RE: Regarding the appearance property

> [Original Message]
> From: David Håsäther <hasather@msn.com>
>
> Suppose I do something like
>
> h1 {
>     font-size: 100%;
>     font-weight: normal;
>     margin: 0;
> }
>
> and then
>
> h1 { appearance: normal; }
>
> Does this mean that h1 elements will be back to normal again
> (e.g. displayed in a bigger font-size, bold and with margins)?

An interesting question. There are two possible interpretations
for "normal" that I can see, but one of them is already used by
"initial". The other would be to set values changed from the
UA default values by earlier or less specific rules in the cascade
back to the UA defaults.  So assuming the UA default for h1
has a larger font-size, is bold, and has margins, then yes it would,
but only for interactive media as the property is currently defined.
If you were to print the document then the 'appearance' property
would have no effect as it is currently defined.

In any case, this property needs rather extensive revision
in my opinion before it becomes usable as a standard.
For instance, why should this property be limited to interactive media?
And I'd really like to see for all properties a keyword to restore the
UA defaults where they may (as in this case) depart from the CSS
defaults.  Because "normal" is already in use for some existing
properties with a different meaning, it cannot be that keyword.

Received on Sunday, 21 March 2004 12:20:58 UTC