Question

Emulating start attribute of <ol> in XHTML

Asked by: madscientist

Hello,

how do I emulate the start attribute of <ol> in XHTML? I have an ordered list with some list items, but I need to close the ordered list, put in a header and some other content, then have another ordered list numbered where the first left off. I've read something about CSS counters, but I've never used them before and I don't know how widely supported they are.


<ol id="section1">
    <li>First Item</li>
    <li>Second Item</li>
    <li>Third Item</li>
    <li>Fourth Item</li>
</ol>

<h2>Header</h2>

<ol id="section2>
    <li>Fifth Item</li>
    <li>Sixth Item</li>
</ol>


Many Thanks, Adam.

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Asked On
2007-01-12 at 04:47:44ID22120377
Tags

start

,

ol

,

xhtml

,

attribute

Topics

Hypertext Markup Language (HTML)

,

Macromedia Homesite

,

Extensible HTML (XHTML)

Participating Experts
2
Points
50
Comments
7

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Answers

 

by: GrandSchtroumpfPosted on 2007-01-12 at 05:08:17ID: 18300861

Counters are not supported in IE6.

 

by: madscientistPosted on 2007-01-12 at 05:25:41ID: 18300958

OK. Is there any other way to do this then.....

 

by: GrandSchtroumpfPosted on 2007-01-12 at 06:04:34ID: 18301286

Why don't you use the "start" html attribute?

Because your html needs to validate the strict doctype?
Because you don't have a way to determine the value of the start?

 

by: madscientistPosted on 2007-01-12 at 07:24:01ID: 18301993

Well I would like to have it as XHTML1.0 Strict or XHTML1.1......... but if theres no other way then I'll have to just grin and bear it. I just can't believe that there is no longer a standards-compliant method of doing this which is cross-browser compatible.

 

by: GrandSchtroumpfPosted on 2007-01-12 at 15:25:16ID: 18305934

XHTML1.1 does not work in IE6 anyway since it cannot be served as text/html.
XHTML1.0 can be served as text/html but that's considered harmful.
Use an HTML doctype when you serve your pages as text/html, that's consistant.

Your issue is not so much HTML versus XHTML.  It's about Strict versus Transitional.
The "start" attribute is deprecated but it will validate as Transitional (both HTML and XHTML).
Transitional is not less standard than Strict, it's just a different standard.
Strict is preferred but sometimes Transitional is needed for some browsers.
The most important thing is for your document to validate the doctype you are using.

CSS counters is a valid Strict alternative... theoretically.
It works fine in Opera and Konqueror.  I suppose it also works fine in Safari.
IE6 does not even support the ":before" pseudo-element.
In my Firefox, it does not work on lists.  For some strange reason the counter goes back to 1 in the second list.  However, it works fine on <P> elements.


Here is the code i used:

<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/html4/strict.dtd">
<html>
<head>
<title>test</title>
<style type="text/css">


body {
  background: #ddd;
  color: #000;
}


li:before {
  content: counter(itemcounter) ". ";
}
li {
  counter-increment: itemcounter;
  list-style: none;
}


p:before {
  content: counter(pcounter) ". ";
}
p {
  counter-increment: pcounter;
}


</style>
</head>
<body>


<ol id="section1">
    <li>First Item</li>
    <li>Second Item</li>
    <li>Third Item</li>
    <li>Fourth Item</li>
</ol>

<h2>Header</h2>

<ol id="section2" start="5">
    <li>Fifth Item</li>
    <li>Sixth Item</li>
</ol>


<p>First Item</p>
<p>Second Item</p>
<p>Third Item</p>
<p>Fourth Item</p>

<h2>Header</h2>

<p>Fifth Item</p>
<p>Sixth Item</p>


</body>
</html>

 

by: mplungjanPosted on 2007-01-13 at 06:16:22ID: 18307901

Hmmm

In firefox 2.0.0.1 I get on SCREEN


   1. First Item
   2. Second Item
   3. Third Item
   4. Fourth Item

Header

   1. Fifth Item
   2. Sixth Item

3. First Item

4. Second Item

5. Third Item

6. Fourth Item
Header

7. Fifth Item

8. Sixth Item


but when I cut and paste I get


   1. First Item
   2. Second Item
   3. Third Item
   4. Fourth Item

Header

   5. Fifth Item
   6. Sixth Item

First Item

Second Item

Third Item

Fourth Item
Header

Fifth Item

Sixth Item

 

by: GrandSchtroumpfPosted on 2007-01-13 at 07:44:26ID: 18308220

> but when I cut and paste I get
Interesting, thanks for the info.

In Firefox 2.0.0.1 on linux, i get the same thing when doing a cut and paste...  strange indeed.
But on screen, the paragraph counter starts at 1, not at 3.

20120131-EE-VQP-002

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