THE HTML STYLESHEET SOURCEBOOK

Description of Book Content

The book consists of nine chapters and two appendices. The first two chapters are introductory. Chapter 1 is a simple introduction to the concept of stylesheets, and uses examples to illustrate the CSS approach. Chapter two contains an overview of HTML -- every CSS designer must understand the rules of HTML, in order to understand the application of CSS to HTML documents.

Chapters three through six form a four-part tutorial on of CSS. Chapter seven follows this up with complex CSS formatting examples, complete with explanations and detailed descriptions. These examples illustrate advanced CSS design issues.

The next chapter (eight) is a detailed CSS reference, and describes the CSS syntax and all the CSS properties. Chapter nine concludes with a description of new non-standard CSS features, such as absolute positioning of content and font downloading. These new features are already being implemented in Netscape Navigator 4 and Internet Explorer 4.

Finally, Appendix A described problems and issues related to using color in Web pages (and in CSS), while Appendix B describes length measurements as defined in CSS.

Chapter 1: Introduction to HTML and Stylesheets

Introduction; some simple examples; basics of CSS; CSS examples; exercises

Chapter 2: HyperText Markup Language Review

Review of markup language concepts; role in HTML; special HTML extensions for CSS (CLASS and ID attributes); the importance of accurate markup; CSS examples; exercises

Chapter 3: Tutorial, Part 1: Fonts and Typefaces

Introduction to fonts and typefaces; Web-specific issues and problems; introduction to CSS rules construction; simple rules to control font properties; CSS examples; exercises

Chapter 4: Tutorial, Part 2: Text Formatting Control

Introduction to text formatting issues; CSS formatting properties; more about CSS syntax and rules construction; CSS examples; exercises;

Chapter 5: Tutorial, Part 3: Formatting and Positioning of Elements

Overview of CSS positioning model; block-level and inline elements; floating elements; replaced (and resizable elements); positioning control; CSS examples; exercises

Chapter 6: Tutorial, Part 4: Backgrounds, Miscellaneous Properties and the Stylesheet Cascade

Background colors and images; LINK and @import inclusion of external stylesheets; using !important, constructing and managing large collections of stylesheets; using the CSS cascade to determine applicable CSS properties; CSS examples; exercises

Chapter7: Example Stylesheet Designs

Review of appropriate HTML markup design; five example CSS stylesheets, with the designs described in detail.

Chapter 8: CSS Language Reference

Detailed description of CSS language syntax, and of every CSS property. This is a reference chapter.

Chapter 9: Advanced Features and Future Developments

CSS positioning; scripted documents and the Document Object Model; Font downloading and dynamic fonts; aural stylesheets; printing and other presentation media; list of available CSS-aware software (a more current list is available at this Web site.

Appendix A: Color Issues and Color Specification in CSS

Description of important color issues; CSS color notation; CSS named colors; standardized RGB color representations (sRGB).

Appendix B: CSS Length Units

Overview of length issues in CSS; description of defined CSS lengths; discussion of known problems

Back

ISBN 0-471-19664-9
432 Pages
October, 1997