CSS3 Text: Hanging Indents

http://www.w3.org/TR/2002/WD-css3-text-20021024/#indentation

I assume specifying a hanging indent, such as on a
bibligraphic entry:

<biblioentry>
   Author, title, publisher, etc.
</biblioentry>

still requires that padding workaround?

I would like to forward the following into the official
period of last-call comments for CSS3 Text:

fantasai. "Re: text-indent/exdent (was "suggestion")",
   www-style@w3.org (2001-07-07).
   message-id: <3B478560.C8272B5C@escape.com>
   http://lists.w3.org/Archives/Public/www-style/2001Jul/0066.html

fantasai. "Re: text-indent/exdent (was "suggestion")",
   www-style (2001-07-07).
   message-id: <3B47BAE2.9BD1FB5E@escape.com>
   http://lists.w3.org/Archives/Public/www-style/2001Jul/0068.html

fantasai. "Re: Hanging indent", www-style@w3.org (2002-05-18).
   message-id: <3CE66770.A039E9EE@escape.com>
   http://lists.w3.org/Archives/Public/www-style/2002May/0110.html

Sicking, Jonas. "Re: Hanging indent", www-style@w3.org
   (2002-05-18).
   message-id: <003d01c1fe7c$fde493a0$b3e0d0d9@telia.com>
   http://lists.w3.org/Archives/Public/www-style/2002May/0111.html

Bos, Bert. "Re: Hanging indent", www-style@w3.org (2002-06-03).
   message-id: <15611.51364.73927.647509@jfouffa.inria.fr>
   http://lists.w3.org/Archives/Public/www-style/2002Jun/0008.html

fantasai. "Re: Hanging indent", www-style@w3.org (2002-06-04).
   message-id: <3CFC4EFD.EF83FF54@escape.com>
   http://lists.w3.org/Archives/Public/www-style/2002Jun/0012.html

Wexler, Etan. "Re: Hanging indent", www-style@w3.org
   (2002-06-04).
   message-id: <3CFCAF04.32579.8F0940@localhost>
   http://lists.w3.org/Archives/Public/www-style/2002Jun/0017.html

Fellmy, Randall Joseph. "Re: Hanging indent", www-style@w3.org
   (2002-06-04).
   message-id: <fqqofu8jn7kn52e08f76ihqlulpse2e354@4ax.com>
   http://lists.w3.org/Archives/Public/www-style/2002Jun/0013.html

Foti, Peter. "RE: Hanging indent", www-style@w3.org (2002-06-04).
   message-id: <A10A983C9DFBD4119F0300104B2EA6B70F9B6F@ZIPPY>
   http://lists.w3.org/Archives/Public/www-style/2002Jun/0014.html

(If linking them isn't enough to make it official, please
  let me know what is at least several hours before the deadline.
  Thanks.)


In light of Coises' (Randall Fellmy's) suggestion, I
would

- add a value of 'auto' to the 'text-block-indent'
   property defined in the first referenced message.

   auto - all lines are indented the minimum length necessary
          to keep the first line inside the starting text
          edge. For example, if 'text-first-indent' were set
          to '-2em', the computed value of 'text-block-indent'
          would be 2em, but if 'text-first-indent' were set to
          '2em', the computed value would be zero.

- restrict the values of text-block-indent to
     text-block-indent: none | auto
     initial: none

- and maybe make "text-indent: 2em;" expand to
         text-first-indent: 2em;
         text-block-indent: inherit;

Specifying ":root {text-block-indent: auto}" would
create the effect Coises defines, which is IMO a
very elegant system. It also avoids the redundancy
of "text-indent: -3em 3em".

(If text-indent's expansion must set 'text-block-
  indent' to 'initial', then using auto would
  require either setting it with each indentation
  rule or using 'text-first-indent' rather than
  'text-indent'.)

BTW, you might want to say something about how
floats affect indentation.

~fantasai

P.S. I'm very glad to see text alignment taken
into account.

Received on Sunday, 24 November 2002 16:14:19 UTC