Form layout styling with CSS

You can style forms using CSS and definition lists instead of tables. This has only been tested in IE6 and Firefox. As a basis I define the form in HTML as follows:

<fieldset class="form">
 <legend>Add Contact</legend>
 <dl>
  <dt>Forename: </dt>
  <dd><input type="text" name="forename" id="forename" /></dd>
  <dt>Surname: </dt>
  <dd><input type="text" name="surname" id="surname" /></dd>
  <dt>Email: </dt>
  <dd><input type="text" name="email" id="email" /></dd>
  <dt></dt>
  <dd><input type="submit" value="Add" /></dd>
 </dl>
</fieldset>

And the CSS:

fieldset.form {
 width: 95%;
 border: 1px dotted #ccc;
 padding: 12px;
}

fieldset.form legend {
 font-weight: bold;
 background: #fff;
}

fieldset.form dl {
 float: left;
 clear: both;
}

fieldset.form dl dt {
 clear: left;
 float: left;
 width: 110px;
 margin: .5em 0;
 text-align: right;
}

fieldset.form dl dd {
 margin: .5em 0;
 float: left;
 padding: 0 0 0 4px;
}

* html fieldset.form dl dd {
 float: none;
 margin: .5em 0 0 0;
}

fieldset.form dl dt is the definition for the label accompanying an input control. It has a fixed width and is right-aligned. fieldset.form dl dd is the input control next to the label. The * html fieldset.form dl dd is used to fix a few bugs in IE - without it, the input controls are not next to the labels, and the seperation between items is greater than it should be.

Sample:

Add Contact
Forename:
Surname:
Email:

Tags: ,

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Select box manipulation with jQuery

If you read the jQuery mailing list , you may be aware that I have updated my plugins for working with select boxes . Summary of changes: addOption replaces any options with the same value (so think of it as an add/replace options plugin selectOptions selected options in addition to what was already selected, but there is now an option for it not to do this There are two new methods: copyOptions which is for copying options between select boxes ajaxAddOption allows you to add options via AJAX (i.e. could be used for create options dynamically from a server script)
Read more

iTextSharp: Generating a Basic PDF file (ASP.NET/C#)

iTextSharp is free library for .NET that allows you to create PDF documents. It can be used to dynamically create PDF's which can be streamed to the user. As there is no HTML being sent to the user, a WebHandler (ashx file) is a more appropriate way to generate your PDF than an aspx page. Download itextsharp-3.0.10-dll.zip (latest version as of 08 Feb 2006) and save the dll in the archive to your websites bin directory. Here is a basic sample of creating a PDF (more complex samples may follow in future posts). BasicPDF.ashx <%@ WebHandler Language="C#" Class="MyNamespace.BasicPDF" %> using System; using System.IO; using System.Web; using iTextSharp.text; using iTextSharp.text.pdf; namespace MyNamespace { public class BasicPDF: IHttpHandler { public bool IsReusable { get { return true; } } /// <summary> /// Font used for any hyperlinks added to the PDF /// </summary> private Font LinkFont { get ...
Read more

Popup Window Countdown (JavaScript)

This code opens a new popup window that contains a timer that counts down, then closes the window when it reaches 0. Will not work if user has a popup blocker blocking the page. <html> <head> <title>Popup Timer</title> <script language="JavaScript" type="text/JavaScript"> // popup window var var popup; // At what number shall the countdown counter start? CounterStart = 10; // This function CustomAction() can be modified to do // whatever you want done every second. function CustomAction() { popup.document.timer.timeleft.value = CounterStart; } // end of function CustomAction() // end of JavaScript customization function Decrement() { CounterStart--; CustomAction(); if(CounterStart <= 0) { popup.close(); alert('Timer reached 0'); } else { setTimeout('Decrement()',1000); } } function StartTheCounter() { openPopup(120,100); setTimeout('Decrement()',1000); } f...
Read more