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Form elements resistant to styles

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Giggle Girl

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Feb 14, 2006, 1:44:30 PM2/14/06
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I want to make a list of form elements that are resistant to CSS.

So far I have

1. SELECT boxes
2. INPUT type="file"

I am sure there are others. Can someone add to my list so I don't
bother this newsgroup asking questions about how to use CSS to change
the look of certain elements that are reliant on the OS and cannot be
formatted in CSS?

Thanks,
Ann

Spartanicus

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Feb 14, 2006, 1:56:33 PM2/14/06
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"Giggle Girl" <miss...@gmail.com> wrote:

>I want to make a list of form elements that are resistant to CSS.

No such thing.

Various browsers allow varying degrees of form element style
manipulation depending on various browser preference options and various
other user settings.

--
Spartanicus

Giggle Girl

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Feb 14, 2006, 2:43:03 PM2/14/06
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Ok, let me add a stipulation. For IE6 on Windows XP, I want to make a

list of form elements that are resistant to CSS.

So far I have

1. SELECT boxes
2. INPUT type="file"

Formatting the look of these two elements is problematic. For
instance, I don't see a way of over-riding the default light blue that
surrounds a Select Box.

Any other elements like this?

Thanks,
Ann

Spartanicus

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Feb 14, 2006, 2:53:59 PM2/14/06
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"Giggle Girl" <miss...@gmail.com> wrote:

>Ok, let me add a stipulation. For IE6 on Windows XP, I want to make a
>list of form elements that are resistant to CSS.

Ask in an IE group.

--
Spartanicus

Alexander Clauss

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Feb 14, 2006, 3:18:36 PM2/14/06
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Giggle Girl <miss...@gmail.com> wrote:

> Any other elements like this?

All form elements (checkboxes, radio buttons, push buttons, popup
buttons, list boxes, text input fields, etc.) can be resistant to
styles. This is highly dependant of the browser and the operating
system. If the browser uses the GUI controls of the operating system for
form elements, styling may fail if the operating system doesn't allow
modifications of these controls. If you've ever seen the "Aqua"
appearance of Mac OS X you'll see that the GUI elements of this system
are far too complex (Transparencies, round corners, complex textures, 3D
effects etc) to be modified via CSS. There no such thing like a simple
background color or a border. So styling these controls via CSS will
definitely fail. Only if y system won't use these system controls,
you may be successful to style the form elements.


--
Alexander

Beauregard T. Shagnasty

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Feb 14, 2006, 3:38:33 PM2/14/06
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Giggle Girl wrote:

> Ok, let me add a stipulation. For IE6 on Windows XP, I want to make a
> list of form elements that are resistant to CSS.

IE6/XP ... probably about 60% or less of your (average) audience.

> So far I have
>
> 1. SELECT boxes
> 2. INPUT type="file"
>
> Formatting the look of these two elements is problematic. For
> instance, I don't see a way of over-riding the default light blue that
> surrounds a Select Box.

I have no light blue around a select box. Oh wait, I don't have XP!
Will your web page be able to discern that?

> Any other elements like this?

Probably. Why do you want to mess with my browser and operating system?

Consider that the clueless are *used* to seeing these form elements as
normally displayed by their browser/OS. Why do you want to confused
them?

--
-bts
-Warning: I brake for lawn deer

kchayka

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Feb 14, 2006, 6:11:58 PM2/14/06
to
Giggle Girl wrote:
>
> I don't see a way of over-riding the default light blue that
> surrounds a Select Box.

It's light blue on your PC, not on mine. That color comes from your
desktop theme. If you don't like it, change your display/appearance
properties until you find something less objectionable.

--
Reply email address is a bottomless spam bucket.
Please reply to the group so everyone can share.

Tony

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Feb 15, 2006, 8:46:42 PM2/15/06
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Beauregard T. Shagnasty wrote:
> Giggle Girl wrote:
>
> > Ok, let me add a stipulation. For IE6 on Windows XP, I want to make a
> > list of form elements that are resistant to CSS.
>
> IE6/XP ... probably about 60% or less of your (average) audience.

Would you please share where you get that statistic from? My sources
show a MUCH higher percentage than that.

Beauregard T. Shagnasty

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Feb 16, 2006, 12:32:56 AM2/16/06
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Tony wrote:

'Tis about what I see on one of my sites. I have normally around 80% IE,
but quite a lot of them are -not- using XP. Lots of Win98, still Win95.

Tony

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Feb 16, 2006, 1:11:16 PM2/16/06
to

Ok, that makes sense. But you said IE6 - perhaps I'm way misinformed,
but I thought IE6 won't run on win9x?

BTW, I did a compilation of stats from a number of sources a few weeks
back. I know that browser statistics can be munged, and certainly vary
by site, but I figured a composite from a variety of sources would be a
good indicator.

The sources included w3.org, Pitt County, USGS, Browser news, and a
bunch of others. The result? 72% IE6, 4% IE5, 17% Firefox, 4% "generic"
Mozilla, Opera & Netscape both at 1%, 2.5% Safari, and 5% unknown (if
it doesn't add up it's because I rounded...)

Just for the record, and whatever interest anyone has...

Els

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Feb 16, 2006, 1:18:18 PM2/16/06
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Tony wrote:

> but I thought IE6 won't run on win9x?

It does. Upgraded to IE6 from IE4 on a very old Win98 thing just the
other day.

--
Els http://locusmeus.com/
accessible web design: http://locusoptimus.com/

Now playing: The Moody Blues - Gemini Dream

Beauregard T. Shagnasty

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Feb 16, 2006, 2:52:06 PM2/16/06
to
Tony wrote:

> Beauregard T. Shagnasty wrote:
>> Tony wrote:
>>
>>> Beauregard T. Shagnasty wrote:
>>>> Giggle Girl wrote:
>>>>
>>>>> Ok, let me add a stipulation. For IE6 on Windows XP, I want to
>>>>> make a list of form elements that are resistant to CSS.
>>>>
>>>> IE6/XP ... probably about 60% or less of your (average) audience.
>>>
>>> Would you please share where you get that statistic from? My
>>> sources show a MUCH higher percentage than that.
>>
>> 'Tis about what I see on one of my sites. I have normally around 80%
>> IE, but quite a lot of them are -not- using XP. Lots of Win98, still
>> Win95.
>
> Ok, that makes sense. But you said IE6 - perhaps I'm way misinformed,
> but I thought IE6 won't run on win9x?

It will work with W98/ME (as Els confirmed), and probably not on W95.

In my last statement, I said "normally around 80% IE", not IE6. I still
get a fair number of IE 5.0 and 5.5, and the occasional IE4. So, of the
total IE users, it works out to be somewhere around 60% of visitors
using IE6 _and_ XP. It's not a technical site; it's a motorcycle club.

<snip>

Tony

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Feb 16, 2006, 5:53:41 PM2/16/06
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Els wrote:
> Tony wrote:
>
> > but I thought IE6 won't run on win9x?
>
> It does. Upgraded to IE6 from IE4 on a very old Win98 thing just the
> other day.

Well, then I was obviously misinformed :)

No big surprise, though, since I haven't used Win 98 for ages...

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