CSS Introduction: What You Should Already Know

CSS Introduction
« Previous Next Chapter »
What You Should Already Know

Before you continue you should have a basic understanding of the following:
 HTML / XHTML
If you want to study these subjects first, find the tutorials on our Home page.
What is CSS?
 CSS stands for Cascading Style Sheets
 Styles define how to display HTML elements
 Styles were added to HTML 4.0 to solve a problem
 External Style Sheets can save a lot of work
 External Style Sheets are stored in CSS files
CSS Demo
An HTML document can be displayed with different styles: See how it works
Styles Solved a Big Problem

HTML was never intended to contain tags for formatting a document.
HTML was intended to define the content of a document, like:
<h1>This is a heading</h1>
<p>This is a paragraph.</p>
When tags like <font>, and color attributes were added to the HTML 3.2 specification, it started
a nightmare for web developers. Development of large web sites, where fonts and color
information were added to every single page, became a long and expensive process.
To solve this problem, the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) created CSS.
In HTML 4.0, all formatting could be removed from the HTML document, and stored in a
separate CSS file.
All browsers support CSS today.
CSS Saves a Lot of Work!

CSS defines HOW HTML elements are to be displayed.
Styles are normally saved in external .css files. External style sheets enable you to change the
appearance and layout of all the pages in a Web site, just by editing one single file!
CSS Introduction
What You Should Already Know

Before you continue you should have a basic understanding of the following:
 HTML / XHTML
If you want to study these subjects first, find the tutorials on our Home page.
What is CSS?
 CSS stands for Cascading Style Sheets
 Styles define how to display HTML elements
 Styles were added to HTML 4.0 to solve a problem
 External Style Sheets can save a lot of work
 External Style Sheets are stored in CSS files
CSS Demo
An HTML document can be displayed with different styles: See how it works
Styles Solved a Big Problem

HTML was never intended to contain tags for formatting a document.
HTML was intended to define the content of a document, like:
<h1>This is a heading</h1>
<p>This is a paragraph.</p>
When tags like <font>, and color attributes were added to the HTML 3.2 specification, it started
a nightmare for web developers. Development of large web sites, where fonts and color
information were added to every single page, became a long and expensive process.
To solve this problem, the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) created CSS.
In HTML 4.0, all formatting could be removed from the HTML document, and stored in a
separate CSS file.
All browsers support CSS today.
CSS Saves a Lot of Work!

CSS defines HOW HTML elements are to be displayed.
Styles are normally saved in external .css files. External style sheets enable you to change the
appearance and layout of all the pages in a Web site, just by editing one single file!
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CSS Syntax
Examples
 Look at Example 1
 Look at Example 2
CSS Syntax
A CSS rule has two main parts: a selector, and one or more declarations:
The selector is normally the HTML element you want to style.
Each declaration consists of a property and a value.
The property is the style attribute you want to change. Each property has a value.
CSS Example
CSS declarations always ends with a semicolon, and declaration groups are surrounded by curly
brackets:
p {color:red;text-align:center;}
To make the CSS more readable, you can put one declaration on each line, like this:
Example
p
{
color:red;
text-align:center;
}
Try it yourself »
CSS Comments
Comments are used to explain your code, and may help you when you edit the source code at a
later date. Comments are ignored by browsers.
A CSS comment begins with "/*", and ends with "*/", like this:
/*This is a comment*/
p
{
text-align:center;
/*This is another comment*/
color:black;
font-family:arial;
}
CSS Id and Class

The id and class Selectors

In addition to setting a style for a HTML element, CSS allows you to specify your own selectors
called "id" and "class".
The id Selector
The id selector is used to specify a style for a single, unique element.
The id selector uses the id attribute of the HTML element, and is defined with a "#".
The style rule below will be applied to the element with id="para1":
Example
#para1
{
text-align:center;
color:red;
}
Try it yourself »
Do NOT start an ID name with a number! It will not work in Mozilla/Firefox.
The class Selector

The class selector is used to specify a style for a group of elements. Unlike the id selector, the
class selector is most often used on several elements.
This allows you to set a particular style for any HTML elements with the same class.
The class selector uses the HTML class attribute, and is defined with a "."
In the example below, all HTML elements with class="center" will be center-aligned:
Example
.center {text-align:center;}
Try it yourself »
You can also specify that only specific HTML elements should be affected by a class.
In the example below, all p elements with class="center" will be center-aligned:
Example
p.center {text-align:center;}
Try it yourself »
Do NOT start a class name with a number! This is only supported in Internet Explorer.
Your browser does not support inline frames or is currently configured not to display inline frames.

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CSS Introduction

« Previous Next Chapter »

What You Should Already Know

Styles Solved a Big Problem

HTML was intended to define the content of a document, like:

All browsers support CSS today.

CSS Saves a Lot of Work!

« Previous Next Chapter »

What You Should Already Know

Styles Solved a Big Problem

HTML was intended to define the content of a document, like:

All browsers support CSS today.

CSS Saves a Lot of Work!

« Previous Next Chapter »

Free Online Website Builder - No Downloading Needed

Start Creating your free website now!

Need an easy way to get data into XML, or transform XM

The selector is normally the HTML element you want to style.

Each declaration consists of a property and a value.

« Previous Next Chapter »

CSS Id and Class

The id and class Selectors

Do NOT start an ID name with a number! It will not work in Mozilla/Firefox.

The class Selector

In the example below, all p elements with class="center" will be center-aligned:

« Previous Next Chapter »

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