Home Library Learn Samples Downloads Support Community Forums
5 out of 8 rated this helpful - Rate this topic

visibility Attribute | visibility Property

Gets or sets whether the content of the object is displayed.

Syntax

CSS { visibility : sVisibility }
Scripting [ sVisibility = ] object.style.visibility

Possible Values

sVisibility String that specifies or receives one of the following values.
inherit
Default. Object inherits the visibility of the next parent object.
visible
Object is visible.
hidden
Object is hidden.
collapse
Windows Internet Explorer 8. Used in tables to remove rows and columns; for all other elements, same as hidden.

The property is read/write for all objects except the following, for which it is read-only: currentStyle. The property has a default value of inherit. The Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) attribute is not inherited.

DHTML expressions can be used in place of the preceding value(s). As of Internet Explorer 8, expressions are supported in IE7 Standards mode and IE5 (Quirks) mode only. For more information, see About Dynamic Properties and Defining Document Compatibility.

Remarks

Unlike display:none, objects that are not visible still reserve the same physical space in the content layout as they would if they were visible. You can change the visibility through scripting to show and hide overlapping content based on user interaction. For document style scripting information, see Introduction to Dynamic Styles.

As of Microsoft Internet Explorer 5, a child object can be visible when its parent is hidden. With Internet Explorer 4.0, the parent object must be visible for a child object to be visible.

Examples

The following examples use the visibility attribute and the visibility property to determine whether the object is visible.

This example uses two calls to an embedded (global) style sheet to hide and then show the image when the user moves the mouse over and off the text.

Copy 

<head>
<style>
.vis1 {
    visibility: visible;
}
.vis2 {
    visibility: hidden;
}
</style>
</head>

<body>

<img id="oSphere" src="sphere.jpg" alt="sphere">
<p onmouseover="oSphere.className='vis2'" 
    onmouseout="oSphere.className='vis1'">
Mouseover this text to make the sphere disappear.</p>

</body>

Code example: http://samples.msdn.microsoft.com/workshop/samples/author/dhtml/refs/visibility_h.htm

This example uses a call to a function to hide the image.

Copy 

<head>
<script type="text/javascript">
function disappear()
{
    oSphere.style.visibility="hidden"; 
    }
function reappear()
{
    oSphere.style.visibility="visible"; 
    }
</script>
</head>

<body>

<img src="sphere.jpeg" id="oSphere">
<p id="oTxt" onmouseover="disappear()" onmouseout="reappear()">Move the mouse 
over this text to make the sphere disappear.</p>

</body>

Code example: http://samples.msdn.microsoft.com/workshop/samples/author/dhtml/refs/visibility_s.htm

Standards Information

This property is defined in Cascading Style Sheets (CSS), Level 2 (CSS2).

Applies To

A, ADDRESS, APPLET, B, BIG, BLOCKQUOTE, BODY, BUTTON, CAPTION, CENTER, CITE, CODE, COL, COLGROUP, CSSStyleDeclaration, currentStyle, CUSTOM, DD, defaults, DFN, DIR, DIV, DL, DT, EM, EMBED, FIELDSET, FORM, hn, HR, HTML, I, IFRAME, IMG, INPUT type=button, INPUT type=checkbox, INPUT type=file, INPUT type=image, INPUT type=password, INPUT type=radio, INPUT type=reset, INPUT type=submit, INPUT type=text, ISINDEX, KBD, LABEL, LEGEND, LI, LISTING, MARQUEE, MENU, NOBR, OBJECT, OL, P, PRE, runtimeStyle, S, SAMP, SELECT, SMALL, SPAN, STRIKE, STRONG, style, SUB, SUP, TABLE, TBODY, TD, TEXTAREA, TFOOT, TH, THEAD, TR, TT, U, UL, VAR, XMP, CSSCurrentStyleDeclaration Constructor, CSSRuleStyleDeclaration Constructor, CSSStyleDeclaration Constructor
Did you find this helpful?
(1500 characters remaining)

Community Additions

© 2013 Microsoft. All rights reserved.