Writing for the Web

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p>Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) allow you to specify the format, placement, and (in some cases) the behavior of text, images, and other elements on a Web page. The purpose of CSS is to separate the coding of your content from the coding of the appearance of that content. A style sheet, for instance, can define the font face, size, and color of the text in a paragraph, as well as the indentation, alignment, and line spacing of the text. By using a style sheet, you can avoid coding each paragraph individually. You can also make changes that affect multiple paragraphs by changing the description of a paragraph in a single style sheet.

Style sheets are not without their disadvantages, however. Older browsers do not support style sheets, and newer browsers do not support them in the same way. By sticking with some basic styles, however, you can create a site that appears in the same way in different browsers.Consider using Cascading Style Sheets because they can allow you easily to make changes that affect your entire site. But consider potential limitations, such as the possibility that your readers may be using browsers that do not – or incompletely – support CSS.

Links Page: Learn more about Cascading Style Sheets on the Cascading Style Sheets links page. Coding Primer: Learn how to use Cascading Style Sheets on your pages in Using Cascading Style Sheets.

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