CSS in easy steps

Since being introduced in the late nineties, Cascading Style Sheets or CSS has become an indispensable tool for every web creator and author. CSS gives web designers complete control over how an HTML page looks without using unwieldy HTML tags.

CSS isn't just more easy to use than HTML; this style sheet language is more powerful, more flexible, and "smarter" than the old markup language. With CSS, you'll be able to specify text colour and background colour; create surrounding borders; increase or decrease surrounding space; set text capitalization and decoration; and even control the element's visibility. This streamlined markup standard even lets you control and maintain the appearance of an entire website from a single style sheet.

CSS in easy steps teaches you all the basics of this exciting web technology. With its easy-to-understand text, illustrated examples and cut-to-the-chase sidebars, this primer provides the keys to choosing font styles, controlling text content, styling content boxes, formatting backgrounds, creating dynamic effects, and much more. The book's detailed table of contents, chapter summaries, and index will enable you to troubleshoot problems instantly.

The book that can bring you into new millennium web design is now on your screen!

Mike McGrath now lives in South-east Europe, on the sun-kissed shores of the Aegean Sea. Mike gained his extensive knowledge of computer languages while working as a developer contracting to companies around the world. His interests include coins of ancient Greece, dining-out with friends, and the ongoing evolution of the world wide web.

1. Introducing CSS
   • Web page evolution
   • The CSS solution
   • Creating an internal style sheet
   • Linking external style sheets
   • Importing external style sheets
   • Assigning inline style rules
   • Overriding style rules
   • Summary
2. Selecting target elements
   • Understanding rule structure
   • Selecting targets to style
   • Making multiple style declarations
   • Using the wildcard
   • Targeting by class
   • Targeting by identity
   • Selecting attribute targets
   • Selecting partial attribute values
   • Selecting targets by relationship
   • Summary
3. Determining rule status
   • Performing the cascade
   • Announcing important rules
   • Creating browser and user styles
   • Considering origins and weights
   • Calculating selector specificity
   • Inheriting styles
   • Sorting by order
   • Summary
4. Describing property values
   • Painting colors
   • Setting absolute sizes
   • Setting relative sizes
   • Addressing locations
   • Using keywords
   • Summary
5. Choosing font styles
   • Suggesting font preference
   • Specifying font size
   • Adjusting font weight
   • Varying font styles
   • Using the font shorthand
   • Summary
6. Controlling text content
   • Aligning horizontally
   • Aligning vertically
   • Indenting and spacing
   • Decorating text
   • Governing space and direction
   • Summary
7. Understanding content boxes
   • The block content box
   • The inline content box
   • Changing display formats
   • Creating special blocks
   • Summary
8. Styling content boxes
   • Specifying border styles
   • Using the border shorthand
   • Specifying padding styles
   • Using the padding shorthand
   • Specifying margin styles
   • Using the margin shorthand
   • Summary
9. Positioning content boxes
   • Centering content boxes
   • Positioning boxes absolutely
   • Stacking content boxes
   • Positioning boxes relatively
   • Fixing constant positions
   • Floating content boxes
   • Clipping and handling overflow
   • Summary
10. Laying out tables
    • Controlling page layout
    • Sizing table columns
    • Spacing table cells
    • Collapsing table borders
    • Assigning table characteristics
    • Summary
11. Formatting lists and backgrounds
    • Electing marker styles
    • Assigning a graphic marker
    • Positioning list markers
    • Using the list shorthand
    • Choosing backgrounds
    • Positioning background images
    • Using the background shorthand
    • Summary
12. Generating content
    • Enhancing text
    • Numbering sections
    • Highlighting content
    • Customizing cursors
    • Outlining components
    • Summary
13. Creating dynamic effects
    • Highlighting the current focus
    • Styling hyperlinks by status
    • Reacting to interface events
    • Interacting with CSS buttons
    • Moving within the document
    • Hiding and revealing components
    • Summary
14. Reference section
    • Properties and values
    • Selectors
    • Pseudo-classes
    • Pseudo-elements

• Zip file containing the CSS code examples (282 KB)