Using Indeterminate Mode

how to animate a progress bar to show unknown length-task activity

by by Laurent Laville
mailto:pear@laurent-laville.org
May 2004, Laurent Laville
(HTML_Progress 1.1+)

Introduction

Sometimes you can't immediately determine the length of a long-running task, or the task might stay stuck at the same state of completion for a long time. You can show work without measurable progress by putting the progress bar in indeterminate mode. A progress bar in indeterminate mode displays animation to indicate that work is occurring. As soon as the progress bar can display more meaningful information, you should switch it back into its default, determinate mode. The look and feel of indeterminate progress bars look like this: