APEX

hi -- I'm using html buttons pretty much throughout my application, because in many cases I need to
disable buttons based on certain conditions. I do this in conditional regions, referencing the button
attribute "id" (getelementbyid) and disabling it. It works beautifully.

In truth, I'm perfectly happy with this solution, though I've read that it's preferred to use template
buttons, not HTML buttons, for consistency of display across OS's / browsers. So, I want to get a
better understanding of this whole arena... From what I've read, I think that in order to
accomplish what I'm doing above, the selected template for the button must
contain the substitution string #BUTTON_ATTRIBUTES#. In all of the button templates in my app,
#BUTTON_ATTRIBUTES# is listed as a substitution string, Referenced is "no" and From is null/empty
(as opposed to Template). I'm not sure what this means about the accessibility of the
#BUTTON_ATTRIBUTES# sub string (??), but I do know that when I change to a template-based button,
the disable functionality no longer works.

What would need to change in order for this to work? And also, what's your take on template vs html
buttons? I'm just trying to make the best design decisions up-front...

thanks,
Carol