Dreamweaver CS4 For Dummies®

Chapter 6. Creating CSS Layouts

In This Chapter

• Creating page layouts with CSS

• Using Firefox to turn styles on and off

• Styling unordered lists for links

• Understanding the box model

• Comparing browser differences

• Using Dreamweaver's CSS layouts

• Creating custom CSS layouts

• Using Dreamweaver's AP Divs

• Working with conflicting styles

• Using the design time style sheet

Whether you're new to CSS or you've been struggling (I mean designing) with styles for years, Dreamweaver's many CSS features offer welcome assistance to even the most experienced designers.

One of the challenges with CSS is still a relatively new addition to the world of Web design, and browser support — which can make the difference between a beautiful Web page and a jumbled design that's unreadable — continues to change and evolve.

So Adobe dedicated the equivalent of decades of time (at least in Internet years) to designing a collection of CSS layouts that you can use to get a head start on many common page designs. Whether you're creating static HMTL pages or dynamic, database-driven sites with PHP, you can customize Dreamweaver's pre-styled layouts to create a broad range of Web site designs that are designed to display well in a wide-range of Web browsers. The first part of this chapter shows you how to work with these layouts and how to edit them to create your own designs.

If you prefer, you can create your own custom CSS layouts, and you find a few tips for doing so in the second part of this chapter. You also find instructions ...