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LIS1510 Library and Archives Automation Issues Further features of XHTML – Stylesheets and CSS. Andy Dawson Department of Information Studies, UCL (University of Malta 2010). What we will be covering today. A very quick look at most of the advanced elements of the XHTML workbook: Image maps
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LIS1510Library and Archives Automation IssuesFurther features of XHTML – Stylesheets and CSS Andy Dawson Department of Information Studies, UCL(University of Malta 2010) Andy Dawson
What we will be covering today • A very quick look at most of the advanced elements of the XHTML workbook: • Image maps • Tables • Forms • Frames • Stylesheets in a little more detail • Using colour values in XHTML and stylesheets • More practical work on your projects!
Image maps • A method for making areas of images “clickable” • Client-side processed • Overlays an invisible “grid” on your image – the image map • Map definition and image are quite separate • Always remember to provide a textual alternative!
Tables • a useful facility • for tables of information • for laying out some page designs without CSS • Tables need to be specified carefully • Cells of data, within rows, within a table • Tables are not automatically reconciled! • Best to create blank tables “in reverse” and then populate with data
A simple table <table> <tr> <td>Row 1, Col 1</td> <td>Row 1, Col 2</td> </tr> <tr> <td>Row 2, Col 1</td> <td>Row 2, Col 2</td> </tr> </table>
Forms • A tool for gathering information from users • Provides specific prompts for information • Data is then sent somewhere (usually to a computer process) • Can’t really do much without server-side processing
Frames • Screen split into independent sections • a different document displayed in each section • frame loading and the target atttribute • Now deprecated by W3C • bookmarking problems • Tables and CSS quite often used to mimic some effects of frames without the drawbacks
Stylesheets • A definition of a document’s appearance: • typeface, size, colour for headings and text • line spacing, margin widths on all sides • spacing between headings … and much more! • Specified at the beginning of a document by linking or embedding, or inline use • Written in various special languages, e.g. CSS1
Stylesheets • Promotes the separation of form and content • Allow Web designers to ensure consistency across a site’s pages • Specific elements of the overall stylesheet can be overridden locally (cascading) • Use of stylesheets is recommended by the World Wide Web Consortium • Stylesheets can be used with modern (IE5+ or Netscape 4+) graphical browsers
Some basic stylesheet elements • Linking to external stylesheets: • <link href="special.css“ rel="stylesheet” type="text/css"> • Syntax • TAG { property : value; } • <TAG style=“property:value;property:value;”> … </TAG> • Some common properties font-family : font-size : font-style : font-weight : color : background-color • See handbook, cribsheet and the W3c website (www.w3.org) for further information – stylesheets are very useful!
Local and Inline style • Any tag can be given a “one-off” application of style with a style attribute • Classes can be established to modify tags repeatedly but irregularly • Blocks of a page can be changed with <div> and <span> tags • Always remember principles of inheritance! • Order – most local takes precedence!
An example embedded stylesheet <html> <head> <style type="text/css"> body {color : #000000; font-family : arial; sans-serif; font-size : 13px;} p {color: #ff0000;} .special {color : #00ff00;} </style> </head> <body> <p> This paragraph is black text… </p> <p class="special">This paragraph is green text!</p> </body> </html>
A note about colours • The Hexadecimal RGB triplet • RGB colour mixing • Hexadecimal representation • How to work out your colours • Palette tools, e.g.http://www.linkline.com/personal/jkun/palette.htm • Websafe colour charts:www.lynda.com/hex.html
That’s all for today… • Any questions? • Next session – XML and extensible systemsMore practical work • Now carry on with your projects!