CSS for the masses!

[Betty Ann]

I'm working on some articles and tutorials on my website to help people with CSS. A lot of tutorials out there are confusing, even to me! So I'm trying to make some that are easy to understand for beginners. I just wanted to ask you guys if there was anything you wanted to know about, or anything you'd specifically like me to make a tutorial about.

Here are the ones I've created so far:
Custom Scrollbars - I don't think you need any prior knowledge of CSS at all to use this one, it's basically copying and pasting.

External Style Sheets - External Style Sheets are SO USEFUL!! fire soul, I was thinking of you when I made this one. After looking at your code today, I think using external style sheets could save you a lot of time! Anyway, this article is still in the process of being written, but I'm almost finished, so I figured I'd post it here anyway. I tried to make it as easy as I could... if you still think it's really confusing, let me know what you're confused about!


I think that next I'm going to write something about CSS codes for changing how links are displayed...

[kali]

Please pimp the external style sheets like MAD. I'm amazed at how many people still rely on either inline style or tables.

[Betty Ann]

kali said:

Please pimp the external style sheets like MAD. I'm amazed at how many people still rely on either inline style or tables.

I know!!! And I see so many problems with people's websites, and so many people asking for help with their div layers/tables because of it. If people would just start using external style sheets, all the info would be in one place that could easily be changed!! Instead, for some reason, people want to use WAY over-complicated tables that they can't figure out how to work, or they want to squish everything together at the top of every page, so that it's unreadable. They can't even read what they've written, so they make mistakes, and go crazy trying to fix them. I see it on a lot of forums where people are asking for website help. It's kind of sad :\

[Haruka]

kali said:

Please pimp the external style sheets like MAD. I'm amazed at how many people still rely on either inline style or tables.

I'm confused. I use external style sheets and put iframes or tables in the html code of the page. So... what's wrong with it? I just don't know what you're saying. ^-^;;


Edit - Oh yeah... I don't know if this is the right place to suggest this, but I would LOVE a tutorial on PHP. I never learned it and lately it's like you can't do anything without it.... plus I heard it makes changing layouts much easier! Just a suggestion. ^^

[Betty Ann]

haruka said:

kali said:

Please pimp the external style sheets like MAD. I'm amazed at how many people still rely on either inline style or tables.

I'm confused. I use external style sheets and put iframes or tables in the html code of the page. So... what's wrong with it? I just don't know what you're saying. ^-^;;

I don't think she meant iframes, I think she just means like if you put your css right on the page you're making, instead of putting it into an external style sheet. For tables, those were meant for organizing actual content on pages, not for the appearance of webpages. DIV layers are A LOT better and more precise. They're also easier to read and code. Here's a good article about it (not written by me):

Why tables for layout is stupid (it's not laid out so well, and is kind of weird, but it has cute graphics. Just keep clicking next!)

Maybe next I'll write an article about how to use div layers

haruka said:

Edit - Oh yeah... I don't know if this is the right place to suggest this, but I would LOVE a tutorial on PHP. I never learned it and lately it's like you can't do anything without it.... plus I heard it makes changing layouts much easier! Just a suggestion. ^^

PHP is a pretty good idea! I'm not the greatest at PHP, but maybe I can do something with require/includes. I think your best bet for changing layouts is CSS!! CSS makes things sooooo easy, that's why I love it so much

[kali]

Why tables for layout is stupid (it's not laid out so well, and is kind of weird, but it has cute graphics. Just keep clicking next!)

The talk about spacer .gifs reminds me of my first layout attempts way back in 199*mumblemumble*. Double nested tables, animated .gifs, repetative font tags...

And Betty Ann was right, inline style is style coded into the .html instead of into the external style sheet. If someone is going to use css, they might as well take it a step further and use an external sheet.

As for tables for layout design, I think that link says everything that needs to be said (and with a lot less swearing and raving than I would use ) I do use tables for actually info layout, since that's what they're for after all.

[Haruka]

Oh, I see what you're saying..... I thought you were saying something completely different about css. I agree that external style sheets are much more useful.... less people tend to steal your code that way too. Thanks Betty!