Article ID: 932175 - Last Review: September 22, 2011 - Revision: 3.0

VML element is not displayed in strict standards-compliant mode in Internet Explorer

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SYMPTOMS

When an HTML page uses the !DOCTYPE element in Windows Internet Explorer 7 or in Microsoft Internet Explorer 6, a Vector Markup Language (VML) element is not displayed in strict standards-compliant mode.

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RESOLUTION

To resolve this problem, set the VML style to "display:inline-block" by using the following code:

vml\:* {
behavior: url(#default#VML);display:inline-block
}

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STATUS

Microsoft has confirmed that this is a problem in the Microsoft products that are listed in the "Applies to" section.

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MORE INFORMATION

The VML element is displayed correctly if you do both of the following:

Do not use strict standards-compliant mode.
Remove the !DOCTYPE element.

For more information about strict standards-compliant mode, visit the following Microsoft Web site:

http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms535242.aspx (http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms535242.aspx)

To reproduce this problem, use the following page:

<?xml version="1.1" encoding="UTF-8" ?>
<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.1//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml11/DTD/xhtml11.dtd">
<html xml:lang="en" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" xmlns:vml="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:vml">
<head>
<title>VML Oval</title>
<style type="text/css">
vml\:* {
behavior: url(#default#VML);
}
</style>
</head>
<body>
<h1>VML Oval</h1>
<div>
<vml:oval style="width:100pt;height:50pt" fillcolor="red">
</vml:oval>
</div>
</body>
</html>

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