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Beginners' Guides To Cascading Style Sheets

By Bud Kraus
bud@joyofcode.com
Joy Of Code
Creator And Instructor

Originally Published: 2005

Where do you start if you're thinking of learning how to use Cascading Style Sheets?

If you're developing and designing web pages and you're not learning what it means to separate the structure of your page from it's style (appearance) then it's time to get crackin'. When I refer to structure I'm talking about the XHTML/HTML markup of your page. Heading tags, paragraphs, tables, links, forms, frames. lists all are used to create the structure of your web page. Remember that brilliant tome of mine, "A Well Formed Document Is A Beautiful Thing"?

But the styling needs of your pages are handled by Cascading Style Sheets. Yes, you could take my new workshop Joy Of Code: Practical CSS" but it's not quite ready so you'll have to wait until Spring 2006.

In the meantime, if you're just starting to learn CSS - or even if you've got some intermediate skills (like me) using CSS - then take a look at these Beginner Guides to CSS to help you get started.

htmldog.com
A Good Practice Guide To XHTML And CSS

If I knew nothing about CSS I'd start right here. In fact it is "assumed that you know as much about CSS as you do about the cumulative effects of sea squirt discharge on the brain chemistry of Germanic ammonites."

Topics - (all well presented, in logical order and well thought out)

  • Applying CSS - The different ways you can apply CSS to HTML.
  • Selectors, Properties and Values - The bits that make up CSS.
  • Colours - How to use colour.
  • Text - How to manipulate the size and shape of text.
  • Margins and Padding - How to space things out.
  • Borders - Erm. Borders. Things what go around things.
  • Putting It All Together - Throwing all of the above ingredients into one spicy hotpot.

The more seasoned CSSer will want to see the CSS Advanced Guide.

Introduction To CSS

This one is reasonably good in explaining how to set up an external .css file and how to write CSS rules into an individual .html file - and why that difference makes all the difference in the world.

A Beginners Guide To CSS Backgrounds

Since using background images with CSS is so popular this page will help you get started with that valuable and frequently used technique.