A Beginners Guide to CSS

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What is CSS?

If you're just learning HTML, chances are that you're using font tags to change text size and color. Writing out tables just to shove your paragraphs over a bit to the right. Has it ever gotten to you? Admit it - somewhere deep inside you can feel that something is wrong. You don't know what it is, but it's there... like a splinter in your mind, driving you mad.

What is CSS?

Cascading StyleSheets are a method for formatting pages. They give you far more control over your pages than simple HTML, and the end result is much cleaner. And since you can set one rule to format multiple paragraphs, even multiple pages, it is quicker, leads to smaller file sizes, and makes updates much easier.

CSS can control your text, backgrounds, images, and even reposition elements on your page. The ultimate goal is to entirely separate structure from presentation. When this has been accomplished, one simple change to your StyleSheet can update all pages referencing it.

CSS has been around for quite a while. CSS-1 was released in 1996, and CSS-2 was released two years later in 1998. Most of today's major browsers support CSS fully, although Internet Explorer's support is imperfect and you may notice glitches from time to time.