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Intro Cascading Style Sheets

In order to specify formatting, (fonts, layout, background, colors, etc.),  of an HTML document, beginning Web page authors apply separate tags to each different part of a document. This creates two problems: 1. The HTML source is more complex than necessary and 2. global changes to a document are not possible. Cascading style sheets, (CSS), is a solution for both of these problems. CSS allows authors to more completely achieve independence in a document's content from its formatting than is possible using HTML. 

CSS Standard

CSS is a rapidly evolving standard set forth by the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C). The latest CSS specification is not completely supported by the major Web browsers. These pages will attempt to cover only those basic aspects of CSS that are cross-browser compatible. 

Outline

This brief introduction to CSS is composed of four parts.

1. The three types of CSS styles
2. The three methods of applying CSS styles to a document 
3. The two approaches for specifying global Web site style sheets
4. Positioning/layout of objects on a web page

Further Optional Study / Resources

The following links will help you to extend your knowledge of CSS:

• c|net's introduction to CSS
• Cascading Style Sheets Tutorial by Norman Walsh
• Steve Mulder's (Web Monkey) Stylesheets Tutorial
• Creating Your First Style Sheet by Eric Meyer
• Yahoo's CSS Links