300 likes | 382 Views
An Introduction to Cascading Style Sheets (CSS). Paul Chisholm Special Assignment Teacher – Computers Upper Canada District School Board paul.chisholm@ucdsb.on.ca. Web Site. You can view all of the materials discussed in today’s workshop session at the following URL:
E N D
An Introduction to Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) Paul Chisholm Special Assignment Teacher – Computers Upper Canada District School Board paul.chisholm@ucdsb.on.ca
Web Site • You can view all of the materials discussed in today’s workshop session at the following URL: http://www.paul-chisholm.com/obea
What Are Cascading Style Sheets? • Cascading Style Sheets allow for the separation of a web page’s structure and content. • CSS removes the visual instructions out of HTML and places them in a separate cacheable document. • A style sheet is a stylistic guideline that specifies how an HTML document is to be displayed within a web browser.
What Are Cascading Style Sheets (Continued) • Setting colours and backgrounds, fonts, and white space are among the most common tasks of CSS. • CSS is a specification under W3C. (http://www.w3.org)
WWW - CSS History • The world wide web (WWW) was created in 1990 by Tim Berners-Lee • CSS was introduced in 1996 by Hakon Wium Lie & Bert Bos.
The Beauty in CSS Design • Visit the following URL to see an example of CSS in action: http://www.csszengarden.com
HTML – HyperText Markup Language • HTML is a series of elements that define the structure of a web page document. • An HTML element (such as TITLE, BODY, etc.) normally has three parts: 1. Start Tag, 2. Content, 3. End Tag • All HTML Tags start with a “<“ and end with a “>”.<TITLE>Paul’s Web Page</TITLE>
HTML Continued • HTML Elements can be categorized into three (3) groups:- Block Level (<P> and <H1>)- Inline (<STRONG>)- Invisible (<TITLE>) • Block Level elements will have a blank line before and after them.
HTML Continued • Inline elements will not have a blank line before and after their introduction. • Invisible elements will have no visible effect within the web browser window. (i.e. The <TITLE> element will only appear in the browser’s title bar.
Empty HTML Elements • Empty HTML elements will appear by themselves without an end tag. (<HR> and <BR> are examples of empty elements.
Parent Child Relationship • There is a parent child relationship that exists between HTML elements. Parents can also be children of other elements. • There are some restrictions as to which elements can be children of which elements. (A <P> element cannot be a child element of another <P>. You cannot have a paragraph within a paragraph.
Creation Tools • Cascading Style Sheets can be created with a simple text editor or a dedicated tool such as TopStyle Lite Version 3.10 • A style sheet is a set of one or more rules that apply to an HTML document i.e. H1 { color: green }This rule sets the colour of all first level headings.
CSS Rules • A CSS Rule consists of two parts:1. Selector – (The part before the left curly brace).2. Declaration – (The part within the curly braces).
CSS Rules (Continued) • A declaration has two (2) parts separated by a colon.1. Property: The part before the colon2. Value: The part after the colon
Comma Separated List H1 {font-style: italic} H2 {font-style: italic} H3 {font-style: italic} Because all declarations are the same, the rules can be grouped into a comma – Separated list. H1, H2, H3 {font-style: italic }
Semicolon Separated List • A selector may have more than one declaration: H1 {color: green } H1 {text-align: center } Declarations relating to the same selector can be grouped into a semicolon separated list: H1 { color: green; text-align: center;}
Assigning CSS to an HTML Document • You can include a CSS inside a web page document using the following syntax: <style type = “text/css”> h1, h2, p, li {font-style: italic } </style>
Assigning CSS to an HTML Document • A CSS can also be referenced outside of the web document. <head> <link href="my_style_sheet.css" rel="stylesheet"> <title>Introduction to Cascading Style Sheets</title> </head>
Assigning A Default CSS to Internet Explorer • Click on "Tools" • Click on "Internet Options" from the drop down menu • Click on the "Accessibility..." button • Click on the checkbox beside "Format documents using my style sheet" • Click on the "Browse" button and navigate to the .css file that you wish to use • Click on the "Ok" button • Click on the "Ok" button
Inheritance • HTML elements inherit traits (stylistic properties) from their parents. <style type = “text/css”> h1, h2, p, li {font-style: italic } </style> Can be represented as this: <style type = “text/css”> body {font-style: italic } </style>
Inheritance (Continued) • Inherit from ancestor. The BODY element is a common ancestor for all visible elements. Inheritance distributes properties to an elements descendents. • Overriding inheritance – The more specific rule will prevail over the more general rule. i.e. BODY versus H1
CSS URL Link Examples A: link { text-decoration: underline } A: visited { text-decoration: none } A: link, A: visited {text-decoration: none } A: hover {background: black }
CSS Margin Example BODY { margin-left: 15%; margin-right: 10%; }
CSS Tutorial Site • Visit the following URL for a tutorial on using CSS: http://www.w3schools.com/css
TopStyle Lite • TopStyle Lite is a free CSS editor that can be downloaded from the following URL: http://www.computeractive.co.uk/vnunet/downloads/2128545/topstyle-lite
Reference Books • Cascading Style Sheets – Designing For The Web – Third Edition – Hakon Wium Lie & Bert Bos