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Question

Best strategy to style the same HTML when it appears on multiple pages

Answer 1

A:

1) Use common css and set some of the values like width in code behind.

2) Create multiple css files for different needs and link right css to page using code behind.

2009-02-04 06:49:00

Answer 2

+4 A:

Side comment: Maybe you shouldn't use tables to layout this form but fieldsets, it would leave you with more flexibility. For example if you decide to have the labels and input fields on top of each other in a more narrow column...

your example without tables (looks also much prettier):

<style type="text/css">
<!--

form { /* set width in form, not fieldset (still takes up more room w/ fieldset width */
    font: 100% verdana, arial, sans-serif;
    margin: 0;
    padding: 0;
    min-width: 500px;
    max-width: 600px;
    width: 560px;
}

form fieldset {
    /* clear: both; note that this clear causes inputs to break to left in ie5.x mac, commented out */
    border-color: #000;
    border-width: 1px;
    border-style: solid;
    padding: 10px; /* padding in fieldset support spotty in IE */
    margin: 0;
}

form fieldset legend {
    font-size: 1.1em; /* bump up legend font size, not too large or it'll overwrite border on left */
    /* be careful with padding, it'll shift the nice offset on top of border  */
}

form label {
    display: block; /* block float the labels to left column, set a width */
    float: left;
    width: 150px;
    padding: 0;
    margin: 5px 0 0; /* set top margin same as form input - textarea etc. elements */
    text-align: right;
}

form input, form textarea {
    /* display: inline; inline display must not be set or will hide submit buttons in IE 5x mac */
    width: auto; /* set width of form elements to auto-size, otherwise watch for wrap on resize */
    margin: 5px 0 0 10px; /* set margin on left of form elements rather than right of
     label aligns textarea better in IE */
}

textarea {
    overflow: auto;
}

 /* uses class instead of div, more efficient */
form br {
    clear: left; /* setting clear on inputs didn't work consistently, so brs added for degrade */
}
-->
</style>
<div id="pnlSubmitComments">
    <form>
        <fieldset>
            <label for="Comments">
                Name:
            </label>
            <input id="Name" name="Name" type="text" value="" /><br />
            <label for="Comments">
                Email:
            </label>
            <input id="Email" name="Email" type="text" value="" /><br />
            <label for="Comments">
                Questions:
            </label>
            <textarea id="Comments" name="Comments">
            </textarea><br />
      <label for="spacing"></label>
            <input id="btnSubmitComments" name="btnSubmitComments" type="submit" value="Submit Questions" />
        </fieldset>
    </form>
</div>

Now to your main question. I would do it as follows:

I would use the id's of the different layout columns I want to use the form in. So if I use it in my main column () I would write CSS accordingly like so:

#main .pnlSubmitComments form fieldset {
    /*your CSS*/ 
}

and for the side column respectively

#side .pnlSubmitComments form fieldset {
    /*your CSS*/
}

You can have control over each element by assigning classes like so:

<input type="text" class="email" name="email" id="email" />

and then you do exactly as described above:

#main .email {
   /*your css for the .email textbox/*
}

tharkun 2009-02-04 06:50:48

ahh clever :-) the main reason for different widths is dependent on sidebar so that would work well. thanks for the fieldset tip. i need to watch out for using 'form' as a selector becasue i have multiple forms on the page.

Simon_Weaver 2009-02-04 07:03:52

ps. what is 'form small' for and how would you recommend styling the widths of specific textboxes differently. i'd prefer name to be narrower than email and have control over each

Simon_Weaver 2009-02-04 07:04:45

form small was superfluous, I deleted it now and added the answer to your second question.

tharkun 2009-02-04 07:12:48

Answer 3

+3 A:

You can easily do it with one css file, if you can add a style class on a container element.

For example, page 1 would have the following html:

<body class="page1">
  <!-- repeated html here -->
  <input />
</body>

And on page 2 you'd have:

<body class="page2">
  <!-- repeated html here -->
  <input />
</body>

In your single css file you can target the input tags based on the class of the body element:

body.page1 input { width: 25%; }
body.page2 input { width: 50%; }

So, you keep the html the same, just change the class (or id) of a container element, and use that to write different css rules.

Update: After rereading your list, i see this is more or less on your list as number 4. I think this is a good option if you can use it. I also use it to target different browsers, by adding a class indicating the browser on a body tag.

Andrej 2009-02-04 08:04:13

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Best strategy to style the same HTML when it appears on multiple pages

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