The Whole Ed Catalog

"You can't judge a book by its cover," the adage says, but people do just that. Publishers expend considerable effort developing cover art for that very reason. Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) effect only the presentation of web content, not the content itself. So why bother? Some people don't. Much of the truly authoratative "techie" content of the WWW will be found on absolutely plain-vanilla pages displayed purely in the browser-default style.

If you've developed a seminal work of overwhelming importance, consider this Spartan look. Otherwise, you should realize that without even being aware of it, most people equate the credibility of your site with its stylistic embellishments. It's not fair. It's not right. It is true. If your site is even the least bit commercial, at some point you're going to need CSS.

CSS is a feature of the HTML 4 Specification that facilitates graphic presentation "style" of various page elements typically across multiple pages. Stylesheets provide considerable versatility in formatting HTML text, and so their full description is a bit intimidating. Fortunately, browsers revert to their own default style unless it is overridden by a higher-priority stylesheet, so it is not necessary to specify all possible values within a style rule.

• W3 Schools Tutorial - This well-organized and comprehensive tutorial starts with the basics and builds from there. Includes a useful CSS2 Reference. Highly recommended.

• Adding a touch of style - This basic tutorial makes some good points about whitespace, colors, fonts, and borders.

• HTML Goodies CSS Tutorials - A collection of tutorials on specific CSS topics.

• CSS Generators - No substitute for learning CSS, but good sources of cut-and-paste snippets.
  
  
  • CSS Creator Build three-column page layout.
  • CSS Creator Create various CSS properties.
  • List-u-Like CSS Generator Generate CSS navigation bars. Advanced options available.
  • CSS Template Generator Three-column layout. Source code available.
  
  
  
• W3C CSS Validator - Online, local, or direct input. "Advanced Interface" links allow you to select CSS level & other parameters.

• Lie, Hakon Wium and Bos, Bert. Cascading Style Sheets -
  The Originators of the CSS standard explain its use in detail. Indispensible as a reference. Somewhat lacking as a tutorial.

• Briggs, Owen, et. al. Cascading Style Sheets: Separating Content from Presentation 2nd ed. -
  A better choice for Beginning / Intermediate Web designers.

• CSS Pointers Group CSS Links
• WDG CSS Page
  
• Builder.com Links
  
• CSS Drive CSS examples, templates, etc.

Frames Without Frames - Technical article on using floating stylesheet elements to simulate frames. After reading it check out the Stylesheet Generator (Beta)

• Tutorial on IE 5+ "expression()" function