CSS Media Types

When are they automatically used?

[Jeremy_H]

I love how I can create a screen version and a print version of the same site. It can be very powerful, and all I have to do is create the two types of CSS files and properly reference them. If the user has a monitor they see the site one way -- and if they print it out, its automatically the other, with no setting changes needed on their part.

My question is about the other types of media. Do they ever get automatically turned on? A computer with a projector output (like classroom setups) won't automatically use the projection CSS would it? Somebody would have to turn it on (assuming they would know to look and if their browser would even allow them -- right?).

I guess my concern is more for tv, projection and handheld medias, and not so much for tty, braille or aural. And I just assume that screen and print for the most part work fine.

Do browsers of people with set top internet boxes connected to their tv automatically look for the tv media? Do cell phone web browsers automatically look for handheld CSS?

Thanks

[evo81]

Hey,

I don't know about the others but I know that the majority of mobile phones and pda's automatically look for a media="handheld" stylesheet.

[swa66]

The handheld one doesn't work for my (ancient) windows mobile based pda with it's version of IE.

[encyclo]

If you use the Opera browser, then the "projection" rules are used if you display the page in full-screen mode rather than in a normal window.

For handheld devices, the situation is more difficult - different devices use varying combinations of "screen" or "handheld" rules. It is therefore impossible to depend on a particular behaviour from a class of devices.

[swa66]

Agreed, Opera is the way to go to test your other css files as you can easily switch.
But few (read next to none) of my visitors use it.

The one mostly used is the printer one as you can be friendly to people needing a printout by hiding navigation allowing them soem more space to get it all fitting on as few pages as possible.