m0smithslash's Journal: Cascading Style Sheets - The Definative Guide: pages 1 - 10

As I read a book or magazine, I take notes as a JE. Today I started reading Cascading Style Sheets: The Definitive Guide From the first edition - 2000

HTML was orignally a structural language. Later, presentational tags (B I TABLE) were added to allow more control of the presentation. Many web pages have more presentation than structure, hiding the intended meaning. CSS allows the clear separation of structure (HTML) and presentation (CSS).

CSS allows for richer styling than HTML. There are more styling options available. Style commands are centralized, rather than spread out among each web page meaning you can change the color of all the H2 tags in one place rather than everythere they occur, both in a single page and across multiple pages.

Cascading means that the local page can override the general style. Also, the user might be able to create a reader style sheet and further personalize the display.

There are several deprecated tags including: FONT, I, CENTER. These functions are better handled by CSS.

CSS1 does not deal with tables, CSS2 does. CSS1 is weak in positioning of elements. It does not support downloadable fonts. Media types, other than the computer screen, are not well supported. CSS2 corrects some of these deficiencies. Unfortunately, some older browers do a poor job of implementing CSS. Most modern browers do a good job though.

If you don't get CSS see Zen Garden for a great example of the power and uses of CSS, as well as some good references.