Opacity & Transparency

so the site I'm working on is at http://shiznit.no-ip.info/rjnall

if you'll notice on the left side I'm trying to create a transparent bg for the menu so that the gradient shows through from the main bg

when I run the page through the css validator it fails on those 3 lines where the opacity is in left-col-nav and the left-col-nav ul li:hover

is there a better way to do what I'm trying to do? did I just implement it incorrectly?

any help is greatly appreciated!

body{
font-family: verdana,arial,helvetica,sans-serif;
text-align:center;
color:#000000;
font-size: 12px;
background-color:#efefef;
text-align:center;
}

#main-wrap{
background-image:url(../img/mainbg.jpg);
background-repeat:repeat-y;
width:760px;
text-align:left;
margin-left:auto;
margin-right:auto;
font-family: verdana,arial,helvetica,sans-serif;
text-align:center;
color:#000000;
font-size: 12px;

}

h1 {
font-size:16px;
}

h2 {
font-size:14px;
}

* html #main-wrap{
height:600px;
}

#header{
width:760px;
height:119px;
background-image:url(../img/rjnallbanner2.jpg);
background-repeat:no-repeat;
background-color:#114076;
}

#col-wrap {
width:760px;
text-align:center;
background-image:url(../img/colbg2.jpg);
background-repeat:repeat-x;
min-height:600px;
}

#left-col-nav{
width:200px;
float:left;
margin:0;
padding:0;
text-align:center;
}

#left-col-nav ul {
padding:10px;
width:150px;
margin:10px auto 0 auto;
background-color:#ffffff;
text-align:left;
filter:alpha(opacity=50);
-moz-opacity:.50;
opacity:.50;
min-height:600px;
}

#left-col-nav li {
list-style-type:none;
text-indent:10px;
line-height:18px;
margin-top:10px;
}

#left-col-nav ul li a:link {
text-decoration:none;
color:#114076;
font-weight:bold;
}

#left-col-nav ul li a:visited {
text-decoration:none;
color:#114076;
font-weight:bold;
}

#left-col-nav ul li a:hover {
text-decoration:none;
background-color:#114076;
color:#ffffff;
font-weight:bold;
display:block;
width:150px;

filter:alpha(opacity=100);
-moz-opacity:1.0;
opacity:1.0;

}

#left-col-nav ul li a:active {
text-decoration:none;
background-color:#114076;
color:#ffffff;
font-weight:bold;
}

#left-col-nav ul li a:focus {
text-decoration:none;
background-color:#114076;
color:#ffffff;
font-weight:bold;
}

#content-container {
width:410px;
margin:10px auto 0 auto;
text-align:left;
float:left;
text-align:justify;
background-color:#ffffff;
min-height:600px;
}

#content {
margin:10px;
}

#right-col-nav{
width:150px;
float:right;
margin:0;
padding:0;
text-align:center;
min-height:600px;
}

#footer{
width:750px;
background-color:#114076;
padding:5px;
color:#ffffff;
text-align:center;
}

.clearfix{
clear:both;
}

.imageleft {
float:left;
margin:10px;
}

.imageright {
float:right;
margin:0 10px 10px 10px;
}


#right-col-nav .navtitle {
background-color:#ffffe8;
text-align:center;
margin:10px auto 0 auto;

padding:0;
width:130px;
}

#footer li {
display:inline;
padding:10px;
}

#footer li a:link{
color:#ffffff;
font-weight:bold;
}

#footer li a:visited{
color:#ffffff;
font-weight:bold;
}

#footer li a:hover{
background-color:#ffffff;
color:#114076;
font-weight:bold;
}

#footer a:link{
color:#ffffff;
font-weight:bold;
}

#footer a:visited{
color:#ffffff;
font-weight:bold;
}

#footer a:hover{
background-color:#ffffff;
color:#114076;
font-weight:bold;
}

.imgcontainerright {
padding:10px;
margin: 0 10px 10px 10px;
float:right;
border: 1px solid #114076;
text-align:center;
}

#formcontainer {
clear:left;
margin:10px;
background-color:#eeeeee;
border: 1px solid #114076;
}

Hi thee, long time no see! :)

Yeah, it fails because -moz-opacity and filter are proprietary properties (to Mozilla and Microsoft, respectively), and have never been part of the standards after which the validator is validating, and the opacity property isn’t yet a standard. It’s going to be in CSS 3. However, a few modern browsers already support that. There’s no way to work around that validation issue except with JavaScript but in this case I really think it doesn’t matter whether it validates or not as long as you can prove that the rest of your code is good. ;)

fantastic! this is why I get so nervous about trying to be more creative - as soon as something doesn't validate I think it's no good lol

thank you stephan!

Hurray! Have been hoping that would become a standard; it adds such a nice touch to a page if used well.

When can we expect CSS 3 to appear on the scene? And do you know whether it will support the Shadow filter that is currently only an IE property? I really hope so! (It is a soft blurred drop shadow; looks very cool if done sparingly on a tooltip, for example...)

lorie

I do believe the shadow feature was CSS1 which is probably why IE still supports it. I think it was dropped in CSS2. As fro CSS3 fully coming out, probably not for a while. Opera and Firefox already implement some CSS3. Not sure about IE7 though.

IE7 is yet to implement a lot of CSS2.1 Microsoft have promised that IE8 will properly support CSS2.1 and then subsequently stated that they don't guarantee it.

I’m still wondering how hard it can be… since all the others have done it already. Or are they stumbling about their own hasLayout crap? :)