Re: Content vs Structure?

Hello Chris,
Tuesday, November 19, 2002, 8:06:33 PM, you wrote:

> It has a block for the header, one for the nav bar, one for the side
> bar, and one for the main section of content. But say one style
> wants to have the links displayed in the side bar, for example,
> instead of on their own? This seems to be a change in the style of
> the document, and yet CSS doesn't seem to have a way to facilitate
> it.

Positioning? It would be helpful if you had an example. In my
experience, CSS is not (very) limited by the structure of the original
document, assuming the document is well-written. However, it can not
transform a document.

In essence, your markup is probably presentational for this to happen.
Either the links belong in a certain element or they do not. CSS gives
you great flexibility in choosing where elements appear on a page, but
it is not within CSS to remarkup a document. For that, you should open
a text editor and rewrite your document. :) I suppose manipulation of
the DOM could do what you want, but I don't know anything about that.

> One could argue that it's a matter of neither content nor design,
> but structure, as it would be nesting the links block inside the
> side bar block.

See, "side bar block" sounds to me like you have a container element
purely for presentation.

To see if I can help, let's say your side bar block has a blue
background and the rest of the page has a white background. Position
your "links block" directly below (or above) the side bar and give it
a blue background. Without altering the structure of your document,
you've made your links appear to be in the side bar (when in fact they
are below or above it). If that's the sort of thing you desire, it's
probably possible.

-- 
John

Received on Wednesday, 20 November 2002 00:38:47 UTC