Learning ASP.NET 3.5, 2nd Edition

Chapter 6. Style Sheets, Master Pages, and Navigation

Back in the early mists of time, when the Earth was young and the Web was new (circa 1994), we created web pages in HTML (HyperText Markup Language). After many eons (or so it seemed), we were able to add styles to the HTML elements, allowing us to take greater control over the presentation of web pages.

Eventually content (the HTML) was divided from presentation and layout through the use of styles, and that was good. In fact, it came to pass that presentation information was given its own file—a style sheet—to allow for reuse, a consistent presentation across many pages, and easier maintenance, and that was very good indeed.

Styles and style sheets are a significant (but often overlooked) tool for web developers, too often ignored by “programmers” who disparage style sheets as being in the realm of “designers”—leading to the creation of web applications that are ugly and terribly difficult to maintain.

A powerful technique for creating sites with a common look and feel across all of the pages is master pages, covered later in this chapter. Master pages cannot only define the layout of the pages in your site, but they can also contain menus and other navigational aids such as site maps and bread crumbs, and these, too, will be covered in this chapter.

Styles and Style Sheets

A style specifies how an object will be displayed on an output device, typically a browser. Styles can be used to manipulate the layout and appearance of controls ...