CSS Techniques
Saturday, July 17, 2010
Examples and Code
Workshop Description
In this hands-on one-day workshop, students will start with a basic web page based on semantic XHTML markup and correctly style the page elements—header, footer, content, navigation—using best practices in CSS. In creating a linked CSS style sheet, we will look at several valid ways to create a 3-column layout without tables, and will address a variety of key CSS concepts: organizing a style sheet; using reset styles; building a fixed, elastic, or liquid layout; positioning elements (floats, relative and absolute positioning); streamlining your code; and integrating some new CSS3 modules.
To register, visit the Truman College Continuing Education website and scroll to the bottom of the page.
Student Learning Outcomes
Upon completion of the seminar, to the extent that time permits, students will be able to to the following:
- State the advantages of using CSS, particularly an external CSS style sheet, over table-based layouts
- Create a reusable external style sheet for a web page and organize it using a logical, hierarchical structure
- Use reset styles to achieve more consistency and control across various browsers
- Use specificity and the cascade to ensure desired styles are interpreted and applied properly
- Use inheritance, shorthand, and group selectors to eliminate unnecessary code
- Build basic fixed, elastic, and liquid page layouts and state the pros and cons of each approach
- Create a three-column float-based layout in several ways
- Explain and use absolute and relative positioning
- Incorporate several new features that CSS3 offers (i.e., rounded corners, opacity, RGBA color, and box and text shadow), while still providing a good experience for users with older browsers
Web Resources
- A List Apart (CSS Topics)
- And All That Malarkey (Andy Clarke)
- css-discuss.org
- meyerweb.com (Eric Meyer)
- Guidelines for Accessible and Usable Web Sites
- zeldman.com (Jeffrey Zeldman)
Recommended Books
Note: No textbook is used in this hands-on workshop. The CSS-related books listed below are all excellent additions to any web designer's library, and they address many of the concepts covered in the workshop.
- Handcrafted CSS, Dan Cederholm
- Transcending CSS, Andy Clarke
- Flexible Web Design, Zoe Mickley Gillenwater