CSS

Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) is a powerful standard Web designers and developers can use to separate content from presentation — making it easier to manage the look and feel of a Web site.

This overview of CSS is a collection of concepts to help get you started on a path to Web enlightenment.

CSS let’s you work smarter, not harder

Separate content from presentation.
Reduce your need for graphics.
Reduce your amount of code.
Aids accessibility and usability.

Hide the razors

There is a dark side to CSS — while CSS is a standard developed by the W3C, not all browsers support the standard the same way. While Mozilla’s Firefox does a great job of following the rules, Microsoft Internet Explorer (IE) 6 has a very bad reputation for implementing in an unexpected way. As you learn CSS, be mind full:

Accept that each browser interprets CSS differently.
Be daring but flexible — do your best to implement your design, but be open to compromise.
It's dying slowly, but always check your page in Internet Explorer 6. If you are running IE 7 or 8, you can install Multiple IEs to run many previous versions of IE.

The push for standards-compliance has helped to reduce browser variations, but you still need to consider your users who have older browsers.

IE6 is notorious for bizarre implementation of CSS standards, but since it is the dominant browser, we have to accommodate it. Some designers choose to sniff your browser and load a style sheet designed for that browser. This creates a lot more work if anything changes. Plus, with the release of IE7, what will become of hacks designers put in place to fix IE bugs?

Bookmark these guys

W3 Schools — wonderful reference for XHTML, CSS, PHP, SQL, and more
The Highly Extensible CSS Interface — a clearinghouse of CSS concepts and tricks.
NYPL Style Guide — a pretty darn good starting point if you are new to XHTML and CSS.
Eric Meyer — the guru on CSS, for hand-coders, you’ll love the reset CSS file.
CSS Vault and CSS Zen Garden — get inspired!
A List Apart — articles about CSS, standards, accessibility, and more
Position is Everything — all about CSS bugs (mostly IE)
eduStyle — design in the higher ed world