Cascading Style Sheets

Full Name

Cascading Style Sheets - Otherwise known as CSS

Information

A scripting language used to describe the presentation of structured documents. A structured document is a document whose sections are clearly defined and categorized. A program presenting the document can present it in different styles because the content has been categorized. One common style sheet language with widespread use is CSS (Cascading Style Sheets), which is used to style documents written in HTML, XHTML, SVG, XUL, and other markup languages. One of the most attractive features of structured documents is that the content can be reused in many contexts and presented in various ways. Different style sheets can be attached to the logical structure to produce different presentations.

When used in conjunction with HTML 4.0 (or later) and Javascript embodies what is known as Dynamic HTML or DHTML

Related Links

Also referred to by the abbreviation, CSS

Wikipedia Articles

• Cascading Sytle Sheets
• Style Sheet Languages
• Use in web development

Other References

• W3.org article on tableless layout
• W3.org CSS home page
• W3.org CSS tutorials
• XHTML.com CSS Reference
• Cascading Style Sheets PhD thesis, by Håkon Wium Lie
• CSS ZenGarden
• Camera on the Road Site

Example Sites

• CSS Play

Incorporation into HTML

Incorporate stle sheets by inclusion of a file as follows:

<link href="/css/common.css" media="handheld,print,projection,screen,tty,tv" rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" />

Note the different media types...

The successful load of CSS files can be verified with Javascript as follows:

  <script type="text/javascript">
    try {
      DynamicCss.addCssUrl('/css/print.css', 'print');
    } catch(e) {}
  </script>