The Ordered List element is used to present a numbered list of items, sorted by sequence or order of importance and is typically rendered as a numbered list, but this is as the discretion of individual browsers. (NOTE : The list elements are not sorted by the browser when displaying the list. This sorting should be done manually when adding the HTML elements to the desired list text.) Ordered lists can be nested.
An ordered list must begin with the <OL> element which is immediately followed by a <LI> (list item) element:
E.g. :
<OL>
<LI>Click on the desired file to download.
<LI>In the presented dialog box, enter a name to save the file with.
<LI>Click 'OK' to download the file to your local drive.
</OL>
Would render as:
The Ordered List element can take the COMPACT attribute, which suggests that a compact rendering be used.
As mentioned above, the average ordered list counts 1, 2, 3, ... etc. The TYPE attribute allows authors to specify whether the list items should be marked with:
(TYPE=A) - capital letters. e.g. A, B, C ...
(TYPE=a) - small letters. e.g. a, b, c ...
(TYPE=I) - large roman numerals. e.g. I, II, III ...
(TYPE=i) - small roman numerals. e.g. i, ii, iii ...
(TYPE=1) - or the default numbers. e.g. 1, 2, 3 ...
For lists that wish to start at values other than 1 the new attribute START is available.
START is always specified in the default numbers, and will be converted based on TYPE before display. Thus START=5 would display either an 'E', 'e', 'V', 'v', or '5' based on the TYPE attribute.
E.g., changing the above example to :
<OL TYPE=a START=3>
<LI>Click on the desired file to download.
<LI>In the presented dialog box, enter a name to save the file with.
<LI>Click 'OK' to download the file to your local drive.
</OL>
would present the list as using lower case letters, starting at 'c'.
To give even more flexibility to lists, the TYPE attribute can be used with the <LI> element. It takes the same values as <OL> and it changes the list type for that item, and all subsequent items. For ordered lists the VALUE attribute is also allowed, which can be used to set the count, for that list item and all subsequent items.
NOTE : The TYPE attribute used in the <OL> Element and the <LI> Element and the START attribute in the <OL> Element are supported only by Netscape and the Internet Explorer.
TITLE="informational ToolTip"
The Internet Explorer 4.0 (and above) specific TITLE attribute is used for informational purposes. If present, the value of the TITLE attribute is presented as a ToolTip when the users mouse hovers over the <OL> section. Note that <LI> element also support use of the TITLE attribute. The ToolTip presented to the user will be that set in the <OL> element, if no <LI> element has a TITLE attribute.
LANG="language setting"
The LANG attribute can be used to specify what language the <OL> (or <LI>) element is using. It accepts any valid ISO standard language abbreviation (for example "en" for English, "de" for German etc.) For more details, see the Document Localisation section for more details.
LANGUAGE="Scripting language"
The LANGUAGE attribute can be used to expressly specify which scripting language Internet Explorer 4.0 uses to interpret any scripting information used in the <OL> (or <LI>) element. It can accept values of vbscript, vbs, javascript or jscript. The first two specify the scripting language as Visual Basic Script, the latter two specify it as using Javascript (the default scripting language used if no LANGUAGE attribute is set.
CLASS="Style Sheet class name"
The CLASS attribute is used to specify the <OL> (or <LI>) element as using a particular style sheet class. See the Style Sheets topic for details.
STYLE="In line style setting"
As well as using previously defined style sheet settings, the <OL> (or <LI>) element can have in-line stylings attached to it. See the Style Sheets topic for details.
ID="Unique element identifier"
The ID attribute can be used to either reference a unique style sheet identifier, or to provide a unique name for the <OL> (or <LI>) element for scripting purposes. Any <OL> (or <LI>) element with an ID attribute can be directly manipulated in script by referencing its ID attribute, rather than working through the All collection to determine the element. See the Scripting introduction topic for more information.
Every <OL> (or <LI>) element in a document is an object that can be manipulated through scripting. Note that scripting of the <OL> and/or <LI> elements/objects is only supported by Internet Explorer 4.0 in its Dynamic HTML object model. Netscape does not support direct scripting of the <OL> or <LI> elements at all.
<OL...> and <LI> Properties
The <OL...> elements support all of the standard Dynamic HTML properties (i.e. className, document, id, innerHTML, innerText, isTextEdit, lang, language, offsetHeight, offsetLeft, offsetParent, offsetTop, offsetWidth, outerHTML, outerText, parentElement, parentTextEdit, sourceIndex, style, tagName and title). Details of these can be found in the standard Dynamic HTML properties topics.
The <OL> element also supports the start and type properties, which reflect any settings of the START and TYPE attributes (see above). When used in an <OL> list, the <LI> element also supports the type and value properties, which reflect their attribute settings (see above).
<OL...> and <LI> Methods
The <OL...> elements support all of the standard Dynamic HTML methods (i.e. click, contains, getAttribute, insertAdjacentHTML, insertAdjacentText, removeAttribute, scrollIntoView and setAttribute). Details of these can be found in the standard Dynamic HTML Methods topics.
<OL...> and <LI> Events
The <OL...> elements support all of the standard Dynamic HTML events (i.e. onclick, ondblclick, ondragstart, onfilterchange, onhelp, onkeydown, onkeypress, onkeyup, onmousedown, onmousemove, onmouseout, onmouseover, onmouseup and onselectstart). Details of these can be found in the standard Dynamic HTML events topics.
© 1995-1998, Stephen Le Hunte
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