Notes on Cascading Style Sheets (CSS)

These are preliminary notes. I'm learning as I'm doing. Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) are separate files (with a .css extension) linked to Web pages that control the display of those pages. An author defines formats for standard or custom tags and then beds a linked in the individual pages to the style sheet.

Note: authors using cascading style sheets should make sure, when defining custom tags, that the tags will display properly in older browsers that do not support CSS. (Some browsers like Opera, allow you to turn off automatic recognition of cascading style sheets.) Older browsers and older HTML can't handle CSS -- as witness the AnyBrowser HTML Viewer Page.

The World Wide Consortium is recommending use of CSS over the use of inline formatting such as the <FONT> tag -- indeed, W3C now "frowns" upon the <FONT> and <BLOCKQUOTE> tag! It recommends against <TABLE> tags (bulleted lists do load faster). (Allaire's Homesite built-in HTML validator informs me "In HTML 4.0, FONT is deprecated. It may become obsolete in future versions, consider using style sheets instead.") More on this as I learn more about it.

My own preference is to use logical formatting in HTML to divide content with such quote in scratch that "logical" format commands such as <title>, <H1>, <H2>, etc. By using these logical tags, authors will keep their text in orderly format, ensure that older browsers will display the text, and that CSS can be applied in a logical manner across entire site, now or in the future.

See also my notes on Web page accessibility and Usability.

Overcoming your fear of Bad CSS

• Fear of Style sheets. Part 1. Article at AListApart.
• Fear of Style sheets 2. Part 2. Very important on Netscape 4's bugginess.
• Fear of Style Sheets 3. Part 3. Ditto. Very important on how to implement around the limitations of NS and IE.
• Fear of Style sheets 4 Part 4. Emphasis on sizes (pixels vs. other) and font sizes
• The DAO of Web Design. Nice overall article by John Allsopp of Western Civ Software. See also WC's "The House of Style"

Learning CSS

I've found the following sites useful in learning CSS:

• Web Style Sheets (W3C). Also see the W3C's suggestions for use.
• Web Review Cascading Style Sheets Guide (useful lists of features implemented or not in various browsers)
• Web Workshop - A User's Guide to Style Sheets (Microsoft*)
• Web Workshop - Using Cascading Style Sheets (Microsoft*)
• The House of Style from Western Civ software. "[F]eaturing a complete guide to all of CSS, as well as tutorials, articles, comprehensive browser compatibility information."
• Web Workshop - Style Sheets A Brief Overview for Designers (Microsoft*)
• Guide to Cascading Style Sheets (HTMLHelp.com)
• Style Sheets Guide Index Page
• Cascading Style Sheets Primer (Allaire's Robert Crooks provides a tutorial and examples, including Javascripts for detecting browsers)
• Effective Use of Cascading Style Sheets (Alertbox July 1997) (Jakob Neilsen's AlertBox)

* These Microsoft Developers' Network (MSDN) pages require a free registration.

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