HTML Authoring Features
May 28, 1996
Summary of new authoring features
Frames and targeted windows
Floating frames
HTML style sheets and advanced layout
Enhanced tables
New image formats
After viewing these pages, you may want to review the full HTML specifications.
Summary of new authoring features
Internet Explorer 3.0 provides a number of powerful new authoring features, including:
- Frame support (including targeted windows and borderless frames)
- Floating frames
- HTML style sheets
- Ability to specify text point sizes, margins, indentation, and leading (intra-line spacing)
- Background images in table cells
- Enhanced HTML table features
- Support for .BMP and animated .GIF images
Each of these features is described below and accompanied by examples and step-by-step instructions on its use.
Please note:
You must have Internet Explorer 3.0 beta to see the examples below.
Make sure to
download a free copy.
Frames and targeted windows
Frames allow you to divide a Web page into separate regions that can display content independently. Internet Explorer allows frames to be borderless for a more seamless look.
A side benefit of frames is that clicking a link can now launch a new window. Pages with frames can easily be authored with alternate content for browsers that do not support frames.
Floating frames
Floating frames are a revolutionary new feature in Internet Explorer 3.0. Wherever you can put an image in a conventional browser, you can put an arbitrary box of HTML (with or without a scrollbar and a 3-D border) in Internet Explorer 3.0.
HTML style sheets and advanced layout
Style sheets are an extraordinarily powerful way to add layout and formatting information to Web pages. Through style sheets, many features long taken for granted by designers--specifying fonts in point sizes, margins, intra-line spacing--have finally come to the Web. Style sheet pages are downward compatible: A browser that cannot display the style sheet formatting will still show all of the content.
Enhanced tables
Internet Explorer 3.0 supports several enhanced table features from the RFC1942 proposal, including selectable rules and borders, row and column grouping, and aligning text in adjacent cells by baseline. It also supports the exclusive ability to place background images (even transparent ones) in individual table cells.
New image formats
Internet Explorer 3.0 can display animated .GIF images, which are rapidly becoming the standard way to add animation to Web pages. Also supported is .BMP, the standard Windows graphic format, so authors can now create Web graphics with Microsoft Paint.