Chapter 10: Control Presentation with Style Sheets

Overview

How to…

• Understand CSS

• Add inline styles

• Embed a style sheet

• Link to a style sheet

• Apply CSS properties

HTML was developed to define the structure of a document when Web and Internet documents were entirely text-based. The advent of graphical browsers and Web design stretched HTML far beyond its capacity. To accommodate the needs of Web designers, extensions were added to HTML to increase its ability to address a document’s appearance and structure. Unfortunately, this was roughly similar to doing interior decorating with two-by-fours and six-penny nails. You might be able to do it, but it won’t look good—two-by-fours and big nails are useful in building the structure of a house, but for finished carpentry you want quality woods, molding, paint, wallpaper, and stain.

Likewise, HTML was not developed for controlling the appearance of a document. HTML is the equivalent of the two-by-fours and large nails. For finished Web “decorating,” you need better materials and tools. Enter Cascading Style Sheets. CSS offer a set of tools that enable you to refine, finish, and polish the appearance of an element, a page, even an entire Web site.