Getting Started with CSS

Objectives Assess style rules Create an embedded style sheet Implement an ID selector Implement a class selector Use multiple selectors HTML 5 and CSS 3 – Illustrated Complete

Objectives (continued) Create an external style sheet Link to an external style sheet Add a comment to a style sheet Debug and validate CSS code HTML 5 and CSS 3 – Illustrated Complete

Assess Style Rules CSS (Cascading Style Sheets): adds style information to elements defined in HTML code Style rules: lines or blocks of CSS code that specify the presentation of web page elements Declarations: basic building block of CSS, includes a property name and a value, e.g. text-align: center HTML 5 and CSS 3 – Illustrated Complete

Assess Style Rules (continued) Style rules contain two main parts Selectors: identify the HTML elements to which the rule applies Declarations: specify CSS property to apply to the selector and value to assign to the property Each declaration (property: value) ends with a semicolon All declarations surrounded by curly braces HTML 5 and CSS 3 – Illustrated Complete

Assess Style Rules (continued) CSS style rule CSS properties and values HTML 5 and CSS 3 – Illustrated Complete

Create an Embedded Style Sheet Embedded Style Sheet: CSS code inserted in the head element of an HTML document Most straightforward method for affecting the presentation of a single web page Generally used only with a single web page Labor intensive to update embedded styles if added to lots of web pages HTML 5 and CSS 3 – Illustrated Complete

Create an Embedded Style Sheet (continued) Embedded style rule and resulting web page HTML 5 and CSS 3 – Illustrated Complete

Implement an ID Selector id selector: affects the presentation of a specific HTML element Add id attribute to opening tag of an HTML element to give it a unique value e.g., <p id=“name”> John Smith </p> Use # and id value to create CSS id selector for a style rule e.g., #name {text-align: right;} HTML 5 and CSS 3 – Illustrated Complete

Implement an ID Selector (continued) Style rule using id selector HTML 5 and CSS 3 – Illustrated Complete

Implement an ID Selector (continued) Presentation resulting from use of ID selector HTML 5 and CSS 3 – Illustrated Complete

Implement a Class Selector class attribute: can be assigned to multiple HTML elements class selector: creates a style rule based on values assigned to the class attribute Allows style rule to be applied to unlimited number of separate elements Consists of period followed by class attribute value; e.g. .accent HTML 5 and CSS 3 – Illustrated Complete

Implement a class Selector (continued) class attribute and style rule with class selector added HTML 5 and CSS 3 – Illustrated Complete

Implement a class Selector (continued) Presentation resulting from use of class selector HTML 5 and CSS 3 – Illustrated Complete

Use Multiple Selectors Multiple selectors allow you to add the same style rule to multiple HTML elements Type selector name, comma, space (optional), next selector name Type a curly brace, followed by the declaration(s), followed by a curly brace HTML 5 and CSS 3 – Illustrated Complete

Use Multiple Selectors (continued) Commonly used CSS selectors HTML 5 and CSS 3 – Illustrated Complete

Create an External Style Sheet External style sheet: separate file containing style information Suitable for maintaining a consistent style in large websites Prevents need to implement style changes on each page of website Changes made to external style sheet are reflected in all web pages linked to that style sheet Can be linked to multiple HTML pages HTML 5 and CSS 3 – Illustrated Complete

Create an External Style Sheet (continued) HTML 5 and CSS 3 – Illustrated Complete

Link to an External Style Sheet Use the HTML link element to link an HTML document to an external style sheet, e.g. <link rel=“stylesheet” href=“mystylesheet.css” /> Attributes of the link element HTML 5 and CSS 3 – Illustrated Complete

Link to an External Style Sheet (continued) Web page linked to an external style sheet and the style sheet HTML 5 and CSS 3 – Illustrated Complete

Link to an External Style Sheet (continued) Multiple pages styled by external style sheet HTML 5 and CSS 3 – Illustrated Complete

Add a Comment to a Style Sheet Use comments in CSS style sheet to document the file Syntax for style sheet comments /* for opening tag [comment text] */ for closing tag Format for style sheet comments Can be single line Can be multi-line HTML 5 and CSS 3 – Illustrated Complete

Add a Comment to a Style Sheet (continued) Style sheet with comment added HTML 5 and CSS 3 – Illustrated Complete

Debug and Validate CSS Code Important to debug and validate CSS code against CSS rules even when CSS code works in browser testing Helps ensure compatibility of code with different user agents Helps ensure that code remains usable You can use online tools to validate your code HTML 5 and CSS 3 – Illustrated Complete

Debug and Validate CSS Code (continued) Use developer tools to debug code, such as developer tools in Chrome HTML 5 and CSS 3 – Illustrated Complete

Debug and Validate CSS Code (continued) Use online service to validate CSS code, such as W3C validation service page HTML 5 and CSS 3 – Illustrated Complete

Summary HTML and CSS are complementary languages CSS uses style rules HTML specifies the page content CSS indicates how the content should be displayed CSS uses style rules Selector, which identifies the HTML element Declaration, which includes a property name and a value HTML 5 and CSS 3 – Illustrated Complete

Summary (continued) Different types of selectors affect different groups of elements Type selector: applies to all HTML elements of a specific type, such as h1 id selector: applies to a single element having a specific unique id class selector: applies to elements with a value specific to the class attribute Multiple selectors: applies the same rule(s) to different elements HTML 5 and CSS 3 – Illustrated Complete

Summary (continued) Embedded style sheets are included in the HTML code Suitable for single page websites External style sheets can be linked to multiple web pages All linked web pages can be changed by changing a single style sheet Use the link element to link a web page to a CSS style sheet HTML 5 and CSS 3 – Illustrated Complete

Summary (continued) Use comments to document the style sheet /* [comment text] */ Use developer tools to debug CSS code Use online validation service to validate CSS code against CSS rules HTML 5 and CSS 3 – Illustrated Complete