Recipe 4.1 Changing the Format of a List

Problem

You want to change the default list style, for example to change the bullet or numbering as in Figure 4-2.

Figure 4-2. The list markers changed to lowercase Roman numerals

Solution

Use the list-style-type property to change the bullet or type of counter:

li {

 list-style-type: lower-roman;

}

Discussion

The CSS 2.1 specification offers several styles for numbering a list, as shown in Table 4-1. Browsers typically vary the bullet style from one level of nesting to the next. To stop lists from presenting this traditional system of setting the list marker, change the value of list-style-type for each child list.

Table 4-1. Styles available for list markers

Style/value	Description	Browser support
square	Usually a filled-in square, although the exact representation isn't defined.	All major browsers
disc	Usually a filled-in circle, although the exact representation isn't defined.	All major browsers
circle	Usually an unfilled circle, although the exact representation isn't defined.	All major browsers
decimal	Starts with 1 and continues with 2, 3, 4, etc.	All major browsers
decimal-leading-zero	Starts with 01 and continues with 02, 03, 04, etc. The number of leading zeros may equal the number of digits used in a list. For example, 0001 might be used for a 5876-item list.	All major browsers, although leading zeros is optional
lower-roman	Starts with lowercase roman numbers.	All major browsers
upper-roman	Starts with uppercase roman numbers.	All major browsers
lower-alpha	Starts with lowercase ASCII letters.	All major browsers
upper-alpha	Starts with uppercase ASCII letters.	All major browsers
lower-latin	Starts with lowercase ASCII letters.	All major browsers
upper-latin	Starts with uppercase ASCII letters.	All major browsers
lower-greek	Starts with classical Greek letters, starting with alpha and then beta, gamma, etc.	Safari, Mozilla, Netscape 6+
hebrew	Starts counting with traditional Hebrew.	Safari, Mozilla, Netscape 6+
hiragana	Starts counting with the Japanese hiragana system.	Mozilla, Netscape 6+
katakana	Starts counting with the Japanese traditional katana system.	Mozilla, Netscape 6+
hiragana-iroha	Starts counting with the Japanese hiragana-iroha system.	Mozilla, Netscape 6+
katakana-iroha	Starts counting with the Japanese katakana-iroha system.	Mozilla, Netscape 6+
none	No marker is displayed.	All major browsers

See Also

Recipe 4.5 for using custom images for list markers; Chapter 12, "Lists and Generated Content" in Cascading Style Sheets: The Definitive Guide (O'Reilly).