Why does IE add a pixel of white space around my links?

[Alan Silver]

Hello,

Here I am again with another "why does IE do that" question!!

Please have a look at http://www.kidsinaction.org.uk/fd/homepage.html
and see if you can work out why IE adds a one pixel white space on the
left and right side of the links with the light-green backgrounds. It
doesn't do it on the header links, which have darker green backgrounds.

FF and Opera don't add the pixel at all, which is what I would expect as
I set left and right margins to zero for all relevant elements.

Any suggestions? TIA

--
Alan Silver
(anything added below this line is nothing to do with me)

[Ken Loomis]

On Wed, 26 Apr 2006 19:50:24 +0100, Alan Silver
<al*********@no spam.thanx.inva lid> wrote:

Here I am again with another "why does IE do that" question!!
because it sucks.
Please have a look at http://www.kidsinaction.org.uk/fd/homepage.html
and see if you can work out why IE adds a one pixel white space on the
left and right side of the links with the light-green backgrounds. It
doesn't do it on the header links, which have darker green backgrounds.

Just for kick, what happens if you fill in the href links?

Ken

[Ken Loomis]

On Wed, 26 Apr 2006 15:46:20 -0400, Ken Loomis
<no************ **@address.com> wrote:

On Wed, 26 Apr 2006 19:50:24 +0100, Alan Silver

Please have a look at http://www.kidsinaction.org.uk/fd/homepage.html
and see if you can work out why IE adds a one pixel white space on the
left and right side of the links with the light-green backgrounds. It
doesn't do it on the header links, which have darker green backgrounds.

Just for kicks, what happens if you fill in the href links?

Well, I tried that and it didn't help.

It's the background color of your page being inherited by your ul.
If you put
background: rgb(136, 192, 184);
in your ul it will look good until someone hovers on the li. Maybe you
can live with that. There's probably a better solution. (like telling
your users not to use IE)

Ken

[kchayka]

Alan Silver wrote:

Please have a look at http://www.kidsinaction.org.uk/fd/homepage.html
and see if you can work out why IE adds a one pixel white space on the
left and right side of the links with the light-green backgrounds.

Any suggestions?

Same as I suggested before: add the zoom property

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

[VK]

Alan Silver wrote:

Hello,

Here I am again with another "why does IE do that" question!!

Please have a look at http://www.kidsinaction.org.uk/fd/homepage.html
and see if you can work out why IE adds a one pixel white space on the
left and right side of the links with the light-green backgrounds. It
doesn't do it on the header links, which have darker green backgrounds.

FF and Opera don't add the pixel at all, which is what I would expect as
I set left and right margins to zero for all relevant elements.

Any suggestions? TIA

Must be because the link boxes are having "pack width" as opposed to
"max width". By setting width:100% for LI elements eliminates the gaps.

btw if you decided to force W3C on IE, then play by the rules ;-) In
CSS1Compat mode there are not default measurement units, so IE has all
rights to ignore margin:0 declaration. It doesn't do it of a good of
its heart :-) but margin: 0px 0px would be more appropriate.

[Johannes Koch]

VK wrote:

In
CSS1Compat mode there are not default measurement units, so IE has all
rights to ignore margin:0 declaration.
Why?
It doesn't do it of a good of
its heart :-) but margin: 0px 0px would be more appropriate.

<http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-CSS1#length-units>:
After a '0' number, the unit identifier is optional.
--
Johannes Koch
In te domine speravi; non confundar in aeternum.
(Te Deum, 4th cent.)

[VK]

Johannes Koch wrote:

VK wrote:

In
CSS1Compat mode there are not default measurement units, so IE has all
rights to ignore margin:0 declaration.
Why?

Because they decided so and currently it's build into UA.
<http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-CSS1#length-units>:
After a '0' number, the unit identifier is optional.

Are you planning to develope for IE by W3C papers? :-0
A daring intention bur very unpractical :-)

Before to switch IE into CSS1Compat mode, anyone has to learn and
memorize the famous "CSS Enhancements in Internet Explorer 6" article
at
<http://msdn.microsoft. com/library/en-us/dnie60/html/cssenhancements .asp>

Is it W3C-compliant or not, but this is exactly what IE does in
CSS1Compat mode, whether you like it or not. The only other option is
to leave it in the original BackCompat mode. IE doesn't have (and
doubtfully ever will) some third W3CUpToTheLastP oint mode ;-)

In the particular "Stricter Style Sheet Parsing" section states:
<quote>
Values without unit type identifiers and values with white space
between the number and the unit type identifier are ignored.
Note: There is one exception to this rule. The line-height explicitly
accepts unitless numbers and treats them in a manner similar to a
percentage setting. For example, "line-height: 2" is similar to
"line-height: 200%," differing only in how the number inherits.
</quote>

As you can see, zero values are not in the list. And indeed margin:0
makes IE in CSS1Compat mode upset. To check that out, simply open the
OP's link in IE 6, File > Save As > Web page complete. You will get the
normalized version of the page: not what is served from the server, but
what IE sees internally. Compare the treatment for paddings and for
margin:0 in the normalized version.

[Johannes Koch]

VK wrote:

Johannes Koch wrote:

VK wrote:

In
CSS1Compat mode there are not default measurement units, so IE has all
rights to ignore margin:0 declaration.

Why?

Because they decided so and currently it's build into UA.

Sorry, I thought you meant IE is right (per some spec) to ignore "margin:0".
--
Johannes Koch
In te domine speravi; non confundar in aeternum.
(Te Deum, 4th cent.)

[Neredbojias]

To further the education of mankind, Johannes Koch <ko**@w3develop ment.de>
vouchsafed:

<http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-CSS1#length-units>:
After a '0' number, the unit identifier is optional.

Interestingly, at least in css2, line-height:0; triggers an error message
in the validator.

--
Neredbojias
Infinity has its limits.

[VK]

Johannes Koch wrote:

Sorry, I thought you meant IE is right (per some spec) to ignore "margin:0".

IE is awfully wrong I guess :-)

But from all glitches this is really one of smallest. Are we short on
keystrokes? To type margin: 0px 0px; instead of margin:0; doesn't take
hell of a lot (besides margin:0 is an optional shortcut, not the only
one allowed syntax).

Overall it is a common misunderstandin g I guess to think of CSS1Compat
mode in IE as of a "W3C compliant" mode. Like "place an appropriate DTD
and it becomes another Firefox or Opera" :-) In fact all changes from
BackCompat mode to CSS1Compat mode are fairly spelled in the mentioned
article. You don't get any less - but nothing more. And a really
significant one is the switch into W3C box model: within some limits,
see
<http://groups.google.c om/group/comp.infosystem s.www.authoring .stylesheets/browse_frm/thread/7bec5fd9a15c3eb c/>