Wednesday, April 14, 2010

'Marquee or not marquee' or 'How to scroll text in HTML?'

The question could also be: should marquee be used as an element or as a css property?

Before I would elaborate on that, let me just give an example to the ones who have no idea what marquee means. This is basically an element or css property (see below which one is which) that allows you to make a simple text (or even image) scroll in a specified direction with a specified speed.

Example (if the below text doesn't scroll, your browser doesn't support the marquee element):
Scrolling Text


The document about HTML Marquee Code details the usage of the marquee element, however this seems to be listed now as one of the Obsolete features of HTML5 and should not be used. Some even go further and say Don't Blink, Don't Marquee! This article basically says that it doesn't look professional, however there are cases where it's can be very practical, like on this website (check out the top line with available devices for sale).

The document How to Fly Text in DHTML provides 2 ways: one is the above example with the marquee element that is not supported by W3 and another one which is actually a javascript snippet.

For the future, it seems CSS3 will provide a solution as there's a recommendation ready on W3's table called CSS Marquee Module Level 3. The document however clearly states that it "...is a draft document and may be updated, replaced or obsoleted by other documents at any time."

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