HasLayout concept explained - Learn how to exploit IE's "layout" by
Lighezan Alexandru
What the hell is layout? Layout is an Internet Explorer proprietary concept
that controls both size and position of elements. IE uses "layout" to reduce
its processing needs. In modern browsers, like FFox, Safari and Opera each
element is responsible for it's own size and position. In IE 6 and below this
would cause extreme problems related to performance. That's why IE gives
"layout" only to elements that really need it. Anyway, "layout" really affects
CSS designs, so it's important to know how to deal with it.
What elements do have layout? Elements that have layout include: bodytable, tr,
td, input, select, textarea, button, img, marquee, hr, inframe(don't use this,
please :) ), object, applet
How to give layout to an element? Using one of these CSS properties: float:
left/right; position: absolute; display: inline-block; width/height;
Problems caused by "layout": Elements with layout incorrectly size themselves:
Let's say you have a div with width:10px; Write some text inside it and set
it's size to 30px. Also set border: 1px solid black; In this situation the text
should flow out of the div, but in IE the div incorrectly expands. This shows
that IE uses width like a min-width.
Absolute positioned elements within a relative container: Let's say that you
have some absolutely positioned elements inside a relatively positioned
ancestor. In IE, instead of being positioned relative to the ancestor, these
elements will get positioned relative to the viewport. This bug is caused by
IE's internal "hasLayout" feature. Elements with relative position are not
considered to have "layout". A simple solution for this bug would be to set a
width or height, to force the element to have layout. Anyway, maybe sometimes
you will not know the dimensions of the element, so you can use the following
hack:
/* Hide from Mac \*/ * html.element { heighT: 1px; } /* End hide from Mac */
About the Author
Lighezan Alexandru is a high quality web development articles writer. Some of
its work can be found at chml srucnoc
online.
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