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Tutorial Section
This site is not merely created to show off work that I have done but also to assist other people with their design.
In this section, I hope that you will find some information that will serve some purpose to you. If there are any errors in the information please do let me know so that I can make changes to ensure the info I am providing is accurate. I can only hope that you can learn something from me.
Once you're ready to build your website with the help of css, it is always a best practice to look for the best web hosting sites that can help you establish your web presence.
Now let's get on with business!
What is CSS ?
CSS stands for Cascading Style Sheets. It allows for much richer document appearances than HTML. With CSS you can set colors on text and in the background of any element; you can create borders around any element; you can use it to change the way text is capitalized, its spacing and more, much more effects.
Another big advantage is that it can help keep your document size as small as possible with speedy download times as a result. How is that possible you will ask. Well, using CSS in an external sheet that is linked to your pages: the CSS rules are written in the external file and that file is linked to your pages. The web browser will search for the file, load it and use whatever rules it contains to render the HTML document.
Ah, you say, but it has still to load the external file, so how would that speed up my download time? Because most pages use a lot of FONT tags and tables to achieve nifty visual effects but this creates a lot of HTML markup and that, in return, creates a big file size. But with CSS you can achieve the same (and better) effects with far more compact code so the file size get's smaller. Besides, once the sheet is downloaded, it remains in the users' browser cache.
Using an external sheet has also the advantage that making changes site wide will take just seconds. Assume you have set all your H1 elements to be blue but some day you need them to be red. You have about 200 of them site wide. Well, with CSS you change the value blue to red and it applies immediately to all your H1 elements !
Now, if things aren't clear, don't worry. They will be in time.
CSS, just like HTML, has it's own syntax and set of rules. They are described in the specifications laid down by the W3C, the founding fathers of CSS. At the moment, there are two "levels" to CSS: they are known as CSS1 and CSS2 (in fact there are three: CSS3 but that's still in a "developing" stage).
In time You will find yourself going to the official specifications, but i warn you: it's, not to say the least, very cryptic so i suggest that you first get yourself a good book or/and an on-line tutorial.
So CSS is easy to use ? Well, yes and no. The main problem is the difference between all the browsers out there. You will see along the way that a lot of browsers do not support CSS the way it should be: according to the WC3 spec's.
The most notorious is Netscape 4.x, but also IE (IE 6 is better) can give you grieve.
Some more scribbles for you to look at.
More Pages
Links to other parts of the site.
Friends
People who have been good enough to me that I would call them friends.
You can get your W3C stuff at the W3C site
It's has all the specifications you need, some tutorials and also validation tools. If you get into CSS you'll be needing this link !
Unless otherwise expressly stated, all original material of whatever nature created by Dzinelabs and included in this site and any related pages, including the weblog's archives, is licensed under The Creative Commons License.
