Using multiple style sheets to control what a website looks like is not only a matter of offering visitors a chance to personalize their experience, but also of taking customization to the point where it delivers increased accessibility. Starting with Internet Explorer 8 Beta 2, Microsoft's proprietary browser supports jumping between alternative designs for the web content, which comes with alternative style sheets. In IE, these can be accessed via the Page – Style menu.

“As publishing and layout standards for web documents, HTML 4.01 and CSS 2.1 define relatively few user experience requirements for browsers. One of them, however, mandates the ability for end-users to switch among a set of mutually exclusive document styles defined by the author.  This feature is known as alternate style sheets. Significantly, the end-user must also be able to turn off all styling,” Sylvain Galineau, IE program manager, revealed.

The screenshots included on the left illustrate how Softpedia.com looks with no style and with the default style enabled. Internet Explorer 8 Beta 2 allows the users not only to switch between style sheets, when alternatives are indeed available, but also to turn off CSS entirely.

With IE8, Microsoft has managed to align Internet Explorer with additional major browsers, which have already delivered support for switching between alternative styles. Still, with IE8 having jumped aboard the alternate stylesheets wagon, the feature is bound to get more traction, taking into consideration the popularity of the service.

“While the ability to switch or turn off styling is a logical outcome of the separation of style and content, end-user style control has been in practice limited to those sufficiently CSS-savvy to edit their favorite browser’s user style sheet. With alternate style sheets now supported by all major browsers, website designers can let users customize their web experience further,” Galineau added.

Internet Explorer 8 (IE8) Beta 2 is available for download here.