Remember Me
forgot your password?

What are Cascading Style Sheets (CSS)

Cascading Style Sheets, also known as CSS, are the most popular and neat way of formatting an html page.

There are two versions of Cascading Style Sheets (CSS). CSS Level 1 was launched in 1996 and is supported by all browsers. This version is the older of the two and is used mostly for font formatting, text alignment and line spacing.

CSS version 2 came out in 1998. This one is a lot more powerful than its predecessor allowing you not only to format text but also to position elements on your web page. This version of CSS is so powerful that all good web designers use it instead of using html tables.

The word Cascading reflects how style sheets work. An Html document can be linked to several style sheets, for example it could be linked to 2 sheets, an internal style sheet (styles within the head tag of a html document) and an external style sheet (a .css document).

An important aspect of Cascading Style Sheets is the operation of inheritance. If a certain aspect of formatting is not specified for a child element, it will inherit the formatting of its parent element.

When you use CSS, you can avoid the use of most html format tags making your code much easier to read. Here’s an example:

If we want to have a Blue size 12pt title at the start of a every article on our web site we would have something like this in our html code:

title

You might be thinking “that doesn’t look too bad”… but what happens if you have 50 titles throughout your site? You would have to repeat this process over and over again, and you will be at risk of using different formats for your titles and by doing so breaking the consistency of your design. Not only that, if you decide to change the color or font of all your titles you would have to go through the process of changing all 50 font tags…

Here’s when CSS comes in handy!!! Instead of using font tags for my titles I would use this:

In a separate .css document I would add a new style called “titles”. It would look something like this:

.title { font-size 12pt; color:blue;}

and in my html I would replace my font tags with:

Title

And voila!!! All titles that are within the titles class will be formatted in the same way. The beauty of style sheets is that they can be linked to as many web pages as you want making the whole process of adding more content to you site a whole lot easier.

Sebastian

Sebastian De Masi is the Founder of 06WebDesign.com. 06WebDesign.com provides resources to help you create an effective and lucrative online solution for your business and establish an online presence amongst the most reputable companies World wide.

For more information visit http://www.06webdesign.com

Rate this Article: 0 / 5 stars - 0 vote(s)
Print Email Re-Publish

Add new Comment



Captcha

  • Latest Programming Articles
  • More from Sebastian

Packt Publishing's new 'Ext JS 3.0 Cookbook'

By: Amit Sharma | 13/11/2009
Authored by Jorge Ramon, the Ext JS 3.0 Cookbook contains step-by-step recipes for building impressive rich internet applications using the Ext JS JavaScript library.

GROUP BY IN XQUERY

By: Anuj Tripathi | 13/11/2009
This article will provide you to implement GROUP BY clause in XQUERY with the code.

Java Developers and the power of Java

By: jacklin | 13/11/2009
Article explaining the security steps Java developers can take for JAR files while developing application with Java platform.

Sending SMS Alerts in SharePoint 2010 over Office Mobile Service Protocol (OMS)

By: Virtosoftware | 12/11/2009
Finally it's possible to send SMS directly from SharePoint to mobile phones. This feature was only available in some add-on components before.

Forbidding the Clipboard for the specified process

By: Apriorit Inc. | 11/11/2009
Though the Clipboard is one of the fundamental parts of the Windows operating system, there is little information about how it works, especially in the low level. In this article, I’m going to tell you something about the Clipboard internals by showing how you can forbid access to it.

How to save money from fixing computer?

By: janson | 11/11/2009
Are you familiar with these problems in your computer below? Mysterious errors, crashes and restarts Sluggish internet and download speeds Trouble loading songs, movies and programs Do you tire of frequently bothering friends for help, or worse, paying a professional to fix your computer? Like a car, without regular maintenance computers begin to accumulate errors that cause slowdowns, crashes and even potential system failure.

Learn Java Easily With an IDE

By: Alberto Pareja-Lecaros | 11/11/2009
Want to learn Java even more quickly than you currently are? IDE's are not just for professionals; learn how you can use an IDE to teach yourself Java even more easily, even if you're an absolute beginner! There are many advantages to using an IDE, why torture yourself by using a standard text editor when you can use the power of an IDE to learn Java even more easily?

Benefits of digital photography-why digital photography is booming?

By: hdrmiar | 11/11/2009
This article shows you some benefits of digital photography and makes an outlook of future development of photography.

History of the Internet

By: Sebastian | 30/07/2007 | Internet
The main goal of this system was to provide a stable communication network that would work even if some of the sites were destroyed in case of a nuclear attack. Unlike the current browsing, the internet back in the early stages could only be used by computer experts and highly qualified professionals such as engineers, scientists and librarians.

Increase the Number of Targeted Traffic in a Day Using Free Services

By: Sebastian | 29/07/2007 | Online Promotion
Would you believe me if I told you that there is a way to start getting targeted visitors today… and without spending a cent?

How to Reach Qualified Prospects Through your Website

By: Sebastian | 22/07/2007 | Online Promotion
Without traffic you will never make money, simple as that!!! There are many ways of driving traffic to your website. Here’s a list of the most popular and effective methods:

How to Design a Lucrative Online Business

By: Sebastian | 22/07/2007 | Online Business
Thanks to the easy accessibility and affordability of the internet, electronic commerce has dominated the marketing practice. With very little knowledge now a person can setup their very own online business in days and start selling products to clients even in the most remote areas of the planet.

Increase your Targeted Traffic by Offering Free Content

By: Sebastian | 22/07/2007 | Online Promotion
If you want to build targeted traffic to your site you have to think outside the box. Search Engine Rankings and Advertising campaigns are not the only ways to drive people to look at you site. By adding free downloads you will attract visitors by hundreds, if not thousands.

What are Cascading Style Sheets (CSS)

By: Sebastian | 22/07/2007 | Programming
Cascading Style Sheets, also known as CSS, are the most popular and neat way of formatting an html page. There are two versions of Cascading Style Sheets (CSS). CSS Level 1 was launched in 1996 and is supported by all browsers. This version is the older of the two and is used mostly for font formatting, text alignment and line spacing.

How to Appear in Google on Days

By: Sebastian | 11/07/2007 | SEO
I was comparing different methods to build traffic and I came across one that worked wonders for me and it’s absolutely free!!!

Submit Your Articles Free: Signup
Article Categories




Use of this web site constitutes acceptance of the Terms Of Use and Privacy Policy | User published content is licensed under a Creative Commons License.
Copyright © 2005-2008 Free Articles by ArticlesBase.com, All rights reserved. (0.22, 1, w1)