NOTE : The <LISTING> element was designated as obsolete in recent drafts of the HTML 4.0 specification, which makes it likely that browsers will stop supporting it. While it's supported in Internet Explorer 3.02 (and preview versions of 4.0) and versions of Netscape up to 4.01, it is recommended that for new documents, <PRE> is used instead.

The <LISTING> element can be used to presents blocks of text in fixed-width font, and so is suitable for text that has been formatted on screen. As such, it is similar to the <PRE> and <XMP> elements, but has a different syntax.

Typically, it will render as fixed width font with white space separating it from other text. It should be rendered such that 132 characters fit on the line.

For example :

Some might say <LISTING> that two heads </LISTING> are better than one

Would render as:

Some might saythat two headsare better than one

NOTE : Netscape and Internet Explorer 4.0 will translate any special characters included within <LISTING> elements. I.e. if characters such as &lt;, &gt; etc. are used, they will be translated to < and >. Mosaic and Internet Explorer 3.0x treat the text contained within the elements literally.

Internet Explorer (4.0 and above) also support the use of the TITLE attribute. This can be used for informational purposes, with Internet Explorer treating the value of the TITLE attribute as a 'ToolTip' which is displayed when the reader passes their mouse over the contents of the <LISTING> element. For example, adding:

. . .TITLE="An anonymous quote"

would display the ToolTip ("An anonymous quote") when the mouse pauses on the text.

LANG="language setting"
The LANG attribute can be used to specify what language the <LISTING> element is using. It accepts any valid ISO standard language abbreviation (for example "en" for English, "de" for German etc.) For more details, see the Document Localisation section for more details.

LANGUAGE="Scripting language"
The LANGUAGE attribute can be used to expressly specify which scripting language Internet Explorer 4.0 uses to interpret any scripting information used in the <LISTING> element. It can accept values of vbscript, vbs, javascript or jscript. The first two specify the scripting language as Visual Basic Script, the latter two specify it as using Javascript (the default scripting language used if no LANGUAGE attribute is set.

CLASS="Style Sheet class name"
The CLASS attribute is used to specify the <CENTER> as using a particular style sheet class. For example, a style sheet class defined as:

<STYLE TYPE="text/css">
.BigText {font-size : 14pt}
</STYLE>

could then be referenced as:

<LISTING CLASS="BigText">that two heads</LISTING>

and would be displayed in a slightly larger font. See the Style Sheets overview for more information and style sheet settings.

STYLE="In line style setting"
As well as using previously defined style sheet settings, the <LISTING> element can have in-line stylings attached to it. For example:

<LISTING STYLE="{font-size : 14pt}">that two heads</LISTING>

would display exactly as the above example. See the Style Sheets section for more details about style sheet settings.

ID="Unique element identifier"
The ID attribute can be used to either reference a unique style sheet identifier, or to provide a unique name for the <LISTING> element for scripting purposes. Any <LISTING> element with an ID attribute can be directly manipulated in script by referencing its ID attribute, rather than working through the All collection to determine the element. See the Scripting introduction topic for more information.

Every <LISTING> element in a document is an object that can be manipulated through scripting. Note that scripting of the <LISTING> element/object is only supported by Internet Explorer 4.0 in its Dynamic HTML object model. Netscape does not support direct scripting of the <LISTING> element at all.

<LISTING...> Properties
The <LISTING...> element/object supports all of the standard Dynamic HTML properties (i.e. className, document, id, innerHTML, innerText, isTextEdit, lang, language, offsetHeight, offsetLeft, offsetParent, offsetTop, offsetWidth, outerHTML, outerText, parentElement, parentTextEdit, sourceIndex, style, tagName and title). Details of these can be found in the standard Dynamic HTML properties topics.

<LISTING...> Methods
The <LISTING...> element/object supports all of the standard Dynamic HTML methods (i.e. click, contains, getAttribute, insertAdjacentHTML, insertAdjacentText, removeAttribute, scrollIntoView and setAttribute). Details of these can be found in the standard Dynamic HTML Methods topics.

<LISTING...> Events
The <LISTING...> element/object supports all of the standard Dynamic HTML events (i.e. onclick, ondblclick, ondragstart, onfilterchange, onhelp, onkeydown, onkeypress, onkeyup, onmousedown, onmousemove, onmouseout, onmouseover, onmouseup and onselectstart). Details of these can be found in the standard Dynamic HTML events topics.

© 1995-1998, Stephen Le Hunte