title: What does it mean to be out of content flow in html?
body: <p>I am reading the article <em>Position the list item markers</em> on <a href="http://www.w3schools.com/css/css_list.asp" rel="nofollow noreferrer">http://www.w3schools.com/css/css_list.asp</a> . I don't get what they mean by,</p>
  
  <blockquote>
    <p>The list-style-position property specifies whether the list-item markers should appear inside or outside the content flow:</p>
  </blockquote>
  
  <p>I've read some posts about flow content and phrasing content <a href="https://stackoverflow.com/questions/30233447/what-is-the-difference-between-phrasing-content-and-flow-content">on stackoverflow</a>. If I understand it correctly, flow content is something that can embed inline elements and tags in it, like <code>&lt;p&gt;</code> can embed  <code>&lt;span&gt;</code> and simple text, images etc. Whereas phrasing content is something which we insert in a line, i.e. inline. Basically flow content seems to be an upper level stuff that can encompass something grouped or big, like the paragraph contains many lines etc. Phrasing content seems to be lower level stuff which is usually a part of something bigger, like text is part of paragraph. </p>
  
  <p>With this concept in mind I couldn't figure it out how can something be out of flow content while being still inline as it was before when it was inside flow content. The only difference which I notice between the two types of lists <a href="http://www.w3schools.com/css/tryit.asp?filename=trycss_list-style-position" rel="nofollow noreferrer">here</a> is that when list-item markers are outside the flow content they seem to be adjusted in a way that the text of list elements indents backwards. The indentation is such that if list-style-markers started at 20px indentation, when they were inside flow content, then now the text will start from 20px indentation. But the line-markers are still <em>inline</em>!. They are still a part of bigger stuff.</p>
  
  <p>I just quite couldn't make sense of something being out of flow content and stll being inline. Please explain what does it mean to be out of flow content but still being a part of the flow.</p>