HTML + CSS: Numbered list with numbers inside of circles

Question

I'm trying to create an ordered list in CSS + HTML that looks like this:

I can't for the life of me figure out how to do this. I've tried using list-image but then the numerals don't appear. I tried setting a background, but it won't appear behind the number if list-style-position is set to outside. I tried setting it with a background and list-style-position: inside, then putting the text inside the li in a div to align it, but no combination of floats, margins, etc worked without wrapping around the numeral.

This seems like something I've seen on plenty of web sites, but at the moment I can't seem to find a working example, nor is Googling for this giving me any results.

So, can anyone help me with this? How would you create the above using HTML+CSS, ideally without using JS, and definitely without using just images. This text needs to be selectable and copy/pasteable.

Because a commenter asked, here's the markup I have right now:

<ol>
  <li><span>List item one.</span></li>
  <li><span>List item two.</span></li>
  <li><span>List item three.</span></li>
</ol>

None of the CSS I've tried has even come close to working, so I'm not sure the value of sharing what I have currently. Here's one version that failed...

ol { display: block; list-style: decimal outside url('/images/lists/yellow-circle-18px.png'); }
ol li { width: 176px; margin-right: 20px; float: left; }
ol li span { display: block; }

Answer 1

I'm using ideas that @Spudley has in his answer, and I'm using ideas from a previous answer I wrote:

• How to use CSS to surround a number with a circle?

See: http://jsfiddle.net/j2gK8/

IE8 does not support border-radius, and workarounds like CSS3 PIE do not work with :before. And, older browsers like IE7 do not support counter.

If you want to make it work in older browsers, you'll have to resort to writing the numbers yourself. I also exchanged the fancy rounded corners for a normal image (which could have rounded corners, but doesn't in my example):

See: http://jsfiddle.net/XuHNF/

So, there's the fancy approach that won't work in IE7+IE8, which probably rules it out. And then there's the ugly, but compatible method.

Of course, there's always another problem. If you have differing amounts of text, then this happens.

You're then looking at this problem:

• CSS Floating Divs At Variable Heights
• https://stackoverflow.com/search?q=user%3A405015+masonry