onmousedown (HTML attribute)
| IE5.5+ | FF1+ | Saf1.3+ | Op9.2+ |
|---|---|---|---|
| Full | Full | Full | Full |
| Version |
|---|
| HTML 4 |
onmousedown="call_script_function();"
Example
<div onmousedown="highlightThis();">Holiday dates for 2008</div>
Description
Theonmousedown attribute is similar to the
onclick attribute, but differs in that the event is
triggered the moment the mouse buttons is pressed on the element, not at
the point the mouse button is released (onclick is
effectively a combination of onmousedown followed
by the onmouseup event on the element in question).
This event is not often seen used ‘in the wild’ possibly because it can
cause events to be triggered accidentally far too easily - if using an
onclick event, the user can move the mouse pointer
off the element and release the mouse button and avoid triggering the
action if it was an accidental press; this is not the case with
onmousedown.Value
There is no fixed value - it is up to
the author/developer what scripting goes in here, be that a call to one or
more defined functions or a simple alert() statement.
Compatibility
| IE | 5.5 | Full |
|---|---|---|
| 6.0 | Full | |
| 7.0 | Full | |
| Firefox | 1.0 | Full |
| 1.5 | Full | |
| 2.0 | Full | |
| Safari | 1.3 | Full |
| 2.0 | Full | |
| 3.0 | Full | |
| Opera | 9.2 | Full |
| 9.5 | Full |
Every browser listed supports this attribute, but should be avoided as it encourages mixing of content and behaviour.
Previous: ondblclick
Next: onmouseup
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