CSS
Web Design
The Nuts and Bolts of How CSS
Web Design Works
If you are ready to design
your own website, you're probably trying to decide
first of all which programming language to use.
You've heard about XHTML, PHP, CSS, etc. Perhaps
you're a beginner that already knows the basics of
HTML, but wish to expand your learning. CSS design
is recommended as the next step up from
basic
HTML web design
because of its familiar coding and ease of
use.
What is CSS
Design?
CSS stands for "cascading
style sheets" and it is a style tool or language
used for all sorts of web layouts. Whether you want
a simple website with some text along with a few
images and links or a more complex web solution
with forms, shopping cart, streaming audio or
video, flashing menus, etc., CSS gives you the
flexibility needed to create any type of site you
want.
The key to successful CSS web
design is learning to design a style sheet
appropriately. The style sheet tells the rest of
your pages what to do and how to look. You'll
design one style sheet and designate HTML codes
from that style sheet to control various aspects of
your web pages. There are also style sheet
templates in various designs to help you get
started with the basics of a web page in
CSS.
If there are areas of your
site that need to always remain consistent on every
web page, the style sheet will keep this
consistency for you. You won't have to make changes
on every single page when you need to change
certain HTML codes, such as the color of your
navigation menu or the width of a certain column.
What Can a Style Sheet
Control?
A style sheet can control
just about any function on a website. It works
using "selectors" and "elements." Selectors are
commands that identify which element you wish to
style. Element is the actual function or feature of
a web page that you want to control with
CSS.
Some examples:
- Borders
- Column/Row width, height
and color
- Forms
- Page background
color
- Navigation menus (drop down
horizontally or vertically, mouseover, or static
menus)
- Links (colors, hover
features, etc.)
- Text fonts, height, style,
weight and variants
- Counters
- Margins, padding and
spacing
... and much more!
Saving the Style
Sheet
The style sheet in CSS design
will be saved as a .CSS file instead of an .HTML
file. It's designated as such so your web server
will be able to distinguish the file as a style
sheet. Once the style sheet has been uploaded to
your server, every web page you create that is to
be controlled by the style sheet will be linked to
the .CSS file using a special code.
This doesn't mean you won't
edit each page individually to add content,
products, etc. It simply means that the features
you want to remain consistent (like the sidebar)
throughout will be controlled by the style sheet as
you make changes to other aspects of the page
individually.
A Magnificent Time
Saver!
The main benefit of using CSS
is it can save you a great deal of time as your
site grows larger. You might start with only 5 to
10 web pages, but end up with hundreds, or even
thousands. Wouldn't it be nice to be able to change
certain features without opening every single page
file?
Now that you know a little
about CSS, get started with an affordable
online tutorial or CSS web design
course today and
start realizing its full potential! Just click the
link below to see the features ..
CLICK
HERE to Learn Beginner Web Design Online
>>
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Design Class
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Basics
HTML
Text Size
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Page Designers
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