CSS Help - CSS FAQ - frequently asked questions

CSS Help - faq

I hope this list can answer the most common questions on Cascading Style Sheets.

What is CSS ?

CSS stands for Cascading Style Sheets and is a simple styling language which allows attaching style to HTML or XML elements.

What are Cascading Style Sheets ?

Cascading Style Sheets are a template containing a collection of rules. The governing body of the web, the W3C, recommended the use of CSS in December 1996 with the ratification of the CSS Level 1 specification. A CSS sheet is attached to an HTML document, to influence its layout when accessed via a browser. CSS supports cascading, i.e. a single document may use two or more stylesheets that are than applied according to specified priorities.

Why use Cascading Style Sheets ?

By designing your pages using a single, or even multiple, external style sheets, you can apply those changes to your site by modifying the style sheet and then simply uploading the modified version.

How do style sheets work ?

Put simply, a style sheet is a set of instructions that suggest how a web browser should draw a page.

A style sheet is made up of a series of instructions called statements. These statements define elements such a fonts, text and links which affect a HTML page that the style sheet is embeded or attached to. To effect the style of the corresponding HTML page the elements must be marked up inside HTML tags.

Each statement is made up of a selector which selects page elements and a declaration which tells a browser how selected elements should be drawn.

How do I link to a style sheet ?

A style sheet can be associated with an HTML document. by placing a link in the head of the HTML file which points to the CSS file.

With this link, when the browser begins reading the page, it sees the style sheet link, and downloads the style sheet then uses the style sheet to draw the page.

The advantage with external style sheets, is that they can be reused on several HTML documents. If you want to change the style of your pages, you also do not have to alter the HTML code, but only the style sheet.

<link href="css-help.css" rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" />

The markup above shows how I linked my CSS file - css-help.css to this HTML document.

 

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