This is the tracker bug for the Alternate Styles UI. It's a replacement for bug 6782, which jumbled discussion on topics ranging from the Cascade to wording of the 'none' option into one bug. This isn't a tracker for layout problems related to style switching; just use the [AltSS] code in the summary field for that. When adding a dependency, please also comment with the bug's summary. Bug 6782 began with http://www.fas.harvard.edu/~dbaron/css/ssui/. Results of the first phase of discussion (until April 2001) have been summarized below: Summary of Alternate Style Discussion in Bug 6782 (v2.4) ======================================================== Referencing: http://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=6782 Capabilities of Alternate Author Style Selection ------------------------------------------------ o User interface must allow user to: - disable author styles ~ all author styles will be disabled at the same time (not separately) ~ switch affects: > non-CSS presentational hints > persistent styles > all alternate styles (including preferred style set) - use page-defined styles: ~ enables non-CSS presentational hints ~ enables persistent stylesheets ~ allows user to choose from selection of > Preferred style set, or, if there is no preferred style set, a "no alternate" option > any alternate style sets specified by the author o A selected alternate style will remain in effect as long as it is available or until the user selects another style. - How is the availability of an author style to be determined? ~ By title > two sites may have different alternates with the same title ~ By URI > keep in mind that a style set can have several stylesheet files and a style set with the same title may add or subtract files from page to page within the site - If the default style has been selected, then the default style remains selected (regardless of title or URI) until another style is selected. o The selection of an alternate style offered by a page will be recorded in the History, and that style will be used every time that page is loaded as long as it remains in the History. ( o A User Style remains in effect until the user selects another User Style.) Presentation of Alternate Styles -------------------------------- Re: 'Use Stylesheet' submenu under 'View' o rename to 'Use Style' o We are using "page" to refer to the document o radios among author style choices - has equivalent of 'none' ~ We need a name for the "none" option in the author style section. So far, proposals are: > 'none' > 'Ignore Page Styles' > 'Disable Page Styles' > 'No Page Styles' - Author Styles option names: ~ alternate style sets (including the preferred style set) define their own names ~ A page without a preferred style set needs a name for the default style enabled option. So far, proposals are: > 'Use Page Style' - "Use" is redundant with submenu name - inconsistent with alternate style names (which, in general, won't begin with verbs) > 'Page Style' > 'Page-Defined Style' Re: User Style Storage Format: o stored in a Stylesheet Folder, in which each file becomes an option - any directory, whether on the hard disk or on the Internet can be used - title will be the filename ~ default styles (shipped with Mozilla) will have .css - readily identified as CSS, not some other language - can be associated with an editor by virtue of extension - OS file manager can be used to edit user style selection ~ users are already familiar with how that works ~ Mozilla not required to create a UI for the job o Stylesheet Folder and User Style selection are set in the prefs dialog - which panel? - name for "no user stylesheet" option: 'none' Interaction of Preferences, User Styles and Style System -------------------------------------------------------- o visual preferences should be expressed as a user stylesheet or its equivalent in prefs code o If no colors (background, text, links, etc.) or font face is specified by a user stylesheet, it should default to those selected in the preferences. - This implies that the preferences are not equivalent to the other user styles (which are mutually exclusive), but behave similar to persistent author styles (are always there). o In accordance with the previous point, the cascade should be: 1. UA (ua.css, importing html.css) 2. user prefs + any selected user styles 3. author non-CSS presentation hints 4. author style rules 5. author !important rules 6. final user say (see next section for details) - This does not require that user prefs & user styles be on separate cascading levels. They should both apply at the same level, with the user prefs listed first. o Final User Say: - 6. user prefs override + user style !important rules ~ style rules will cascade according to specificity (prefs will be applied first) ~ ambiguity in the meaning of "Always use my..." can be easily solved by a rewording of the option. ex: "Allow documents to specify other fonts" (from Tardis) The user stylesheet is not the document; therefore, it is not restricted by this preference and can override it with an !important rule. [Much of this is covered by existing code and bug 103594; don't track style system here.]

Blocks: bug 68416 W3C CUAP: Implement user style sheets; allow disabling. Initial Dependencies: bug 51690 "Use stylesheets": add support to use non stylesheets not even inline (depends on bug 32372's implementation) bug 51688 Use Stylesheet menu: change "None" to "Minimal Page Style" (If bug 51690 gets fixed for Moz1.0, then we can WONTFIX this.) bug 83663 Alternate style sheet setting not stored [AltSS] bug 103062 Alternate Stylesheets should appear on link toolbar bug 51848 UI for alternate and user stylesheets for printing bug 45848 [AltSS] RFE: alternate user stylesheets

*** Bug 6782 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***

bug 32372 should be able to enable/disable style sheets (CSS) via a pref in UI bug 92589 View Use Stylesheet doesn't work on frames

Why is bug 179006 not dupe, blocker, or blocked by this? Can we set a 1.4 milestone on this group of bugs? It would be a real plus to web developers wanting to use Mozilla (-> Netscape) for both browsing and web development. For general browsing, nearly every astute user needs a user stylesheet(s) to handle the overwhelming number of horrible web sites. But, this conflicts with site development, which pretty much dictates the absence of a user stylesheet.

> Can we set a 1.4 milestone on this group of bugs? We can set whatever garbage we want in the milestone field; that will not change the fact that this bug per se is not a high priority at the moment. What _is_ a high priority is architecture work that will make this bug trivial to fix. It's a good deal of architecture work, and due to the periodic freezes we go through it will likely not be finished till 1.5. Unless some people learn a lot about this stuff and start working on it, of course.

bug 178161 - Can't use alternate stylesheets in Phoenix

*** Bug 216278 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***

Adding bug 216537, Alternate stylesheet selection is not sticky

This may be tangential, but speaking as a user, I request at least duplicating the feature in Safari (Safari/Preferences/Advanced tab) that allows choosing a global user stylesheet on the fly. I find it frustrating that I cannot temporarily turn off the UserContent.css file. I use aggressive ad blocks based in UserContent.css that sometimes interfere with normal browsing or testing; in Safari I can toggle this file at will and the results are displayed immediately.

This is a tracker for linking up all style-switching-related issues. Do not post comments about specific problems here; those go in the appropriate dependent bug reports--like bug 45848 (linked from above).

*** Bug 329328 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***

Marking all tracking bugs which haven't been updated since 2014 as INCOMPLETE. If this bug is still relevant, please reopen it and move it into a bugzilla component related to the work being tracked. The Core: Tracking component will no longer be used.