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GDT 150 Design for the Internet: Fall 2001

Class Notes 10.11.01

Using CSS

Cascading Style Sheets are used to control typography in 4.0+ browsers, and can be used to control layout in 5.0+ browsers. Since Dreamweaver uses Netscape 4 (the least css-enabled browser) as a rendering engine, we'll stick to typography.

CSS in Dreamweaver

Adding a stylesheet for the first time

  1. Show the CSS Styles Inspector
  2. Click the Add Style icon at the bottom of the palette
  3. Choose Type: "Redefine HTML Tag", choose a tag from the dropdown, and select Define In: "(New Style Sheet File)". Click OK
  4. Choose a location to save the stylesheet: your root folder, and give it a name: something.css
  5. Select from the categories in the left window and then define properties (most often we'll use type and background)
  6. When defining type sizes, use pixels or ems. Pixels allow you the most control, while ems use the user's default size. Pixels should be whole numbers, ems can be decimals (1.2em)

Editing a stylesheet

  1. Click the Edit Style Sheet button on the CSS Styles inspector
  2. Choose the stylesheet you want to edit
  3. Choose the selector or tag that you want to edit or click new to add another selector
  4. Proceed as before