What is CSS?

CSS (cascading style sheets) are a way of specifiying formatting information for a HTML page or website. A single CSS stylesheet file can be referenced by many HTML pages, reducing the maintenance work necessary to redesign a site, and it allows almost every element of the page to be displayed differently. A stylesheet actually contains no content, but specifies fonts, colours, alignments etc. which the browser uses to display other pages with.

A CSS stylesheet can exist in two forms: either in a separate file (which the individual pages link to), or embedded in each page header. The first way is "pure" CSS and lets you keep all your style information in one place; the second allows an intermediate level of generalisation between the separate stylesheet and a hard-formatted HTML document.

Why use CSS?

CSS stylesheets give you much greater control over the way your pages display, without the need for a whole collection of tags within your document. It is a high-level standard, allowing you to produce pages that look good on all browsers and screen resolutions while not sacrificing any of the desired features, such as font size, typeface, colours etc.

The CSS Stylesheet Editor is written by Richard Smith and is not a Causeway product. It is © Richard Smith 2001; if you have comments relating to the Editor please send them to richard@redcorona.com not the address below.