CSS Border Styling for Select Elements in IE6/IE7
Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) is a powerful tool for web designers to add style and design to their websites. However, one of the biggest challenges for designers is creating a consistent look across different browsers, especially when it comes to older versions of Internet Explorer (IE). In this article, we will explore the techniques for styling select elements in IE6 and IE7 using CSS borders.
Select elements, also known as drop-down menus, are commonly used in forms and navigation menus on websites. These elements allow users to select an option from a list of choices. By default, select elements have a plain and simple appearance, making them a bit dull and unattractive. With CSS, we can add borders to these elements to make them more visually appealing.
Before we dive into the specifics of styling select elements in IE6 and IE7, it is important to note that these versions of IE do not fully support CSS3, which includes more advanced border properties. Therefore, we will be using CSS2 properties to achieve our desired border styles.
Setting the Basic Border Style
To start, let's create a select element with some options in our HTML code:
<select name="cars">
<option value="volvo">Volvo</option>
<option value="saab">Saab</option>
<option value="mercedes">Mercedes</option>
<option value="audi">Audi</option>
</select>
Next, we will add some CSS code to style the select element:
select {
border: 1px solid #ccc;
padding: 5px;
width: 200px;
}
This code will give our select element a basic border of 1px solid #ccc, a padding of 5px, and a width of 200px. This will create a simple, gray-bordered select element.
Adding Rounded Corners
To add rounded corners to our select element, we can use the border-radius property. However, this property is not supported in IE6 and IE7. To work around this, we can use a CSS hack that targets these specific browsers. Here's how we can achieve the same result:
select {
border: 1px solid #ccc;
padding: 5px;
width: 200px;
*border-radius: 5px; /*For IE7*/
_border-radius: 5px; /*For IE6*/
}
The * and _ characters before the border-radius property will target IE7 and IE6 respectively, giving us the same rounded corners effect in these browsers.
Creating a Custom Border Style
We can also create a custom border style for our select element by using the border-style and border-color properties. For example, we can give our select element a dashed border with a red color by using the following code:
select {
border: 1px dashed red;
padding: 5px;
width: 200px;
}
This will give our select element a dashed, red border. However, this style may not be supported in IE6 and IE7. To make it work in these browsers, we can use another CSS hack:
