IE7 does not understand display: inline-block
Solution 1:
The IE7 display: inline-block; hack is as follows:
display: inline-block;
*display: inline;
zoom: 1;
By default, IE7 only supports inline-block on naturally inline elements (Quirksmode Compatibility Table), so you only need this hack for other elements.
zoom: 1 is there to trigger hasLayout behaviour, and we use the star property hack for setting the display to inline only in IE7 and lower (newer browsers won't apply that). hasLayout and inline together will basically trigger inline-block behaviour in IE7, so we are happy.
This CSS will not validate, and can make your stylesheet messed up anyways, so using an IE7-only stylesheet through conditional comments could be a good idea.
<!–-[if IE 7]>
<link rel="stylesheet" href="ie7.css" type="text/css" />
<![endif]–->
Solution 2:
Update
As nobody uses IE6 and 7 anymore I will present a different solution:
You don't need a hack anymore, because IE8 supports it by itself
For those who must support those stone age browsers before IE8 (It's not that the IE8 is that old, too cough):
For the account of IE version control, use some Conditional Class in <html>tag like Paul Irish states in his article
<!--[if IE 7]><html class="no-js lt-ie9 lt-ie8"><![endif]-->
<!--[if IE 8]><html class="no-js lt-ie9"><![endif]-->
<!--[if gt IE 8]><!--><html class="no-js"><!--<![endif]-->
By this you will have different classes in html-tag for different IE Browsers
The CSS you need is as follows
.inline-block {
display: inline-block;
}
.lt-ie8 .inline-block {
display: inline;
zoom: 1;
}
This will validate and you don't need an extra CSS file
Old answer
.frame-header
{
background:url(images/tab-green.png) repeat-x left top;
height:25px;
display:-moz-inline-box; /* FF2 */
display:inline-block; /* will also trigger hasLayout for IE6+7*/
}
/* Hack for IE6 */
* html .frame-header {
display: inline; /* Elements with hasLayout and display:inline behave like inline-block */
}
/* Hack for IE7 */
* + html .frame-header {
display: inline; /* Elements with hasLayout and display:inline behave like inline-block */
}
Solution 3:
IE7 does not support 'inline-block' properly, more info here: LINK
Use can use: 'inline' instead.
What exactly are you trying to achieve? Make us an example and put here: http://jsfiddle.net/