM, the CSSValue object returned from this method has properties that reveal the text of the attribute/value pair and a numeric value corresponding to a long list of primitive value types (indicating types such as percentage, pixel lengths, and RGB color). Although this method is implemented in Netscape 6, it returns an empty object for now.

Returns the string value of any priority (such as !important) associated with the inline CSS attribute.

Returns the string value of the inline CSS attribute/value pair.

Returns the attribute name of the inline CSS attribute/value pair corresponding to the integer index value in source code order.

Deletes the inline CSS attribute/value pair and returns a string with the previous value.

Returns a style object whose individual style properties convey values only if they are explicitly set via the regular style sheet processes. Unlike the currentStyle object, system default style sheet properties are not reflected. You can set individual style properties of this runtimeStyle object, but doing so transcends (some might say violates) normal cascading precedence. Any property you assign by script overrides all other settings for that style property governing that element, including values assigned to the element tag's style attribute and style property. For example, if you assign the value red to an element's style.color property, and assign the value green to the same element's runtimeStyle.color property, the element's text appears in green, even though the more specific style.color property still preserves the red value. At that point the element's currentStyle.color property also returns green, because that is the effective style governing the element at that instant.

Assigns a script expression to an element object's property as a way to calculate dynamically a value for the property. This method works with properties of element objects and their style objects if you like. The expression is re-evaluated automatically for most user-oriented events, or you may explicitly force re-evaluation at any time via the recalc( ) method.

Sets an inline style attribute/value pair. If the attribute already exists, the new value is applied to the existing attribute; otherwise the attribute and value are added to the element.