Is it possible to style the option elements of a select list/dropdown beyond background and font? I'm specifically looking to add some padding/margins so the list isn't as cramped.
Not possible if you want broad browser support. At least IE doesn't support it. There's then no other option than to mimic and progressively enhance the dropdown with <ul><li> and a good shot of JavaScript. You can get here some ideas what's possible with JS (jQuery actually) based dropdowns.
#Alex: we were in the same predicament as you seem to be. We too wanted to control the UI of the dropdown. Unfortunately as others have already mentioned, you have no option with the system dropdown if you want to have cross-browser compatibility also.
so we came up with our own jQuery plugin which works like a system dropdown for most features. It also supports themeing as well as flexibility to provide customized list items by way of templates. You can see the running code samples from the following URLs listed and learn more about it. We are sure you will find it useful.
Sample and documentation - india.assigninfo.com/assignlabs/jaldropdown
Cascading dropdown sample code from coderun.com - coderun.com/ide/?w=GEXVey_kckKrAkLeoIfZNg
Sample code to configure jaldropdown from within scrollable DIVs - coderun.com/ide/?w=BiE5TbXdIEehDOxNk1oajw
It is possible however the functionality is not available in Internet Explorer
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I have a existing parent website and I have to design a new website with similar theme and css styles.
I do not have access to the code of the parent website in which I can look into the styling.
Is there a way I can extract or replicate the css style of the website and use it for the new one. I just need to get the same theme going in the new website as well.
I came across that I could use some adobe tools for the same.
Can anyone give a brief idea of how this can be done or is there a generic procedure to be followed in replicating the style.
Replicate given design using your own, most appropriate appropriate markup and CSS rules—and have some sort of QA process that will help you find obvious inconsistencies with appearance and interaction.
Why I don't think you want to copy HTML and CSS from the parent site:
The parent website can change its style later in an unpredictable way. You will have to duplicate these changes. Since you mentioned you don't have the access to the codebase, you can't just diff their changes and apply them to your codebase.
Therefore I'd say it's best to ignore the original HTML and CSS, and just follow your eye and have a QA that will carefully test your work for consistency with the original.
(I had to do a similar thing once, and I think it usually isn't required to follow parent website pixel-perfect—just consistent enough to facilitate painless navigation for the end user.
In cases where pixel-perfect consistency is required it makes more sense to build the additional website off the same codebase as original. You weren't given that possibility, so I doubt that perfection will be requested from you.)
I think Your trying to shoot fly with cannon. All javascript/css/html code is at Your hand when viewing sources. No advanced tools are needed.
For better look on minified files You may try developers tools provided by modern browsers like chrome and firefox.
You may also just use beautification tools for css and html like http://www.codebeautifier.com to get nice, indented document.
Just google html or css beautification and find the one that fit Your needs in best way. Most of them are free online tools.
The css is probably minified. This question shows ways to unminify it so you can read it.
Browsers such as Firefox and Chrome have a built in Code Inspector tool that will show you which styles are applied to each item. Just right-click on a page element (for example, a paragraph or heading), and select "Inspect Element" from the menu that appears. A toolbar will appear at the bottom of your window. Use the arrow on the toolbar to select different elements to examine. Usually the left side of that tool shows the HTML for that element and the right-side shows the CSS styles applied and the line of the css they come from. You can get a similar tool in IE by pressing the F12 key.
If you have a text editor that allows regular expressions in the search (Dreamweaver has this if you have the Creative Suite) use this search term with the "regular expression" box checked: #[a-z|0-9]{3,6}. This will find all of the hexadecimal values for the colors you need. It says to find the pound sign followed by either three or six letters or numbers, which will mostly be hexadecimal values (e.g. #333 or #333333 for dark grey). It may also bring up some IDs and you can ignore those and keep searching. You'll also want to search for rgba because colors may be listed that way. Using this in conjunction with the browser's code inspector will help you figure out the colors that are used on different elements. Some things may have background images, so you'll need to use the code inspector to figure that out. The code inspector will also show you how much padding you'll need, widths, etc.
As pointed out in the title, my question is very simple: is there any way that I can achieve clicking on a header (title) and expand (and collapse) a text associated with it, without using JavaScript nor jQuery? Is there any browser compatible way of doing this (IE 6+ proof)?
I've made a very simple HTML+CSS site for a conference, and I would like to use JS only if necessary. So, I'm just asking if I can do it sticking only to HMTL/CSS, in a compatible way, of course.
The few solutions I've found are old or incompatible with some browser versions.
IE6-proof pure CSS solution?
NO
[Leave the dead rest in their graves, don't try to make them run a marathon. That's what you're doing when you're asking for IE6 to do things like this.]
IE7/8?
Yes, there is one solution (the principle is the same one used in this older demo of mine), but it is not persistent (meaning that if you click anywhere else on the page, your expanded content will collapse) and it behaves a bit weird in IE7 (meaning that you have to hover off the clicked element after you click it in order to see your content expanding).
IE9+ and the other browsers?
YES! Also persistent. Same principle as the one I used here.
JavaScript/ jQuery method?
Yes! See this: a jQuery version of the same demo.
You can do simple Hover dropdown menus with just HTML & CSS which are supported cross browser:
http://jsfiddle.net/fkS2z/
You can improve on this with fades or slidedowns with CSS transitions which are not supported in lower version of IE:
http://jsfiddle.net/N9fDy/1/
Not so much with clicking though.
I have a bit of an issue with design where I have a list item that has taken it on itself to be the far higher than the others. I have a feeling this is because of another element in the design.
I use firebug sometimes and chrome developer tools the rest of the time.
These tools can be used to see what the height of something is, or what css styles are effecting the object but what these tools don't do however is show how other objects are effecting other objects.
Has anybody come across a tool which shows the relationship objects in a design are having on each other? Its a long shot, but if there were a place to find out it would be here at SO.
Thanks.
Have a look at webdeveloper available for Chrome and Firefox. This is a very extensive plugin but should be able to do what you need.
Install it > go to the page you want to debug > Cycle trough various Outline options. Start off with "Outline block level elements" and work your way from there.
Do tell me if I misunderstood your question, but with either Firebug or the Chrome Developer Tool, you should be able to inspect the nesting of different elements in your design, and see how a design will look after you delete one of those elements.
The only tricky part is learning how to use those tools, and for that I suggest you watch some youtube videos. For me at least, that's the way I've learned. Unless someone can show you in person, the next best alternative is someone showing you how those tools work through a video.
I have this textarea element, and i want each line in the box to be clickable and respond to javascript events, is that possible or am i looking for a different type of element?
That is not possible. In order for you do produce such behavior, you would need to design your own "textbox". Google Docs has done this for example, where the entire "textarea" is a complex and highly functional set of divs etc.
A much less intensive version of the multi-div selectable layout could be accomplished with Data Tables. See the tutorial here
They also offer tutorials on edit-in-place as well as select and delete. If you're not already using a grid to present data, it's a great tool for UI.
I'm wondering if there are any good non-native form inputs for web development? I am currently using the built in <input> controls. They work just fine, but for my application they are too big (especially on OS X). I am wondering if there are any libraries that I can drop in as replacements.
I am especially interested in ones that:
Are a close to native control behavior as possible. Support for tabbing, highlighting current textbox, pressing up/down in <select>, etc.
Have something that replicates <select>
Look good and are compact
I am aware that you can use CSS for some styling, but it's pretty minimal and looks different depending on the browser.
Thanks for your help.
These two from Codrops give the native selects "display: none", then add an overlay that can be styled/modified.
Pretty simple, you just need to call the plugin on your select box.
Demos
http://tympanus.net/Development/SelectInspiration/index3.html
http://tympanus.net/Development/SimpleDropDownEffects/
HTML is not modular like that. Importantingly, you're also restricted by the browser support. The only ways to customize the look'n'feel of HTML are CSS and Javascript. There are crossbrowser CSS/JS based UI frameworks available like jQuery UI and several CSS based form solutions with the goal to have the same look'n'feel among the (most) browsers.
You can also consider to develop an Rich Internet Application (RIA) using one of Flex, Air, JavaFX, Silverlight, etc. This way it looks exactly the same in every webbrowser, but that requires at least an additional plugin which the client may have to install first.
http://plugins.jquery.com/project/jNice
http://www.whitespace-creative.com/jquery/jNice/
You may want to customize the images, sizes and CSS with your own.
You could try creating the controls with Flex/Flash and using JavaScript to retrieve the values.
This would allow you to customize the control as much as you wanted while still staying compatible with most users/browsers.