HTML 4.01 in Netscape and Explorer: Style Sheets

Style Sheets
Make it look even nicer

For the most part Netscape and Explorer support stylesheets, although Explorer may require using hacks in some instances. A discussion of stylesheets is beyond the scope of this document, as it is beyond the scope of the HTML 4.01 specification, but we will briefly discuss the HTML side of stylesheets.

Specifying the default style sheet language

While neither Netscape nor Explorer support the meta element syntax to define the default stylesheet language, it doesn't cause problems with either browser. The default style sheet language for both browsers is CSS. If you are using inline styles instead of an imported style sheet, then you should use the meta tag. If you are importing the style sheet, the link attribute has a type attribute for declaring content-types.

The Style element

Netscape and Explorer both support the style element as well as the media attribute, with the exception of the projection mode, which neither browser supports. Both browsers support the hiding of inline stylesheets using SGML comments, though this is mostly unnecessary if you make sure that the stylesheet is clearly marked as part of the head element, since most browsers will not render anything in the head element.

External Stylesheets

For a discussion on the use of the link element to link external stylesheet, look under the description of the link element in the section on links. Neither Netscape nor Explorer support the designation of preferred and alternate stylesheets based on the presence or absence of a title attribute to the link element and the use of the meta element.