Unit Eight

Adding a Little Style

This Unit:

Reading Assignment:

Read Chapter Eight closely. We are totally shifting gears in this chapter and starting with a new language: CSS 2.1.

Be sure that you work through all the exercises in the chapter. I know it seems like you can "understand" what they are saying just by reading the text, but I promise you that you will understand the information better if you try it out personally.

A really excellent CSS reference is at this location on HTML Dog site:

http://www.htmldog.com/reference/cssproperties/

The same site has a great reference section for XHTML Strict too:

http://www.htmldog.com/reference/htmltags/

Personal Calibration:

If you have not worked with CSS before, this chapter may seem a little intimidating. Don't get scared. The good thing about all web design is that you can take your time and figure it out.

CSS is very powerful and entire books have been written about it. You are not going to understand every part of it perfectly in one chapter, but if you take the time in this course to really learn the "basics" well, the advanced topics will come to you later much more easily.

Our text book is a little "cute" at times, but it is the best book I have ever seen for making CSS understandable. The things that CSS can do are almost limitless. (Remember the web sites we looked at in http://www.csszengarden.com/ ?) I hope you can give yourself some time to play around with CSS and figure it out on a personal level.

In Chapters 8 and 9 we will learn how to decorate/style text and elements.

In Chapters 10, 11, and 12 we will learn how to place things on the web page with a great deal of precision. (Why is my picture on the left at the top, instead of on the right at the bottom of the page? CSS did it!)

Discussion:

As I was putting this course together I was pulled in two directions.

First: I know that most people want to do excellent web sites that they can be proud of when people see them on the web.

Second: I have learned lots of things over many years, but if I try to cram everything into one course that is only 2 units, I am not being fair to people who are carrying a full load and trying to balance their workload between several classes.

So, how much is enough; how much is too much?

How's this course, CBTE-162 going for you? We are half-way through; has there been anything missing? Based upon what you have seen so far, what should I change for next semester's course? Is there something we could do this semester that would make the course better? (You may want to browse ahead to the later units to see if your suggestion is already part of the course.)

Please submit one comment on this topic yourself, and then feel free to comment on your classmates' comments.

Quiz:

Take the quiz.

Assignment:

Add an external CSS style sheet to the web page(s) you created for the Unit Seven Assignment. (See pp. 306-306):

1. Include rules for at least the following elements:
   • body
   • h1
   • h2
   • p
2. Define a class that applies to one p element in your web page. Define at least 2 rules for that class. (See pp. 317-321)
3. Validate your external style sheet by using the W3C CSS Validator.

Post your revised XHTML page on your web site and send me the exact address of that page in the comments section of the assignment on WebCT.

The due date for the Discussion, the Quiz, and the Assignment is listed on the homepage for the course.

...Bill