What is CSS?

Another standard web technology that you will need to become familiar with when designing websites is CSS or Cascading Style Sheets. CSS is a collection of styles that control layout and presentation of XHTML. Styles can target specific elements, IDs, class names or combination these elements to write greater control over specific style application. The main purpose of using CSS is to separate structure and presentation.

That way your code is left to describe the meaning of the content. While the CSS controls typography and layout. Even better your site is now easier to update and maintain as your CSS can be contained in the single external file. If you wanna change how your main heading looks size wise for example you can change single rule and the change will cascade throughout your entire site. Another advantage in using CSS is the ability to change style sheets for different devices. You can use one style sheet for screen devices, another for print and yet another for handheld devices. That way the same content can be given three very different presentations for different devices. When writing style you can place them in external style sheets embedded then with specific sheets or write them inline in the specific tags. How you write your CSS determines in which order they cascade applies styles and it gives you greater control over styling. While we will discusses best practices and strategies for writing your CSS later, it’s important to note that Dreamweaver integrates cascading style sheets in every workflow and process that can affect layout and styling. So understanding how CSS works and having a site wise strategies emplaced priority building pages is essential to ensuring efficient style application.