Equivalent of div display inline-block for IE8, IE7 and older browsers

Question

This is a fairly generic question about cross-browser compatibility.

At various points in a design I'm currenly working on the only way to achieve the layout and style that I want (without resorting to using images) is to use the display:inline-block css style option. However, this is not supported by IE8 and other older browsers and this results in my design beign broken.

So there are two parts to my question 1 - Is there a method of achieving a similar or equivalent effect for IE8? 2 - If not, how best can I make my design degrade smoothly?

For your reference, here's an example of where this is being used in my design.

<div style="width:20px; height:20px; display:inline-block; background-color:rgb(200,120,120); margin-right:10px;"></div>Direct

It is a 20x20 pixel colour block to explain the colours in a chart.

More generally this issue arises whenever I want greater formatting & layout control over a particular bit of text etc within a body of text.

In the design I'm currently working on I'll be dropping support for the older browser types anyway since it's heavily reliant on the canvas element. However, I thought this would be a good question to ask as I've come across the problem several times before.

Thanks

Solution 1

Here is a good resource that covers this topic: http://foohack.com/2007/11/cross-browser-support-for-inline-block-styling/

Basically IE has a trigger called "hasLayout". Triggering this will allow you to use display:inline-block on a block level element (by default IE only allows inline-block on native inline elements).

Additionally older version of Fire Fox didn't support inline-block either, but had an "inline-stack" value (moz-inline-stack).

Here is, to my knowledge, the best way to get a cross-browser display:inline-block:

display:-moz-inline-stack;
display:inline-block;
zoom:1;
*display:inline;

Solution 2

As given here:

IE supports inline-block, but only for elements that are natively inline. So, if you really want to use inline-block, you’re restricted to spans and strongs and ems...

Yes, it is not logical, because normally it doesn't matter if you use div or span... but remember - this is IE :)

So just change <div> to <span> and that's it!

Comments

[BoltClock]

IE8 does support display: inline-block.

[Tomas]

@BoltClock, exactly, for inline elements, see my answer.

[BoltClock]

@Tomas: I don't see how any of this is "controversial" - it's a very well-known and undisputed fact that IE8 supports display: inline-block fully. The other answer is the result of an unfortunate source of confusion and not actually an issue with IE8 - I've already commented there. As for sources, I'll simply point you to MSDN - msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/hh781508.aspx#positioning

[Tomas]

@BoltClock, I repeat once more, that inline-block doesn't work for all versions of IE8. Did you read the post I linked above?

[Tomas]

@BoltClock, nope. Maybe for some IE8 versions and some DOCTYPEs, but in general no. Look here. Why would all these people look for solutions if it worked? :) Also, look at the article I cite in my answer. And please support your claims by linking appropriate resources.

[Admin]

That's fantastic. It was the hasLayout trigger that was missing in my code. Thanks very much.

[Joel Kinzel]

No problem. hasLayout has gotten me more times than I can count.

[Tomas]

Link only answer is never a good answer - see meta.stackexchange.com/q/8231/166308. Put the key information here.

[Joel Kinzel]

@Tomas, I've added some example code and some additional info.

[Tomas]

OK, that's much better! :-) That would make it more general than my answer, where I recommend to resort to using <span>. But what exactly in your code above triggers the IE's hasLayout?

[Joel Kinzel]

zoom:1 will trigger it for IE6/7. Anything other than zoom:normal should as well. There are other ways to trigger it as well, but zoom:1 is the most common that I've seen. Here is more info on the hasLayout trigger/property in IE: satzansatz.de/cssd/onhavinglayout.html

[Ricky Jiao]

It seems IE8 doesn't support star(*) hack.

[Joel Kinzel]

@RickyJiao, IE8 doesn't need the star hack. It supports inline-block. See: caniuse.com/#feat=inline-block