Using Javascript to get style sheet values

I found that these two links were helpful:

for global and external values
http://www.javascriptkit.com/dhtmltutors/dhtmlcascade.shtml

and for
offsetHeight - height in pixels
offsetLeft - distance of paragraph from the left, in pixels (left of what? see below)
offsetTop - distance of paragraph from the top, in pixels (top of what? see below)
offsetWidth - width in pixels

http://www.quirksmode.org/dom/getstyles.html


Works only if inline stlyes are declared (no one wants to put inline styles in to everything.)
document.getElementById(elementID).style.height