This entry attempts to summarize, in point form, the various topics related to basic CSS web design I have written in the first two years of this blog's existence. I have included links to relevant entries where appropriate. If you were unfamiliar with web development, I would recommend starting with Beginning Web Development.

Introduction to Cascading Style Sheets

• Discuss a brief history of CSS.
• Describe browser support for CSS.
• Discuss the importance of structure/style separation.
• Diagram the order of CSS influence: inline, embedded and linked.
• Explain basic CSS syntax and write a simple CSS declaration.
• Describe the cascading mechanism and inheritance.
• Discuss media type support in CSS.
• Create an external style sheet.
• Write a comment in a style sheet.

CSS Color & Units

• Define the four methods by which colour may be defined in CSS.
• Define the five absolute and nine relative units of measurement that can be used in CSS.
• Describe concrete and fluid philosophies of web design and the appropriate units of measurement for each.

CSS Selection Techniques

• Describe basic and advanced selection techniques.
• Use class and id attributes.
• Apply style rules to text elements using various selection techniques.

CSS and Images

• Place an image on a page.
• Discuss issues associated with float.
• Create a simple CSS image gallery.

Customizing the Appearance of Tables and Lists

• Customize the appearance of lists.
• Modify the appearance of table elements.
• Create a navigation menu for a website using XHTML and CSS.

Layout In CSS

• Describe the use of box properties, float and position in CSS.
• Use divs to create a complex web page layout.
• Customize the appearance of a semantic form

Photograph by Flávio, used under a Creative Commons license

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