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RE: Formatting lists

for

From: Jukka Korpela
Date: Oct 23, 2002 11:37PM

Glenda Watson Hyatt wrote:

> I am working with ordered lists, and need to use parentheses
> around the numbers, ie (1)...(2)..., as used in legislation subsections.

In theory, you could use normal <ol> markup in HTML and counters and
generated content in CSS, as described in section 12 of the CSS2
specification:
http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-CSS2/generate.html

Example of a style sheet:

OL { counter-reset: item }
LI { display: block }
LI:before { content: "(" counter(item) ") ";
counter-increment: item }

But this is not a practical move at present. Browser support seems to be
limited to Opera. Non-CSS browsers naturally use their default presentation
for <ol>. The problems begin when browsers with _partial_ CSS support come
into the picture. For example, Netscape displays the list as completely
unnumbered and unbulleted.

> Or shall I stick to using paragraphs to maintain the
> punctuation? You know how gov't types are about that kind of stiff.

No, if it's logically a numbered list, use <ol> markup. This will help in
many situations where the visual presentation is irrelevant.

As a workaround, though, you might consider using <ul> markup with the
numbers as explicit content, and a CSS rule that suggests suppression of
bullets:
<style type="text/css">
ul li { list-style-type: none; }
</style>
...
<ul>
<li>(1) foo
<li>(2) bar
</ul>

--
Jukka Korpela, senior adviser
TIEKE Finnish Information Society Development Centre
http://www.tieke.fi/
Diffuse Business Guide to Web Accessibility and Design for All:
http://www.diffuse.org/accessibility.html


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