margin-left property
Sets or retrieves the width of the left margin of the object.
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Syntax
margin-left:
<margin-width>
| inherit
Property values
- margin-width
-
Default. Left margin is set equal to the right margin.
inherit-
Integer, followed by a percent sign (%). The value is a percentage of the width of the parent object.
CSS information
| Applies To | All elements |
|---|---|
| Media | visual |
| Inherited | no |
| Initial Value | 0 |
Standards information
- CSS 2.1, Section 5.5.4
Remarks
You can specify possible length values relative to the height of the element's font (em) or the height of the letter "x" (ex).
In Microsoft Internet Explorer 3.0, the specified margin value is added to the default value of the object. In Microsoft Internet Explorer 4.0 and later, the margin value is absolute. The margin properties do not work with the td and tr objects in Internet Explorer 4.0, but they do work in Internet Explorer 3.0. To set margins in the cell for Internet Explorer 4.0 and later, apply the margin to an object, such as div or p, within the td.
This property applies to inline elements, starting with Microsoft Internet Explorer 5.5. With earlier versions of Windows Internet Explorer, inline elements must have an absolute position or layout to use this property. Element layout is set by providing a value for the height property or the width property.
Negative margins are supported, except for top and bottom margins on inline objects.
Examples
The following examples use the margin-left attribute and the marginLeft property to change the margin of the object.
This example uses the img object as a selector to set the left margin to 2 centimeters for all images.
Code example: http://samples.msdn.microsoft.com/workshop/samples/author/dhtml/refs/margin-left.htm
<STYLE>
IMG { margin-left:2cm }
</STYLE>
This example uses inline scripting to set the left margin of the image to 1 centimeter when an onclick event occurs.
Code example: http://samples.msdn.microsoft.com/workshop/samples/author/dhtml/refs/marginLeft.htm
<IMG src="sphere.jpg" onclick="this.style.marginLeft='1cm'">
See also
- CSSStyleDeclaration
- currentStyle
- defaults
- runtimeStyle
- style
- Conceptual
- CSS Values and Units Reference
- Other Resources
- CSS Enhancements in Internet Explorer 6
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Build date: 11/29/2012

