I was making a menu with id menu which had the following set:
display: inline;
height: 200px;
Once I removed display: inline;, height worked again.
Why?
display: inline;
Are usually used to refer to text elements;
From the w3c page:
[inline] Causes an element to generate one or more inline boxes.
Therefore, the height you must set is the line-height property. From the w3c page:
On a block container element whose content is composed of inline-level elements, 'line-height' specifies the minimal height of line boxes within the element.
Notice here that you can control only the minimal height of your inline elements
Because the spec says so:
'height' … Applies to: all elements but non-replaced inline elements, table columns, and column groups
line-height, however, does apply to inline elements.
By making something display inline you are effectively making it the same as a span. As such the only valid height value is line-height since you are working on an inline element.
To render height values you would need to use a div tag or force your existing tab to render like a div / object which accepts height attributes. You can do this by setting display:block.
In essence you can render a div to work like a span by setting display:inline, and conversely render a span as effectively a div via display:block.
Span tag are meant for inline styling such as font size, colour, decoration, etc.
Related
According to MDN, a button is an inline element.
However, button elements have default styling with display: inline-block (See this question)
button, textarea,
input, select { display: inline-block }
So far so good.
However:
If I now set the button with display:inline - width still applies!!
DEMO
button,
div {
width: 200px;
border: 1px solid red;
display: inline;
}
<button>button</button>
<div>div</div>
Now, according to the spec: width does not apply to inline elements (which are non-replaced)
Applies to: all elements but non-replaced inline elements, table rows,
and row groups
That being the case:
Why does width still apply to an inline button element?
As mentioned in the comments, I'm pretty sure this has to do with browser-specific rendering behavior as is so typical of form elements. What I believe is happening when you set display: inline on the button is... nothing. Effectively, it's the same as the typical browser default display: inline-block, on which the width property does apply.
Refer to section 10.2, which describes the width property itself. In particular it explains why exactly the width property does not apply to inline elements (or inline boxes):
This property does not apply to non-replaced inline elements. The content width of a non-replaced inline element's boxes is that of the rendered content within them (before any relative offset of children). Recall that inline boxes flow into line boxes. The width of line boxes is given by the their containing block, but may be shorted by the presence of floats.
In short, it's because the content of inline elements resides in line boxes. The width of a line box cannot be controlled directly; it is determined entirely by the containing block and any incidental floats. You can see an example of line box rendering in section 9.4.2, which describes inline formatting contexts.
If display: inline actually made a button render as an inline box, all its contents would spill over and it would no longer look, or function, like a button. It makes sense to want to prevent that from happening, and I think that's just what browsers do.
So what exactly do they do to prevent this? Is a button a replaced element? I can't say for sure. But note, in section 9.2.2, it says:
Inline-level boxes that are not inline boxes (such as replaced inline-level elements, inline-block elements, and inline-table elements) are called atomic inline-level boxes because they participate in their inline formatting context as a single opaque box.
Section 10 does not explicitly mention atomic inline-level boxes, but it does have sections for calculating dimensions for inline replaced elements, as well as inline-block elements whether replaced or non-replaced, all of which are considered atomic inlines as mentioned above. In all of these cases, the width property applies as normal if it's not auto.
So, while it's still debatable whether or not a button is a replaced element, it probably doesn't matter at all for the purposes of this question. But it is still some kind of atomic inline element, since it still participates in an inline formatting context. For what it's worth, though, it appears to shrink to fit its contents if you don't set a width, so its behavior is probably closer to that of an inline-block in that case. One could say then that the actual value of display becomes inline-block, although this is never reflected in the developer tools because the computed value does not change (again a side effect of browser-specific rendering behavior).
Since like Boltclock, I don't think that there's a simple answer to this, this is as much a dump of my thoughts on the subject as an answer, but I hope it will be informative.
Although the CSS display property is superficially quite simple, it actually contains a multitude of aspects. The CSS level 3 draft spec css-display captures some of this complexity, but still doesn't seem to cover it adequately.
The HTML5 spec says for the rendering of <button> elements:
When the button binding applies to a button element, the element is
expected to render as an 'inline-block' box rendered as a button whose
contents are the contents of the element.
An inline-block box has a number of aspects to it:
1. An inline-level element
This means that it participates in a inline formatting context within a line box. It flows in sequence with other elements that are on the same line. The line box's content can be centre aligned with text-align:center property on its container, and the line box is shortened by avoiding floated elements.
2. Applies a width property and the auto value is shrink-to-fit
Unlike non-replaced display:inline elements, the width value applies. But also, if a width value is not specified, a shrink-to-fit algorithm is applied to determine the width. This is like floated elements, or display:table elements, but different from display:block elements which are as wide as possible if no width is specified. It's also unlike replaced inline elements and replaced inline-block elements which, if no width is specified, use their intrinsic width if they have one and a default value of 300px if they don't. Shrink-to-fit is a meaningless concept for replaced elements.
3. A block-container element
Block container elements are make up of a stack of line boxes. The content flows from one line box to the next and the height of the inline-block elements grows (subject to overflow) to fully contain all the line boxes.
4. The baseline is the baseline of the last contained line box
When the inline-block element contains multiple lines, its baseline is the last of those lines. This is unlike floats or display:table-cell elements which are also shrink-to-fit, block container elements. Floats are outside normal flow so they do not have a baseline, which display:table-cell elements have a baseline that is the baseline of their first line box. A button that has multiple lines does vertically align according this last line box rule.
Now, this is fine for the default display setting. and the HTML5 rendering requirement means that the used value of display for buttons is inline-block even when the specified value is inline. But it doesn't account for the behaviour when specified value is block. In this case, the element has a line-break before and after it, and margin:auto centres the box as a display:block element would, and is not what would be expected of inline-block.
However, its width for a specified value of auto is shrink-to-fit like inline-block, whereas the expected behaviour for display:block is as-wide-as-possible. As far as I know, the only display value that behaves like that is display:table, but there is nothing else to suggest that display:table is being used.
So there's nothing in the spec that I can find which matches this precisely. We can only hope that when the css-display spec gets completed, that it will cover this behaviour.
There are 2 types of element.
Non-replaced elements
Replaced elements
Button belongs to replaced element category.
You can find more on below link.
Littlewebhut
SitePoint
So, for button, according to spec, it becomes right.
Inline, non-replaced elements
The width property does not apply. A computed value of auto for margin-left or margin-right becomes a used value of 0.
Inline, replaced elements (This section applies to button)
A computed value of auto for margin-left or margin-right becomes a used value of 0.
If height and width both have computed values of auto and the element also has an intrinsic width, then that intrinsic width is the used value of width.
If height and width both have computed values of auto and the element has no intrinsic width, but does have an intrinsic height and intrinsic ratio; or if width has a computed value of auto, height has some other computed value, and the element does have an intrinsic ratio; then the used value of width is:
(used height) * (intrinsic ratio)
If height and width both have computed values of auto and the element has an intrinsic ratio but no intrinsic height or width, then the used value of width is undefined in CSS 2.1. However, it is suggested that, if the containing block's width does not itself depend on the replaced element's width, then the used value of width is calculated from the constraint equation used for block-level, non-replaced elements in normal flow.
If width has a computed value of auto, and the element has an intrinsic width, then that intrinsic width is the used value of width.
If width has a computed value of width, but none of the conditions above are met, then the used value of width becomes 300px.But, if 300px is too wide to fit the device, UAs should use the width of the largest rectangle that has a 2:1 ratio and fits the device instead.
According to MDN, a button is an inline element.
However, button elements have default styling with display: inline-block (See this question)
button, textarea,
input, select { display: inline-block }
So far so good.
However:
If I now set the button with display:inline - width still applies!!
DEMO
button,
div {
width: 200px;
border: 1px solid red;
display: inline;
}
<button>button</button>
<div>div</div>
Now, according to the spec: width does not apply to inline elements (which are non-replaced)
Applies to: all elements but non-replaced inline elements, table rows,
and row groups
That being the case:
Why does width still apply to an inline button element?
As mentioned in the comments, I'm pretty sure this has to do with browser-specific rendering behavior as is so typical of form elements. What I believe is happening when you set display: inline on the button is... nothing. Effectively, it's the same as the typical browser default display: inline-block, on which the width property does apply.
Refer to section 10.2, which describes the width property itself. In particular it explains why exactly the width property does not apply to inline elements (or inline boxes):
This property does not apply to non-replaced inline elements. The content width of a non-replaced inline element's boxes is that of the rendered content within them (before any relative offset of children). Recall that inline boxes flow into line boxes. The width of line boxes is given by the their containing block, but may be shorted by the presence of floats.
In short, it's because the content of inline elements resides in line boxes. The width of a line box cannot be controlled directly; it is determined entirely by the containing block and any incidental floats. You can see an example of line box rendering in section 9.4.2, which describes inline formatting contexts.
If display: inline actually made a button render as an inline box, all its contents would spill over and it would no longer look, or function, like a button. It makes sense to want to prevent that from happening, and I think that's just what browsers do.
So what exactly do they do to prevent this? Is a button a replaced element? I can't say for sure. But note, in section 9.2.2, it says:
Inline-level boxes that are not inline boxes (such as replaced inline-level elements, inline-block elements, and inline-table elements) are called atomic inline-level boxes because they participate in their inline formatting context as a single opaque box.
Section 10 does not explicitly mention atomic inline-level boxes, but it does have sections for calculating dimensions for inline replaced elements, as well as inline-block elements whether replaced or non-replaced, all of which are considered atomic inlines as mentioned above. In all of these cases, the width property applies as normal if it's not auto.
So, while it's still debatable whether or not a button is a replaced element, it probably doesn't matter at all for the purposes of this question. But it is still some kind of atomic inline element, since it still participates in an inline formatting context. For what it's worth, though, it appears to shrink to fit its contents if you don't set a width, so its behavior is probably closer to that of an inline-block in that case. One could say then that the actual value of display becomes inline-block, although this is never reflected in the developer tools because the computed value does not change (again a side effect of browser-specific rendering behavior).
Since like Boltclock, I don't think that there's a simple answer to this, this is as much a dump of my thoughts on the subject as an answer, but I hope it will be informative.
Although the CSS display property is superficially quite simple, it actually contains a multitude of aspects. The CSS level 3 draft spec css-display captures some of this complexity, but still doesn't seem to cover it adequately.
The HTML5 spec says for the rendering of <button> elements:
When the button binding applies to a button element, the element is
expected to render as an 'inline-block' box rendered as a button whose
contents are the contents of the element.
An inline-block box has a number of aspects to it:
1. An inline-level element
This means that it participates in a inline formatting context within a line box. It flows in sequence with other elements that are on the same line. The line box's content can be centre aligned with text-align:center property on its container, and the line box is shortened by avoiding floated elements.
2. Applies a width property and the auto value is shrink-to-fit
Unlike non-replaced display:inline elements, the width value applies. But also, if a width value is not specified, a shrink-to-fit algorithm is applied to determine the width. This is like floated elements, or display:table elements, but different from display:block elements which are as wide as possible if no width is specified. It's also unlike replaced inline elements and replaced inline-block elements which, if no width is specified, use their intrinsic width if they have one and a default value of 300px if they don't. Shrink-to-fit is a meaningless concept for replaced elements.
3. A block-container element
Block container elements are make up of a stack of line boxes. The content flows from one line box to the next and the height of the inline-block elements grows (subject to overflow) to fully contain all the line boxes.
4. The baseline is the baseline of the last contained line box
When the inline-block element contains multiple lines, its baseline is the last of those lines. This is unlike floats or display:table-cell elements which are also shrink-to-fit, block container elements. Floats are outside normal flow so they do not have a baseline, which display:table-cell elements have a baseline that is the baseline of their first line box. A button that has multiple lines does vertically align according this last line box rule.
Now, this is fine for the default display setting. and the HTML5 rendering requirement means that the used value of display for buttons is inline-block even when the specified value is inline. But it doesn't account for the behaviour when specified value is block. In this case, the element has a line-break before and after it, and margin:auto centres the box as a display:block element would, and is not what would be expected of inline-block.
However, its width for a specified value of auto is shrink-to-fit like inline-block, whereas the expected behaviour for display:block is as-wide-as-possible. As far as I know, the only display value that behaves like that is display:table, but there is nothing else to suggest that display:table is being used.
So there's nothing in the spec that I can find which matches this precisely. We can only hope that when the css-display spec gets completed, that it will cover this behaviour.
There are 2 types of element.
Non-replaced elements
Replaced elements
Button belongs to replaced element category.
You can find more on below link.
Littlewebhut
SitePoint
So, for button, according to spec, it becomes right.
Inline, non-replaced elements
The width property does not apply. A computed value of auto for margin-left or margin-right becomes a used value of 0.
Inline, replaced elements (This section applies to button)
A computed value of auto for margin-left or margin-right becomes a used value of 0.
If height and width both have computed values of auto and the element also has an intrinsic width, then that intrinsic width is the used value of width.
If height and width both have computed values of auto and the element has no intrinsic width, but does have an intrinsic height and intrinsic ratio; or if width has a computed value of auto, height has some other computed value, and the element does have an intrinsic ratio; then the used value of width is:
(used height) * (intrinsic ratio)
If height and width both have computed values of auto and the element has an intrinsic ratio but no intrinsic height or width, then the used value of width is undefined in CSS 2.1. However, it is suggested that, if the containing block's width does not itself depend on the replaced element's width, then the used value of width is calculated from the constraint equation used for block-level, non-replaced elements in normal flow.
If width has a computed value of auto, and the element has an intrinsic width, then that intrinsic width is the used value of width.
If width has a computed value of width, but none of the conditions above are met, then the used value of width becomes 300px.But, if 300px is too wide to fit the device, UAs should use the width of the largest rectangle that has a 2:1 ratio and fits the device instead.
Button is an inline element, but the width properties work on it. Why is that?
button {
width: 300px;
}
<button>asdfsdf</button>
<button>234234d</button>
Most browsers display button elements as inline-block by default, according to the (not normative) Appendix D. Default style sheet for HTML 4.
Therefore, you could expect the width property to work, as described in Calculating widths and margins - Inline-block, non-replaced.
But it's not just that. button elements are replaced elements:
In CSS, a replaced element is an element whose representation is
outside the scope of CSS. These are kind of external objects whose
representation is independent of the CSS.
Therefore, they have some special behavior. For example, independently of whether they have display: inline-block or display: inline, they are sized respecting the width property, according to Calculating widths and margins - Inline, replaced.
It's worth noting that HTML5 forces them to be displayed as inline-block anyway. This is explained in 10.5.2 Bindings - The button element:
#namespace url(http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml);
button { binding: button; }
When the button binding applies to a button element, the element
is expected to render as an 'inline-block' box rendered as a button
whose contents are the contents of the element.
See W3C Reference (a list of HTML4 elements' default CSS styles).
button is an inline-block element (by default) that can have a width set, as opposed to inline elements.
Set min-width: 300px;.
It works to me even if the button is inline-block.
I was under the impression that inline elements could not have their heights resized, but I am able to do so with <input type="text"/> elements.
Am I correct that <input type="text"/> elements are inline?
If so, what makes them different from <span></span> elements in how they can or cannot be resized.
An input element is inline-block by default, not inline.
On the other hand, an element such as a span, is inline by default.
The width/height of an inline-block element, such as input can be changed (example).
While an inline element, for instance, span, cannot be changed by default, as its dimensions are defined by the "rendered content within them". (example).
This [width] property does not apply to non-replaced inline elements. The content width of a non-replaced inline element's boxes is that of the rendered content within them (before any relative offset of children). Recall that inline boxes flow into line boxes. The width of line boxes is given by the their containing block, but may be shorted by the presence of floats. - W3 reference
There is a difference between inline and inline-block.
You can change the height of the inline-block meanwhile you can't change the inline elements.
So I think what ever the thing you have changed might be an inline-block element.
Here is a Fiddle for you!
They're rendered as inline-block per default. This is why you can specify a width. You can see this in chrome dev tools for example.
http://codepen.io/johannesjo/pen/BrcuE
You can set the width of inline elements like <span>, <em> and <strong>, but you won’t notice any effect until you position them.
a) I thought the width of inline an inline element can’t be set?
b) Assuming width can be set - we won’t notice any effects ( thus the width we specify ) until we position inline element. Position how/where?
c) Why is the width of inline elements apparent only when we “position” them?
There's also the option of display: inline-block, which might give you the best of both worlds.
a) The width of an inline element is ignored
b,c) When you "position" an inline element (I assume that means using position:absolute), you are actually making it a block element, whose width is interpreted by the browser
As others have mentioned, setting the width (or some other position-related property) of an inline element will cause the browser to then display the element as a block element.
You can explicitly declare this sort of behavior through using the CSS display property. The most common settings are display: inline (default), display: block, and display: none. A full reference for the display property is available here.
However, it should be noted that the HTML 4.01 specification discourages the use of "overriding the conventional interpretation of HTML elements":
Style sheets provide the means to
specify the rendering of arbitrary
elements, including whether an element
is rendered as block or inline. In
some cases, such as an inline style
for list elements, this may be
appropriate, but generally speaking,
authors are discouraged from
overriding the conventional
interpretation of HTML elements in
this way.
That basically means that if you apply position: absolute to inline element, it will become block element and gain width.
I think it's due to the fact that when you specify position attributes for an "inline" element, the element is no longer being displayed inline and instead is being treated as a block-level element.
a. Width of inline elements are ignored.
b. Actually you can apply width to element if set display: inline-block; but to see results you also should apply overflow: hidden;.
To have all benefits of inline and block types you can use follow snippet:
display: inline-block;
width: 50%; // or px, em, etc.
overflow: hidden;
text-overflow: ellipsis;
In this case you can manage width and have text ellipsis feature.
Inline element cannot have width. Width is a property of block element. So to use property of width over an inline element or an element with display type inline set display as inline-block eg: display:inline-block;