4.3 Container basics

4.3.1 Containers

Containers are used to introduce new reference areas in their context.

• Reference properties can only be changed for reference areas.

  • Examples are reference-orientation and writing-mode .

• This is useful for temporarily changing the direction of text in the rendered result.

Consider the example shown in Figure 4-9. The nesting of the constructs used to create the example is depicted in Figure 4-10.

Figure 4-9. Changing the reference orientation inline

Figure 4-10. The nesting of an inline-container

The following considerations are worthy of note.

• To prevent a break in the line, an inline-container is used in the text.

• The container's reference orientation is changed by 90 degrees counterclockwise.

• The container only contains block-level constructs, so a block is used to contain the text.

• The text is in an inline construct (though in this particular example this is redundant).

Container objects are named by where they are used.

• inline-container can only be used inside of a block.

  • Note that by default, an inline container sits on top of the dominant baseline.

  • Use alignment-adjust="after-edge" for the container to sit on the same after edge as the text.

• block-container is typically used between blocks.

  • Using it inside a block would break the block-progression direction.

4.3.2 The inline-container object

Purpose

• This is the specification of an inline-level reference area for contained descendant blocks.

  • It is used to place block-oriented constructs inline.

Content

• ( 6.6.8 ) (%block;)+ ,

• child object:

  • %block; ( 6.2 ; 69),

• any number of marker children at the beginning.

Property sets

• Common border, padding, and background properties ( 7.7 ; 328),

• common margin properties inline ( 7.11 ; 333),

• common relative position properties ( 7.12 ; 333).

Other optional properties

• alignment-adjust ( 7.13.1 ; 346),

• alignment-baseline ( 7.13.2 ; 346),

• baseline-shift ( 7.13.3 ; 351),

• block-progression-dimension ( 7.14.1 ; 352),

• clip ( 7.20.1 ; 368),

• display-align ( 7.13.4 ; 373),

• dominant-baseline ( 7.13.5 ; 374),

• height ( 7.14.4 ; 382),

• id ( 7.28.2 ; 384),

• inline-progression-dimension ( 7.14.5 ; 385),

• keep-together ( 7.19.3 ; 386),

• keep-with- next ( 7.19.4 ; 386),

• keep-with-previous ( 7.19.5 ; 387),

• line-height ( 7.15.4 ; 390),

• overflow ( 7.20.2 ; 397),

• reference-orientation ( 7.20.3 ; 407),

• width ( 7.14.12 ; 428),

• writing-mode ( 7.27.7 ; 429).

Shorthands influencing the above properties

• font ( 7.29.13 ; 377),

• page-break-after ( 7.29.16 ; 401),

• page-break-before ( 7.29.17 ; 401),

• page-break-inside ( 7.29.18 ; 402),

• vertical-align ( 7.29.22 ; 424).

An excerpt from the Figure 4-9 is shown in Example 4-1.

Example 4-1 Containers in Figure 4-9

 Line 01 <block font-size="40pt">This is a       02  <inline-container reference-orientation="90deg">  03     <block font-size="12pt">BEGIN</block>      04  </inline-container>  test  <inline-container  05  reference-orientation="270deg">  06     <block font-size="12pt">END</block>      07  </inline-container>  08   of &lt;inline-container>      09 </block> 

4.3.3 The block-container object

Purpose

• This is the specification of a block-level reference area for contained descendant blocks.

Content

• ( 6.5.3 ) (%block;)+ ,

• child object:

  • %block; ( 6.2 ; 69),

• any number of marker children at the beginning (unless absolutely positioned).

Property sets

• Common absolute position properties ( 7.5 ; 325),

• common border, padding, and background properties ( 7.7 ; 328),

• common margin properties block ( 7.10 ; 332).

Other optional properties

• block-progression-dimension ( 7.14.1 ; 352),

• break-after ( 7.19.1 ; 366),

• break-before ( 7.19.2 ; 367),

• clip ( 7.20.1 ; 368),

• display-align ( 7.13.4 ; 373),

• height ( 7.14.4 ; 382),

• id ( 7.28.2 ; 384),

• inline-progression-dimension ( 7.14.5 ; 385),

• intrusion- displace ( 7.18.3 ; 385),

• keep-together ( 7.19.3 ; 386),

• keep-with-next ( 7.19.4 ; 386),

• keep-with-previous ( 7.19.5 ; 387),

• overflow ( 7.20.2 ; 397),

• reference-orientation ( 7.20.3 ; 407),

• span ( 7.20.4 ; 415),

• width ( 7.14.12 ; 428),

• writing-mode ( 7.27.7 ; 429),

• z-index ( 7.28.9 ; 429).

Shorthands influencing the above properties

• page-break-after ( 7.29.16 ; 401),

• page-break-before ( 7.29.17 ; 401),

• page-break-inside ( 7.29.18 ; 402).