Matt Heerema

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Getting Fieldset Backgrounds and Legends to Behave in IE

by 161 Comments

I’m sure someone has posted on this issue before I just haven’t found an answer I’m looking for. Jeff Croft has a close answer, but he is trying to solve a different problem. I built off of his exploration for this solution.

The “problem” occurs when you are building a form with a fieldset tag and a legend tag, and then style the fieldset with a background color like so:

HTML

    

     User Information 
    
    
    

CSS

    fieldset{
    background: #ccc;
    }

Proper rendering (in every browser but IE is close to this: (this specific screenshot is from Firefox)

Correct Rendering of Form

IE does something a little different: it causes the background color to be applied to the legend as well, mysteriously causing the background color to “spill” out of the fieldset.

Default Rendering in IE

The solution is to dissociate the legend tag from the normal flow of the document. That is, absolutely position it. Here’s how: (Since IE is the only browser that needs help with this, we are going to use the Holly Hack, so it only applies to IE)

1. Give the fieldset a position: relative; to make sure we are positioning the legend tag relative to the fieldset.

    * html fieldset{
    position: relative;
    }

2. Give the legend a position: absolute; to break it out of the normal flow of the fieldset. This will position the top left corner of the legend with the top left corner of the fieldset, so we need to bump it up half a character and to the right half a character. Like so:

    * html legend{
    position:absolute;
    top: -.5em;
    left: .5em;
    }

3. Now we’re almost there. By way of a little cleanup, we are going to apply some top padding to the fieldset and a top margin to the fieldset in order to make space for the label tag which is just floating on top of everything.

    * html fieldset{
    position: relative;
    margin-top:1em;
    padding-top:.75em;
    }

4. Voila! You have a form with a fieldset and a legend that looks nearly identical in all browsers.

Fixed form in IE

See an example here.

Comments

  1. Hey Matt,

    Thanks! I have had that problem with a few projects, but didn't know how to solve it so invariably I would have to scrap using a background colour. Now at least I know how to get it to work right.

    Reply

  3. Hi, thanks for the great fix!!! I was wondering if you could give some additional advice. I'm nesting Fieldset and Legend and when I do so the Fieldset text overlaps when I implement this fix unless I do a line break in the XHTML. It's probably a simple margin fix, but I can't seem to figure it out. I don't want to use the because it creates too much room in FIrefox/Mozilla, etc.

    I've published a couple screens to show you what I'm running into. http://www.wvdhhr.org/bcf/temp_ieBugonFieldset.ht…

    Thanks again for the tip and for any advice you may give.

    Reply

  4. Another fix for this problem is to have a background image for the fieldset, 1 pixel wide and much taller than the fieldset will be. Does mean you have to change the image to change the colour though…

    Something along the lines of:

    • html fieldset {

      background: url(/img/backgrounds/fieldset.gif) repeat-x top;

    }

    fieldset

    {

    background: url(/img/backgrounds/fieldset.gif) repeat-x bottom;

margin-bottom: 2em;

border: #000066 solid 1px;

padding: 1em;

padding-top: 0.4em;

    }

    Reply

  6. Actually the method does work in IE7. The Holly Hack however doesn't. The method works fine if you put the above in a seperate stylesheet and load it with a conditional comment.

    Reply

  7. Thanks, Gordon, for pointing that out. I have not had much time to play with IE7. Should probably get on that.

    Reply

  9. Oh dear.

    So, my ignorance is showing. Isn't it "víola", a french word pronounced "Walla!"?

    Or am I way off.

    Reply

  12. OK. Solution is great but I have to insert 3 fieldsets one under one and now I have big trouble how to apply more or less the same margin between fieldsets in IE and Firefox.

    Ane ideas?

    Thanks.

    Reply

  14. I think that this answers my prayers – but, after playing around, I think it is missing something!!

    What I want/need is a box around the 'tab heading'. And for the whole of this new box to have a coloured background (like the 'main' box.

    Anyone know the cure?

    Please!!!

    Reply

  15. Thanks, I've been looking for something like this for years!

    One thing, I noticed the background still sticks out the top a bit. You can fix that by doing "legend { margin-top: -[width of fieldset border] }"

    Reply

  16. fieldset the same in FireFox IE7 Opera

    This code is use in PHP but you can do the same in javascript :p

    <code>

    fieldset {

    position: relative;

    border: 1px solid #090;

margin: none;

padding: 0px 10px 10px;

background: #eee;

-moz-border-radius: 10px;

    }

    legend {

    top: -0.5em;

margin-left: 10px;

padding: 0px 10px;

background: #9cf;

font-weight : bold;

    border: 1px solid #090;

    -moz-border-radius: 10px;

    }

    </code>

    Reply

  17. the website clean my php code …

    fieldset the same in FireFox IE7 Opera

    This code is use in PHP but you can do the same in javascript :p

    <code>

    fieldset {

    position: relative;

    border: 1px solid #090;

margin: none;

padding: 0px 10px 10px;

background: #eee;

-moz-border-radius: 10px;

    }

    legend {

    top: -0.5em;

margin-left: 10px;

padding: 0px 10px;

background: #9cf;

font-weight : bold;

    border: 1px solid #090;

    -moz-border-radius: 10px;

    }

    </code>

    Reply

  18. fieldset the same in FireFox IE7 Opera

    This code is use in PHP but you can do the same in javascript :p

    <code>

    fieldset {

    position: relative;

    border: 1px solid #090;

margin: none;

padding: 0px 10px 10px;

background: #eee;

-moz-border-radius: 10px;

    }

    legend {

    (?php if( !eregi( 'opera', $_SERVER[ 'HTTP_USER_AGENT' ])) echo 'position: relative;'; ?)

    top: -0.5em;

margin-left: 10px;

padding: 0px 10px;

background: #9cf;

font-weight : bold;

    border: 1px solid #090;

    -moz-border-radius: 10px;

    }

    </code>

    Reply

  19. For the person asking about multiple fields. I ran into the same trouble. Messing with the margins wasn't getting me anywhere. I noticed someone said a br tag worked, but created too much space in FF/Opera. Well, if you use conditional comments it works beautifully.

    Hopefully this comes through correctly (remove the spaces).

    Reply

  21. I got it to work in IE7 by adding a margin-top:-5px; on the legend.

    My stylesheet now looks like this.

    fieldset {

    position: relative;

    border: 1px solid #fff;

    padding: 0px 10px 10px;

    background: url(../images/semi.png);

    width:870px;

    margin: 20px auto;

    }

    legend{

    margin-top:-5px;

    top: -0.5em;

    margin-left: 10px;

    padding: 0px 10px;

    background: #000;

    font-weight : bold;

    border: 1px solid #fff;

    -moz-border-radius: 10px;

    }

    Works like a charm in FF and IE7.

    Reply

  22. this method seems to work in ff2 and ie7, although problems do occur if the user resizes the window.

    form fieldset legend {

    background-color: #820027;

    padding: 8px;

    color:#FFFFFF;

    position: relative;

    top: -20px;

    display: block;

    margin-left: 0px;

    margin-right: -8px;

    margin-top: 5px;

    }

    form fieldset {

    border: 1px solid #820027;

background-color: #EFECE2;

    }

    Reply

  24. I got it to work in both IE 6 and 7. Problem remains, that IE shows the legend text in blue color, even though I have

    legend {

    color: #666;

    }

    in my css.

    Any ideas?

    P.S.:

    fieldset {

    color: #666;

    }

    and

    body {

    color: #666;

    }

    are also set.

    Reply

  26. Thanks for a brilliant solution. Me too found that this method applied "as it is" doesn't bring the desired result in IE7. However there seem to be another way around the problem – to put the above css rules (by Matt Heerema)into an IE condition comment.

    <!–[if IE]>–>

    fieldset { position:relative }

    legend {

    position:relative;

    top:-0.7em; margin-bottom:-0.7em;

    }

    Usually I have such CSS pocket to store all the IE specific hacks in one place. Why not to drop there the discussed rules?

    Reply

  28. My sorry to a moderator, just want to share a bit of wisdom. Please fit it somehow into the comments if think it is useful.

    The rules can be placed inside if IE condition statement.

    Reply

  30. Thanks for the fix, came straight from google and was happy to find simple well formed code with clear instructions. Perfect!

    Reply

  31. Buahs

    thank u very much for this post, i'm trying aaaaall the css things to change the color legend in IE,

    f….. IE!!! i hate it!

    greetingss

    Reply

  32. Found one problem with this method. In Safari, it draws the border all the way around the fieldset. Legend text is placed above the border, but still a bit of a problem.

    Reply

  35. This is an awesome hack but as ever, IE manages to mess it up however hard you try: I have a fieldset with a semi-transparent PNG background. so:

    <code>.my_fieldset {

    background:transparent;

    filter:progid:DXImageTransform.Microsoft.AlphaImageLoader(enabled=true, sizingMethod=scale src='images/bg/1px_gray_20pc.png');

    }</code>

    With this kind of CSS PNG background, IE decides to crop the legend at the top of the fieldset. If you change the background to a normal background:#f00; type declaration, the legend displays as normal.

    Reply

  37. Regarding the comment by Giles, this problem also occurs when using a transparent PNG sans the MS filter hack. So, even if you support IE 7 only, you are screwed by IE once again.

    That said, I cannot get any of the posted methods to work in IE 6 or 7. I still get a few pixels of bleed out the top. I stripped the styles down to nothing first to be sure the css applied to real browsers in my first style sheet were not causing issue. I'm glad others have had success, but I can no longer waste time on IE and have decided to display it plain and ugly. Sad, because that's what most users of my app use( corporate customers ). They'll never see the great design I had…

    Reply

  98. Damn! I was having yhe very same problem! Good I quickly found this page. Thank you!

    IE sucks, and it ever will.

    Reply

  99. Damn! I was having yhe very same problem! Good I quickly found this page. Thank you!

    IE sucks, and it ever will.

    Reply

  100. Damn! I was having yhe very same problem! Good I quickly found this page. Thank you!

    IE sucks, and it ever will.

    Reply

  101. Damn! I was having yhe very same problem! Good I quickly found this page. Thank you!

    IE sucks, and it ever will.

    Reply

  102. Damn! I was having yhe very same problem! Good I quickly found this page. Thank you!

    IE sucks, and it ever will.

    Reply

  103. Damn! I was having yhe very same problem! Good I quickly found this page. Thank you!

    IE sucks, and it ever will.

    Reply

  104. Damn! I was having yhe very same problem! Good I quickly found this page. Thank you!

    IE sucks, and it ever will.

    Reply

  105. Damn! I was having yhe very same problem! Good I quickly found this page. Thank you!

    IE sucks, and it ever will.

    Reply

  106. Damn! I was having yhe very same problem! Good I quickly found this page. Thank you!

    IE sucks, and it ever will.

    Reply

  107. Damn! I was having yhe very same problem! Good I quickly found this page. Thank you!

    IE sucks, and it ever will.

    Reply

  108. Damn! I was having yhe very same problem! Good I quickly found this page. Thank you!

    IE sucks, and it ever will.

    Reply

  109. Damn! I was having yhe very same problem! Good I quickly found this page. Thank you!

    IE sucks, and it ever will.

    Reply

  110. Damn! I was having yhe very same problem! Good I quickly found this page. Thank you!

    IE sucks, and it ever will.

    Reply

  124. Have to agree, IE always causes pain at the wrong times!!! It’s better than it used to be though to be fair!

    Cheers, John

    Reply

  129. The fundemental problem with fieldset legends is that they can’t be rendered using CSS to style them.

    The way legends appear for fieldsets requires displaying partial transparencies just not supported by any CSS standard (they have to be transparent, but not to borders).

    Thus each browser manufacturer has created their own solution to how to display fieldsets with legends.

    The method here generally works but fails when certain borders are specified because IE still leaks a borders width above the top border.

    The way to fix that problem is to not give the fieldset a top border and use a x repeating background image in it’s stead.

    Reply

    • Thanks a lot for both tricks!
      As mentionned by Fentex, after have applied the first trick, another problem was still there : the top-border of the fieldset that overflows to the right.
      I simply deleted the top border and thanks to the background applied to my fieldset i don’t need to add any other trick!!
      This is just perfect!
      Thanks so much x)

      Reply

  131. Finally a solution!! Thanks!

    Reply

Trackbacks

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  9. […] Zitat von Despairing 2. In meinem Gästebuch wird im Internet Explorer-Browser jedes Fieldset fehlerhaft dargestellt. Die Hintergrundfarbe des Fieldsets wird ein paar Pixel über der Fieldsetbox dargestellt, was nicht so sein sollte. Wie kann ich das unterbinden? Hatte ich letzhin gerade auch. Lösung siehe Getting Fieldset Backgrounds and Legends to Behave in IE – Matt Heerema : Web Design __________________ The only thing to do with good advice is pass it on. It is never any use to oneself. – Oscar Wilde – #me { position: absolute; } […]

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