cascading style sheets guide

Introduction to Cascading Style Sheets

Cascading Style Sheets [CSS] offers a powerful new tool to web developers that helps simplify the complex task of maintaining web sites, and provides great new layout and design features for web pages without the need for plugins, long download times and expensive tools.

Why, then, after 18 months (CSS was first supported by Internet Explorer 3 in late 1996) do so few web developers take advantage of this fabulous web standard?

There are a number of important answers to this question.

First, CSS only really works at all in Netscape Navigator 4.0x and 4.5 and Internet Explorer 3 (a little) 4, 4.5 and 5. Until recently, this has represented a small percentage of web browsers in the world. As we all know, the percentage of surfers who use the latest version of a browser is always increasing. So what was almost inaccessible 6 months ago, is widely accessible today. If you have resisted using or learning style sheets because it is a new technology, keep in mind that probably a majority of web browsers in common use today support style sheets.

Secondly, even though the major browsers have supported style sheets for some time, this support is less than perfect. Many web developers I talk with believe that support is hopelessly inadequate, but this isn't really true.
What is true is the process of trial and error which accompanies trying to make a style sheet work in all major browsers can be time consuming, and extremely frustrating.

One of the major reasons why we developed Style Master was to help web developers address this confusion. We have also developed the Browser Compatability Guide, to help those new to style sheets avoid many of the frustrating pitfalls of developing for inconsistent browser support.

Thirdly, and very importantly, style sheets can be a little tricky to understand at first. Cascading style sheets work a little differently from style sheets you might be familiar with, like those in word processors and page layout tools.To address this third major hurdle, we have developed this Guide.

This guide introduces the concepts and ideas associated with CSS. We also have a more hands-on introduction to working with style sheets. How you approach these two is up to you. If you prefer a hands-on approach, then start with the tutorial, then return to the guide to fill in your knowledge, and to use as a reference. If you prefer to have a thorough understanding of something before you start using it, then try using this guide first, then get into the hands-on side of things.

In this part

In this part we took a brief look at the technology of style sheets, and asked why they aren't everywhere on the web.

In the next installment, we'll ask "what exactly is a style sheet?"

cascading style sheets guide

Introduction to Cascading Style Sheets

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