Cascading Style Sheets

CSS stands for cascading style sheet. CSS is an emerging technology that is improving Web design by permitting developers to separate content (which goes in the HTML file) from styling (which goes in the CSS file). Over the past few years, the Web has been transitioning from table-based page design, in which HTML tables were used to layout Web pages, to CSS layout, which uses absolute positioning to place so-called divisions onscreen. You create divisions with DIV tags in your HTML, then you use CSS to position the DIVs onscreen.

One of the greatest advantages of CSS is that it makes Web pages more accessible for users with special needs. In fact, you can use different style sheets for different classes of users, depending on their needs. You can also design a style sheet for printing and use it to give users the option of displaying a printer-friendly version of your page.

The World Wide Web Consortium's Web Accessibility Initiative recommends that whenever possible, Web pages should use CSS instead of HTML tables for layout. This recommendation is one of the Quick Tips for Web accessibility.

Consider using CSS to create the layout for the project you will create in this course.

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