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outline style property

Browser support:

8

Specifies or returns a shorthand form for all outline properties at once. Outline is a line around an element, but different from the border property.

The outline is similar to the border of an element, but it is not part of the element's dimensions, and it is displayed around the margin of the element. Therefore the element's width and height properties do not contain the width of the outline.

Note: The outline property is supported in Internet Explorer from version 8.

Syntax:

object.outline;

You can find the related objects in the Supported by objects section below.

This property is read/write.

CSS page for this property: outline

Possible values:

The type of this property is string.

One of the following values:

•

Any of the following values (use the space character to separate them, each value can be used only once):

•	<outline-color>
•	<outline-style>
•	<outline-width>

•

inherit

Description of values:

inherit

Takes the value of this property from the computed style of the parent element.

outline-color

Specifies or returns the color for the outline for an element.

outline-style

Specifies or returns the style for an element's outline.

outline-width

Specifies or returns the width for an element's outline.

Default: this property has no default value.

Example HTML code 1:

This example illustrates the use of the outline property:

<head>
    <style>
        .example {
            outline: 5px solid blue;
            border: 5px solid black;
        }
    </style>
</head>
<body>
    <div class="example">Outline and border</div>
</body>

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Example HTML code 2:

This example illustrates the use of the outline property in JavaScript:

<head>
    <script type="text/javascript">
        function ChangeOutline () {
            var selectTags = document.getElementsByTagName ("select");
            var oulineValue = "";

            for (i = 0; i < selectTags.length; i++) {

                // Returns the index of the selected option
                var whichSelected = selectTags[i].selectedIndex;

                // Concatenates the text of the selected option
                oulineValue += selectTags[i].options[whichSelected].text + " ";
            }

            var div = document.getElementById ("myDiv");

            if ('outline' in div.style) {
                div.style.outline = oulineValue;

                // solve refresh problems
                div.className = "";
                div.focus ();
                div.className = "example";
            } else {
                alert ("Your browser doesn't support this example!");
            }
        }
    </script>
</head>
<body>
    <div id="myDiv" style="outline: 4px solid blue;">Change outline</div>

    <select onchange="ChangeOutline ();" size="8">
        <option />1px
        <option />2px
        <option selected="selected" />4px
        <option />6px
        <option />8px
        <option />10px
        <option />15px
        <option />25px
    </select>
    <select onchange="ChangeOutline ();" size="9">
        <option />dotted
        <option selected="selected" />dashed
        <option />double
        <option />groove
        <option />inset
        <option />none
        <option />outset
        <option />ridge
        <option />solid
    </select>
    <select onchange="ChangeOutline ();" size="7">
        <option />black
        <option selected="selected" />blue
        <option />cyan
        <option />green
        <option />red
        <option />yellow
        <option />white
    </select>
</body>