HTML / CSS autonumber headings?

Question

Is there a way (ideally easy) to make headings and sections autonumber in HTML/CSS? Perhaps a JS library?

Or is this something that is hard to do in HTML?

I'm looking at an application for a corporate wiki but we want to be able to use heading numbers like we always have in word processors.

Answer 1

Definitely possible using css counters - just make sure you watch out for browser compatibility...:

This will make h2 get 1., 2., h3 gets 1.1, 2.1, 2.2 etc...

<style>
   body{counter-reset: section}
   h2{counter-reset: sub-section}
   h3{counter-reset: composite}
   h4{counter-reset: detail}

   h2:before{
     counter-increment: section;
     content: counter(section) " ";
   }
   h3:before{
     counter-increment: sub-section;
     content: counter(section) "." counter(sub-section) " ";
   }
   h4:before{
     counter-increment: composite;
     content: counter(section) "." counter(sub-section) "." counter(composite) " ";
   }
   h5:before{
     counter-increment: detail;
     content: counter(section) "." counter(sub-section) "." counter(composite) "." counter(detail) " ";
   }
   </style>

As lpfavreau says, it's the same as another question I believe.

Also note that using css will not change the heading (e.g. selected text will give you the heading without the numbers). This may or may not be desirable. lpfavreau's (accepted) answer will give you the jquery code to modify the heading text.

See MDN: Using CSS counters for details.

3rd Party Edit

I created an example with the css above