1.5 Day Course

Performance-based objectives

• Identify style sheets of various types, understand the advantages and risks of designing with style sheets, and apply correct style sheet syntax.
• Apply CLASS and ID selectors to customize styles, use the DIV and SPAN elements to construct styles, and create an external style sheet and linking documents to it.
• Understand the rules of the cascade, and create cascading styles.
• Style text with typographical properties, including aligning and indenting text, controlling the spacing of lines and characters modifying other text characteristics; declare specific and generic fonts size fonts with various methods; and create variations of font styles.
• Apply text and background colors with a variety of methods and other background techniques, like controlling background tiling and position.
Control the margins, borders, and padding of page elements, and create floating elements and list styles.
• Apply position properties to control page layout by absolute and relative coordinates, and control the width, overflow, and layering of page elements.
• Create styles that break down gracefully, such as dynamic hyperlinks and cursor styles, and apply filters and contextual styles.

Prerequisites

This course is designed for students who want to learn how to use Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) to develop and design Web sites. Students will learn how to use all the features of the CSS-1 specification, and a few features of CSS-2. Students will explore browser workarounds and sound development principles along the way. Upon completion of this course, students will be able to identify style sheets of various types, customize styles, apply positioning properties, control background appearance, and create styles that break down gracefully. This course is designed for the student who is a savvy computer user, is comfortable using the Internet, and is experienced with HTML. We do not provide basic computer, Internet, or HTML concepts in this book. A student who isn't familiar with basic computer terminology, or who hasn't used the Internet or HTML will probably want to first take the following courses:

• Windows: Introduction
• Introduction to Internet Explorer or Netscape Communicator
• HTML 4.0: Level 1
• HTML 4.0: Level 2 (optional)

Course Content

Introduction to Cascading Style Sheets (CSS)

• Designing with Style Sheets
• Style Sheet Syntax
• Creating Simple Rules

Creating Rules

• Applying Class and ID Selectors
• The DIV and SPAN Elements
• Linked (External) Style Sheets

Conflicting Rules: The Cascade

• Rules in Conflict; Cascading Order

Text and Font Properties

• Typographical Properties
• Font Properties

Applying Colors and Backgrounds

• Applying Colors
• Background Techniques

Box Properties

• Formatting with the Box Model
• Borders
• Floating Elements
• Styling Lists

CSS Positioning

• Positioning Elements Absolutely and Relatively
• Layering Elements with the z-index Property

• Dynamic Link Colors
• Cursor Styles
• Styling Form Elements
• Dynamically Linked Style Sheets
• Contextual Selectors