Beginning Programming ALL-IN-ONE DESK REFERENCE FOR DUMMIES®

Chapter V.2. CSS

Designing Web pages with HTML (HyperText Markup Language) lets you create and display text that can be read through a browser on a variety of devices such as personal computers, mobile phones, and game consoles. However, changing the content on a Web page often means changing the HTML code as well. Ideally, you want to leave the HTML code untouched and just change the text, much like pouring different liquids (such as coffee, juice, or milk) into a bottle so each type of liquid always appears in the shape of that bottle.

That's the idea behind cascading stylesheets (CSS). First, you store different styles in a separate file or in a separate area in the same file, which contain instructions for formatting text. Second, you apply that stylesheet to a text file or text in that same file. The combination of the stylesheet file and the text creates the display of the Web page inside a browser.

Cascading stylesheets get their name because you can apply multiple stylesheets to the same text file. The end result is a combination of styles defined by two or more stylesheets. If one stylesheet defines a certain font but a second stylesheet defines a different font, the text appears with the font defined by the last stylesheet.

By using stylesheets, you can make formatting text on your Web pages easy, fast, and simple.

The Structure of a Stylesheet

Like ordinary HTML, stylesheets use tags to define how to format text. To define a style, you use the <style> and </style> tags and ...