Text indent is not working in ie7

Question

I am working on a website and on the top navigation bar there is a search box, I applied the following css on the search submit button

#submit {
   background: url("img/new-search-icon.png") no-repeat scroll -1px 0 #FFFFFF;
   border:0 none;
   cursor:pointer;
   display:block;
   height:21px;
   padding:0;
   position:absolute;
   right:0;
   text-indent:-9999px;
   top:0;
   width:20px;
   z-index:2;
}

My Problem is in IE7 the text indent is not working please help me if you want to see the demo you can view it by clicking here Click here. Please help me.

Answer 1

I tried all of the above with no success. I had to add a float:left before it picked up the text indent. IE7 is crazy, and by crazy I mean awful.

Answer 2

Here is some CSS I'm using that works for me in IE and doesn't rely on text-indent

.sprite {
    width:100%;
    height:0px;
    padding-top:38px;
    overflow:hidden;
    background-repeat:no-repeat;
    position:relative;
    float:left;
    display:block;
    font-size:0px;
    line-height:0px;
}
.sprite.twitter {
    background-image:url(/images/social/twitter-sprite.png);
    margin-top:8px;
    background-position: 4px 0px;
}
#social-links a:hover .sprite.twitter {
    background-position: 4px -38px;
}

Answer 3

Sorry a little late to the post, but was looking for a solution to the IE7 issue with negative text-indent. I started trying my own random ways and stumbled upon this. jUst wanted to post it out on Stack in case it may help others.

Trying to add an icon to a link and not show the text.

My CSS for all browsers

a.lnk_locked , a.lnk_notchecked, a.lnk_checked
{ background: url(../images/icons/icon_sprites.png) no-repeat; padding: 0 2px 0 0;   width:18px; height:18px; 
       vertical-align:middle; text-indent:-9009px; display:inline-block; overflow: hidden; zoom: 1; *display:inline;}
    a.lnk_locked    { background-position: -1px -217px; }

My CSS just for IE7

a.lnk_locked , a.lnk_notchecked, a.lnk_checked
{  text-indent:20px; padding-left:-20px; width:18px;}

Answer 4

while implementing the image replacement technique like above, there are some rules to go with css to get it work on IE browsers.

css declaration:

text-indent:-9999px;
text-transform:capitalize;


font-size:0;
display:block;
line-height:0;

font-size:0 is used to reduce the font size and works well in IE7. But even after adding this line, you would notice a black line(which is basically the text) on the center of the button in IE6.

display:block Negative text-indent works in IE only if this is added.

line-height:0 Another fix for IE6.

text-transform:capitalize I don't know the exact reason of including the property, somehow it fixes the issue.

Hope this helps.

Answer 5

I just wanted to add for "others" (even though it not strictly related to the topic and not the ops problem).

Please ensure you use a "px" for your value. i.e. -9999px not -9999.

I've just spent 10 mins trying to debug why this didn't work. Staring at the value right in front of me.

I've been doing alot of Silverlight lately and so my mind didn't flip over to CSS markup requirements fast enough. Grrr.

You must include a unit of measurement.... or else it will just silently fail.

Answer 6

Only following will do the job for you :)

   text-indent:-9999px !important;  
   line-height:0;