Positioning and Block Attributes

A popular use of style sheets is to position elements in pages, and we've already discussed relative and absolute positioning in this chapter. You can find some positioning and block style attributes in Table 21.4.

Table 21.4. Positioning and Block Style Attributes

Attribute	NS2	NS4	NS6	IE3a	IE3b	IE4	IE5	IE5.5	IE6
`bottom, top, left, right`		x	x	x	x	x	x	x	x
	CSS2: `<length>` `<percentage>` `auto` `inherit`
	Default: `auto`
	Applies to: All elements
	You position a box with these properties, which specify how far a box's bottom, top, left, or right content edge should be set from the box's containing area.
`direction`							x	x	x
	CSS1: `ltr` `rtl`
	CSS2: `inherit`
	Default: `ltr`
	Applies to: All elements
	Gives the writing direction of HTML blocks for the Unicode bidirectional algorithm ( left-to-right or right-to-left ).
`display`		x	x			x	x	x	x
	CSS1: `inline` `block` `list-item CSS2: run-in` `compact` `marker` `table` `inline-table` `table-row- group` `table-` `header-group` `table-footer-group` `table-row` `table-` `column-group` `table-column` `table- cell` `table-caption` `none` `inherit`
	Default: `inline`
	Applies to: All elements
	Indicates how various elements should be displayed. Note that implementation of this attribute is spotty as of yet.
`float`		x	x			x	x	x	x
	CSS1: `left` `right` `none`
	CSS2: `inherit`
	Default: `none`
	Applies to: All but positioned elements
	Specifies whether a box should float to the left or right as needed.
`position`		x	x			x	x	x	x
	CSS2: `static` `relative` `absolute` `fixed` `inherit`
	Default: `static`
	Applies to: All elements
	Specifies how to position an element (which affects how the browser uses attributes such as `left` and `top` ).
`z-index`		x	x			x	x	x	x
	CSS2: `auto` `<integer>` `inherit`
	Default: `auto`
	Applies to: Positioned elements
	Sets the stacking level of the box in the stacking order for positioned boxes. Enables you to specify which elements appear on top of which other elements.