So, is this an indication that Safari is going to loosen up some and give us more control over the appearance of a Webpage when using CSS? In some ways, yes…

Seems like step by step, one of the most usability-enhancing features of Safari is being removed. The feature I’m thinking of is that Safari does not (yet) allow web authors to freely style form controls with CSS.

As a user I find it very frustrating when a web designer has decided that they don’t like the way buttons, text fields and other form controls look in various browsers. This often leads to attempts at changing the appearance of form controls. The first step is usually trying to change the appearance with CSS. When that fails some even resort to using JavaScript, in most cases sacrificing both usability and accessibility for the sake of styling.

Safari has traditionally not allowed authors to change the appearance of form controls a lot with CSS. As a user, I love that. Unfortunately, it seems like Safari is becoming muich less strict in that regard. With the announcement of a new implementation of single line text input fields () as described in Text Fields at Surfin’ Safari, it seems like text fields can now be styled just about any way you want… Source: 456 Berea St

[tags]safari,javascript,browsers,css,usability[/tags]