emulating default table borders in css

am 14.08.2007 09:59:13 von Pine nut

hi ...

my web client really likes the "translucent" look of the default borders
that are used as part of the

tag, with CELLSPACE as 2 and BORDER as
1.

is there any way to emulate this in CSS?

thanks!!

PineNUT

Re: emulating default table borders in css

am 14.08.2007 10:03:44 von Neredbojias

Well bust mah britches and call me cheeky, on Tue, 14 Aug 2007 07:59:13
GMT Pine nut scribed:

> hi ...
>
> my web client really likes the "translucent" look of the default
> borders that are used as part of the

tag, with CELLSPACE as 2
> and BORDER as 1.
>
> is there any way to emulate this in CSS?

If they are the _default_ borders, why do you have to emulate them?

--
Neredbojias
Half lies are worth twice as much as whole lies.

Re: emulating default table borders in css

am 14.08.2007 11:12:43 von jkorpela

Scripsit Neredbojias:

>> my web client really likes the "translucent" look of the default
>> borders that are used as part of the

tag, with CELLSPACE as 2
>> and BORDER as 1.
>>
>> is there any way to emulate this in CSS?
>
> If they are the _default_ borders, why do you have to emulate them?

I'd rather ask why that should be done in CSS when there is a clear idea of
how to achieve the desired effect in HTML. Just as a matter of principle? Or
because there are zillions of tables to consider, or some style sheet that
set table borders that need to be overridden?

A border of one pixel is _not_ the default, but _if_ a border is set using

, then the apperance is by default an outset border, which
is probably what is meant by "translucent" here.

Anyway, the CSS counterpart of border="1" in a

tag consists of
border-width: 1px; border-style: outset;
for the table and
border-width: 1px; border-style: inset;
for each cell.

The CSS counterpart to cellspacing="2" is border-spacing: 2px, but this
isn't supported by IE.

More info on mapping presentational HTML to CSS:
http://www.cs.tut.fi/~jkorpela/html2css.html

P.S. I'm pretty sure most users find "translucent" borders unpleasant. They
look too vague to be useful, yet noticeable enough to be an esthetic
nuisance. A solid border, perhaps set to some other color than black, is
usually better.

--
Jukka K. Korpela ("Yucca")
http://www.cs.tut.fi/~jkorpela/

Re: emulating default table borders in css

am 14.08.2007 12:23:37 von Pine nut

> A border of one pixel is _not_ the default, but _if_ a border is set using
>

, then the apperance is by default an outset border,
which
> is probably what is meant by "translucent" here.
>
> Anyway, the CSS counterpart of border="1" in a

tag consists of
> border-width: 1px; border-style: outset;
> for the table and
> border-width: 1px; border-style: inset;
> for each cell.
>
> The CSS counterpart to cellspacing="2" is border-spacing: 2px, but this
> isn't supported by IE.

thanks Jukka, that's almost what I need.

what I wanted was to define a DIV ID that would emulate that same border
effect, but there seems no table-border or cell-spacing equivalents for
defining a DIV.

PineNUT

Re: emulating default table borders in css

am 14.08.2007 13:14:10 von jkorpela

Scripsit Pine nut:

> what I wanted was to define a DIV ID that would emulate that same
> border effect, but there seems no table-border or cell-spacing
> equivalents for defining a DIV.

We might have found, and might still find, a solution to your problem faster
if you started from the real problem description and posted the URL of the
page.

Do you mean that you are simulating a table with a DIV element containing
other DIV elements (which simulate table cells)? I wonder whether that's a
good idea. Anyway, then you simply have to set the border for each DIV
element separately and set _margin_ properties for them suitably. Beware
that vertical margins collapse so that 2 + 2 is not 4 but 2 whereas
horizontal margins do not collapse. So effectively you would set margin: 2px
1px for the inner DIV elements. This makes top and bottom margin 2px
(resulting in a net spacing of 2px due to the collapse) and left and right
margin 1px (resulting in a net spacing of 2px due to additive effect).

However, this depends on how you use the DIV elements - do you use floating,
or positioning, or what?

--
Jukka K. Korpela ("Yucca")
http://www.cs.tut.fi/~jkorpela/

Re: emulating default table borders in css

am 14.08.2007 15:56:21 von lws4art

Jukka K. Korpela wrote:

> The CSS counterpart to cellspacing="2" is border-spacing: 2px, but this
> isn't supported by IE.
>

Sure? Seem to work for me MSIE6 on Win2K

"http://www.w3.org/TR/html4/strict.dtd">

CSS vs Deprecated

A	B	C	D
A	B	C	D
A	B	C	D
A	B	C	D

A	B	C	D
A	B	C	D
A	B	C	D
A	B	C	D

Change border-spacing to 5px and cellspacing to 5 and MSIE accommodates
just fine.

--
Take care,

Jonathan
-------------------
LITTLE WORKS STUDIO
http://www.LittleWorksStudio.com

Re: emulating default table borders in css

am 14.08.2007 21:54:55 von jkorpela

Scripsit Jonathan N. Little:

> Jukka K. Korpela wrote:
>
>> The CSS counterpart to cellspacing="2" is border-spacing: 2px, but
>> this isn't supported by IE.
>
> Sure? Seem to work for me MSIE6 on Win2K

Strange. I tested (with your test document) both on MSIE 6 on Win98 and on
MSIE 7 on Win XP, and it completely ignores the border-spacing property.
Besides, the property is not mention in Microsoft's documentation, which
appears to be generally exhaustive regarding to CSS support in IE:
http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms531207.aspx

> Change border-spacing to 5px and cellspacing to 5 and MSIE
> accommodates just fine.

When I test it, the table without cellspacing attribute (with border-spacing
set in CSS) keeps the default cellspacing of 2 pixels, no matter what I set
for border-spacing.

--
Jukka K. Korpela ("Yucca")
http://www.cs.tut.fi/~jkorpela/

Re: emulating default table borders in css

am 14.08.2007 23:20:37 von lws4art

Jukka K. Korpela wrote:
> Scripsit Jonathan N. Little:
>
>> Jukka K. Korpela wrote:
>>
>>> The CSS counterpart to cellspacing="2" is border-spacing: 2px, but
>>> this isn't supported by IE.
>>
>> Sure? Seem to work for me MSIE6 on Win2K
>
> Strange. I tested (with your test document) both on MSIE 6 on Win98 and
> on MSIE 7 on Win XP, and it completely ignores the border-spacing
> property. Besides, the property is not mention in Microsoft's
> documentation, which appears to be generally exhaustive regarding to CSS
> support in IE:
> http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms531207.aspx
>
>> Change border-spacing to 5px and cellspacing to 5 and MSIE
>> accommodates just fine.
>
> When I test it, the table without cellspacing attribute (with
> border-spacing set in CSS) keeps the default cellspacing of 2 pixels, no
> matter what I set for border-spacing.
>

Pardon, my error you're correct, must have looked at the wrong window.
Damn MSIE sucks...I don't use it but is sure is a pain to try and
accommodate it with a somewhat consistent look across browsers...

--
Take care,

Jonathan
-------------------
LITTLE WORKS STUDIO
http://www.LittleWorksStudio.com