displaying text that's not within the source code

[Elemental]

Hey Folks, I recently went on a site, and since I'm learning I took a peak at their source code and saw the following:

<div class="hint required">= Required field</div>

the above source code displayed the following:*= Required fieldHowever there's no * (asterisk) in the actual code, so how is it being displayed?Does it have anything to do with the css class? I thought of javascript but why bother for just one character?The site was http://www.spherion.com/ but it's in their "Spherion Candidate Resource Center" so you would need to be registered with them, and NO I'm not a recruiter I'm looking for work. I could copy and paste the source code if that would help, let me know...Peace,Elemental

[Synook]

Two ways (with CSS) - you could either use a background image with an asterix and give a bit of padding so that the text goes after the image, or use :before, content: and string() - that method is not supported by IE 6 however.

required:before {	content:string("*");}

[Elemental]

Two ways (with CSS) - you could either use a background image with an asterix and give a bit of padding so that the text goes after the image, or use :before, content: and string() - that method is not supported by IE 6 however.

required:before {	content:string("*");}

Synook, Thank you for your reply,All that just to display an asterisk?! Is there a significant or specific value to the * that may cause a conflic with "regular" source code that would justify the need for the extra steps ?Peace,Elemental

[Ingolme]

I think they did it so that they can just write something like this

<label class="required">Name</label><label class="required">E-mail</label>

It has more meaning, an XML parser could read it and make use of it.

[Synook]

Also, what if they decide to use a different character for a required field, other than an asterix, in the future? Flexibility.