Style Form

by Ahmad Najiullah

HTML

<body onLoad=sf()>
    <form action="#" method="post" name="f"> 
        <p><b>Bold</b> fields are required. <u>U</u>nderlined letters are accesskeys.</p> 
        <fieldset> <legend>Personal Information</legend>  

      <div class="notes">
        <h4>Personal Information</h4>
        <p class="last" align="justify">Please enter your name and address as they are listed for your debit card, credit card, or bank account.</p>
       </div>            
            <label for="firstname" accesskey="f">First name: </label>        
            <input type="text" id="firstname" name="firstname" tabindex="1" value="" title="first name"><br>     
            <label for="lastname" accesskey="l">Last name: </label>         <input type="text" id="lastname" name="lastname" tabindex="2" title="last name"><br>     
            <label for="email" class="required" accesskey="e">Email: </label>  
            <input type="text" id="email" name="email" tabindex="3" title="email"><br>         
            <small>Your email address is safe with us, until we're acquired.</small> 
        </fieldset> 
        
        <fieldset> <legend>Comments</legend> 
            <label for="comments" accesskey="c">Comments: </label>
            <textarea name="comments" rows="3" cols="23" id="comments" tabindex="4" title="comments"></textarea><br> 
            <label for="kludge"></label>     
            <input type="submit" value="Send" id="submit" tabindex="5"> <INPUT type="reset" id="reset" tabindex="6"> 
        </fieldset> 
    </form>

CSS

form {  /* set width in form, not fieldset (still takes up more room w/ fieldset width */   
    font:100% verdana,arial,sans-serif;   
    margin: 0;   
    padding: 0;   
    min-width: 500px;   
    max-width: 600px;   
    width: 560px;  
}  

form fieldset {     
    border-color: #000;   
    border-width: 1px;   
    border-style: solid;   
    padding: 10px;        /* padding in fieldset support spotty in IE */
    margin: 0; }

form fieldset legend {     
    font-size:1.1em; /* bump up legend font size, not too large or it'll overwrite border on left */                        /* be careful with padding, it'll shift the nice offset on top of border  */
}  

form label {     
    display: block;  /* block float the labels to left column, set a width */     
    float: left;      
    width: 150px;      
    padding: 0;      
    margin: 5px 0 0; /* set top margin same as form input - textarea etc. elements */     
    text-align: right;  
}  

form fieldset label:first-letter { /* use first-letter pseudo-class to underline accesskey, note that */     
    text-decoration:underline;    /* Firefox 1.07 WIN and Explorer 5.2 Mac don't support first-letter */                                     /* pseudo-class on legend elements, but do support it on label elements */                                     /* we instead underline first letter on each label element and accesskey */                                     /* each input. doing only legends would  lessens cognitive load */                                    /* opera breaks after first letter underlined legends but not labels */ 
}  

form input, form textarea {     /* display: inline; inline display must not be set or will hide submit buttons in IE 5x mac */     
    width:auto;      /* set width of form elements to auto-size, otherwise watch for wrap on resize */     
    margin:5px 0 0 10px; /* set margin on left of form elements rather than right of                               label aligns textarea...

JavaScript

function sf(){document.f.firstname.focus();}