CSS: The Missing Manual: The Missing Manual

by David Sawyer McFarland

Overview

Web site design has grown up. Unlike the old days, when designers cobbled togetherchunky HTML, bandwidth-hogging graphics, and a prayer to make their sites look good,Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) now lets your inner designer come out and play. But CSSisn't just a tool to pretty up your site; it's a reliable method for handling allkinds of presentation--from fonts and colors to page layout. CSS: The MissingManual clearly explains this powerful design language and how you can use it tobuild sparklingly new Web sites or refurbish old sites that are ready for an upgrade.

Like their counterparts in print page-layout programs, style sheets allowdesigners to apply typographic styles, graphic enhancements, and precise layoutinstructions to elements on a Web page. Unfortunately, due to CSS's complexity andthe many challenges of building pages that work in all Web browsers, most Web authorstreat CSS as a kind of window-dressing to spruce up the appearance of their sites.Integrating CSS with a site's underlying HTML is hard work, and often frustratinglycomplicated. As a result many of the most powerful features of CSS are left untapped.With this book, beginners and Web-building veterans alike can learn how to navigatethe ins-and-outs of CSS and take complete control over their Web pages'appearance.

Author David McFarland (the bestselling author of O'Reilly's Dreamweaver: TheMissing Manual) combines crystal-clear explanations, real-world examples, a dashof humor, and dozens of step-by-step tutorials to show you ways to design sites withCSS that work consistently across browsers. You'll learn how to:

• Create HTML that's simpler, uses less code, is search-engine friendly, andworks well with CSS



• Style text by changing fonts, colors, font sizes, and adding borders



• Turn simple HTML links into complex and attractive navigation bars-completewith CSS-only rollover effects that add interactivity to your Web pages



• Style images to create effective photo galleries and special effects likeCSS-based drop shadows



• Make HTML forms look great without a lot of messy HTML



• Overcome the most hair-pulling browser bugs so your Web pages work consistentlyfrom browser to browser



• Create complex layouts using CSS, including multi-column designs that don'trequire using old techniques like HTML tables



• Style Web pages for printing

Unlike competing books, this Missing Manual doesn't assume that everyone in theworld only surfs the Web with Microsoft's Internet Explorer; our book providessupport for all major Web browsers and is one of the first books to thoroughlydocument the newly expanded CSS support in IE7, currently in beta release.

Want to learn how to turn humdrum Web sites into destinations that will captureviewers and keep them longer? Pick up CSS: The Missing Manual and learn thereal magic of this tool.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780596554521
Publisher:	O'Reilly Media, Incorporated
Publication date:	08/24/2006
Series:	Missing Manual Series
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	496
File size:	16 MB
Note:	This product may take a few minutes to download.

About the Author

David Sawyer McFarland is president of Sawyer McFarland Media, Inc., a Web development and training company in Portland, Oregon. He's been building websites since 1995, when he designed an online magazine for communication professionals. He wrote the bestselling Missing Manual titles on Adobe Dreamweaver, CSS, and JavaScript.

David Sawyer McFarland is president of Sawyer McFarland Media, Inc., a Web development and training company in Portland, Oregon. He's been building websites since 1995, when he designed an online magazine for communication professionals. He's served as webmaster at the University of California at Berkeley and the Berkeley Multimedia Research Center, and oversaw a complete CSS-driven redesign of Macworld.com. David is also a writer, trainer, and teaches in the Portland State University multimedia program. He wrote the bestselling Missing Manual titles on Adobe Dreamweaver, CSS, and JavaScript.

Table of Contents

The Missing Credits; About the Author; About the Creative Team; Acknowledgements; The Missing Manual Series; Introduction; How CSS Works; The Benefits of CSS; What You Need to Know; HTML: The Barebones Structure; How HTML Tags Work; XHTML: HTML for the New Era?; HTML 5: The Wheel Turns Again; Software for CSS; About This Book; The Very Basics; Part I: CSS Basics; Chapter 1: Rethinking HTML for CSS; 1.1 HTML: Past and Present; 1.2 Writing HTML for CSS; 1.3 The Importance of the Doctype; 1.4 Getting the Most out of Internet Explorer 8; Chapter 2: Creating Styles and Style Sheets; 2.1 Anatomy of a Style; 2.2 Understanding Style Sheets; 2.3 Internal Style Sheets; 2.4 External Style Sheets; 2.5 Tutorial: Creating Your First Styles; Chapter 3: Selectors: Identifying What to Style; 3.1 Tag Selectors: Page-Wide Styling; 3.2 Class Selectors: Pinpoint Control; 3.3 ID Selectors: Specific Page Elements; 3.4 Styling Groups of Tags; 3.5 Styling Tags Within Tags; 3.6 Pseudo-Classes and Pseudo-Elements; 3.7 Advanced Selectors; 3.8 Tutorial: Selector Sampler; Chapter 4: Saving Time with Style Inheritance; 4.1 What Is Inheritance?; 4.2 How Inheritance Streamlines Style Sheets; 4.3 The Limits of Inheritance; 4.4 Tutorial: Inheritance; Chapter 5: Managing Multiple Styles: The Cascade; 5.1 How Styles Cascade; 5.2 Specificity: Which Style Wins; 5.3 Controlling the Cascade; 5.4 Tutorial: The Cascade in Action; Part II: Applied CSS; Chapter 6: Formatting Text; 6.1 Formatting Text; 6.2 Changing Font Size; 6.3 Formatting Words and Letters; 6.4 Formatting Entire Paragraphs; 6.5 Styling Lists; 6.6 Tutorial: Text Formattingin Action; Chapter 7: Margins, Padding, and Borders; 7.1 Understanding the Box Model; 7.2 Control Space with Margins and Padding; 7.3 Adding Borders; 7.4 Coloring the Background; 7.5 Determining Height and Width; 7.6 Wrap Content with Floating Elements; 7.7 Tutorial: Margins, Backgrounds, and Borders; Chapter 8: Adding Graphics to Web Pages; 8.1 CSS and the Tag; 8.2 Background Images; 8.3 Controlling Repetition; 8.4 Positioning a Background Image; 8.5 Using Background Property Shorthand; 8.6 Tutorial: Enhancing Images; 8.7 Tutorial: Creating a Photo Gallery; 8.8 Tutorial: Using Background Images; Chapter 9: Sprucing Up Your Site's Navigation; 9.1 Selecting Which Links to Style; 9.2 Styling Links; 9.3 Building Navigation Bars; 9.4 Advanced Link Techniques; 9.5 Tutorial: Styling Links; 9.6 Tutorial: Creating a Navigation Bar; Chapter 10: Formatting Tables and Forms; 10.1 Using Tables the Right Way; 10.2 Styling Tables; 10.3 Styling Forms; 10.4 Tutorial: Styling a Table; 10.5 Tutorial: Styling a Form; Part III: CSS Page Layout; Chapter 11: Introducing CSS Layout; 11.1 Types of Web Page Layouts; 11.2 How CSS Layout Works; 11.3 Layout Strategies; Chapter 12: Building Float-Based Layouts; 12.1 Applying Floats to Your Layouts; 12.2 Overcoming Float Problems; 12.3 Handling Internet Explorer 6 Bugs; 12.4 Tutorial: Multiple-Column Layouts; 12.5 Tutorial: Negative Margin Layout; Chapter 13: Positioning Elements on a Web Page; 13.1 How Positioning Properties Work; 13.2 Powerful Positioning Strategies; 13.3 Tutorial: Positioning Page Elements; Part IV: Advanced CSS; Chapter 14: CSS for the Printed Page; 14.1 How Media Style Sheets Work; 14.2 How to Add Media Style Sheets; 14.3 Creating Print Style Sheets; 14.4 Tutorial: Building a Print Style Sheet; Chapter 15: Improving Your CSS Habits; 15.1 Adding Comments; 15.2 Organizing Styles and Style Sheets; 15.3 Eliminating Browser Style Interference; 15.4 Using Descendent Selectors; 15.5 Managing Internet Explorer Hacks; Chapter 16: CSS 3: CSS on the Edge; 16.1 An Overview of CSS 3; 16.2 CSS 3 Selectors; 16.3 Opacity; 16.4 RGBA Color; 16.5 Text Shadow; 16.6 Font Freedom; 16.7 Generated Content; Part V: Appendixes; CSS Property Reference; CSS Values; Text Properties; List Properties; Padding, Borders, and Margins; Backgrounds; Page Layout Properties; Table Properties; Miscellaneous Properties; CSS in Dreamweaver CS4; Creating Styles; Adding Styles to Web Pages; Editing Styles; Managing Styles; Examining Your CSS in the Styles Panel; Using the Code Navigator; CSS Resources; References; CSS Help; CSS Tips, Tricks, and Advice; CSS Navigation; CSS and Graphics; CSS Layout; Browser Bugs; Showcase Sites; CSS Books; CSS Software; Colophon;

David Sawyer McFarland is president of Sawyer McFarland Media, Inc., a Web development and training company in Portland, Oregon. He's been building websites since 1995, when he designed an online magazine for communication professionals. He wrote the bestselling Missing Manual titles on Adobe Dreamweaver, CSS, and JavaScript.