
This is a legacy document, and retained on the site in order to avoid link rot. The content is likely no longer (a) accurate, (b) representative of the views and philosophies of current site management, or (c) up to date.
CSS Pointers
CSS Pointers Menu
These links were compiled by Toby Brown, Jan Roland Eriksson, and Sue Sims. Additional information about the authors' CSS philosophies and usage may be found online. Suggestions and criticisms are welcome.
New items are flagged with the [new!] notagif. (TM) Links which have been moved to the archives are marked with {A}.
>- XSL/XML/DSSSL
- Books and Reviews
- Bugs and Tests
- Implementation Solutions
- CSS Columns
- Browser Support
- Authoring Tools
- Demo Pages
- Miscellaneous
- Essays and Articles
- Tutorials
- Resources
- Dynamic HTML Links
- FAQs
- {A}Snippets: Ersatz FAQ, Tidbits...
- {A}Tips and Workarounds
- {A}History of ciwa.stylesheets
- Contact us
CSS from the W3C
- Associating Style Sheets with XML documents, 29 June 1999 recommendation.
- Working Draft: Color Profiles for CSS3
- Working Draft: Multi-column layout in CSS.
- Paged Media properties for CSS3.
- Note: Accessibility Features of CSS.
- Proposal: CSS Namespace Enhancements.
- Working Draft: International Layout in CSS.
- Translating CSS to DSSSL
- Cascading Style Sheets, level 1
- CSS2 Recommendation 13 May 1998
- CSS2 Tables
- CSS2"> Changes from CSS1
- Raggett's Guide to CSS - A CSS beginner's tutorial which presupposes no knowledge of style sheets. The author promises additions to the article covering CSS positioning, printing and aural style sheets.
- Details of Core Styles Project
- Core Styles applied to this introductory page:
- Midnight
- Chocolate
- Modernist
- Oldstyle
- Steely
- Swiss
- Traditional
- Ultramarine
- CSS 'Validator'
- Validate with a text area
- Validate by upload
- Download the Validator
- {A}Notes, Working Drafts and Proposed Recommendations
The Amazing Mr. Fahrner
- Font Size Intervals
- Beyond the Font Tag
- The Box Acid Test tests browsers for correct implementation of the CSS box model.
- The Amazing Em Unit
- Set up a personal stylesheet UI in Mac IE4.01+
- Dithering
- Notes on CSS UI
- Some problems with CSS implementations - Todd Fahrner
- CSS Train Wreck
-
Todd Fahrner's Base Stylesheet
The Base Stylesheet describes the "consensus default" rendering of all HTML 4.0 elements in Mosaic-derivative Web browsers (Netscape Navigator and Microsoft Internet Explorer). It is intended as an exercise in stylesheet architecture, a browser testing tool, an (unofficial) complement to the HTML 4.0 specification, and a basis for editing or "cascading in" other stylesheet modules.
Tutorials
- [new!] CSS Tutorial by Style Master.
- CSS Tables
- CSS Positioning, Part I
- CSS Positioning, Part II
- CSS: A cautious endorsement - The author provides a table listing Netscape table problems and solutions. Additionally, Netscape users are able to access all of the associated style sheets on the site.
- CSS Tutorial in Italian
- Downloadable CSS Tutorial from Style Master.
- WDVL provides CSS property descriptions in "Putting Style Sheets in Perspective":
- font
- font-family
- font-style
- font-variant
- font-weight
- font-size
- line-height
- text-decoration
- text-transform
- font-family
Problems in Implementation
- Our own compliation of what's wrong, and what can be done about it.
- Matthew Hughey presents The Little Shop of CSS Horrors .
- Style Sheet Implementation Bugs - E. Stephen Mack
A mini-suite testing backgrounds and horizontal rules, truly WYSINWOG.
- CSS caveats offer reminders of how users may miss out on your CSS.
Bug Reports
Test Pages/Suites
- CSS2 Test Suite from Daniel Glazman. In the French language, the tests are grouped into general categories.
- Daniel Greene's font test drive let's you see how *your* browser handles some basic font styles.
- David Baron provides CSS Tests for the following browsers:
- Navigator 4.05
- Internet Explorer For Windows 4.01 SP1
- Internet Explorer For Windows 5.0b1
- Opera 3.5 beta 9 for Windows 32-bit
- NGLayout Engine
- CSS1 Test Suite (W3C) "is provided as a way for vendors and page authors to test their browser's conformance to the CSS1 specification."
- CSS test pages (W3C)
- Float test page (W3C)
- Ian Graham provides CSS Tests which cover CSS properties and HTML Elements
Solutions in Implementation
- CSS1 and the Decorative HR - The most useful solution to utilizing style with horizontal rules is revealed, along with the process by which author Alan Flavell investigated implementation differences in his search for a workable solution.
CSS Columns
- CSS columns is a tutorial using… columns to describe the CSS technique, and explain the problems.
- Steven Traub offers his excellent article, Designing for Multiple Browsers Without being Bland in CSS columns, as well.
Browser Support
- The Definitive Style Sheet Reference - Meyer - Very complete comparison of IE and NN support on Win'95 and Mac platforms.
- Style Master's Guide to Browser Support
- Emacs/W3 CSS Support
- CSS Attributes
- CSS1 support in Microsoft Internet Explorer 3.0 - Braden McDaniel
- CSS1 Support in MSIE for Macintosh
Demo Pages
CSS Examples
- WDVL Examples
- Chicago Style adapted by Steve Knoblock.
- Style Sheet from Christopher Davis.
- Complements his HTML file (which is worth reading).
- Sample Style Sheet provided by Lars Eighner.
HTML with CSS
- Marcus Kazmierczak offers examples of three different styles, applied to the same document.
- First style
- Second style
- Third style
- Stephen Traub's essay, Designing for Multiple Browsers Without Being Bland - This is worth reading through, *before* looking at his use of CSS to create a non-bland design, including drop caps.
- Enhanced Designs - Toby Brown and Liam Quinn not only use CSS, but suggest some design considerations well worth considering.
- Anita Rowland's Journal uses a different style sheet for each month. Seems a useful technique for changing document-wide or site-wide style on a regular basis.
- The WDVL: A Style Sheets Example
- Style Sheets Demo Page - Daniel Greene. Besides Microsoft's dubious CSS Gallery, Daniel's pages were one of the first places to see Style Sheets in action, back in the early days. : )
- Microsoft CSS Gallery - Microsoft's (see adjective above) CSS Gallery.
- Steve Goldfarb's Opening Document
Miscellany
- Everything you never wanted to know about forms
- Form Tricks
- Working with Form elements (Dynamic Duo)
- The CSS Book Store
- Dave Raggett's Tidy , a utility to clean up your HTML. According to the author: Missing or mismatched end tags are detected and corrected, end tags in the wrong order are corrected, fixes problems with heading emphasis, recovers from mixed up tags, perfecting lists by putting in tags missed out, missing quotes around attribute values are added, proprietary elements are recognized and reported as such.
- From the WDG, Liam Quinn's Widgets for IE4
- CSSCheck from the Web Design Group Liam Quinn's excellent 'lint' for checking the syntax and style of your CSS. Somewhat limited support for CSS 2 and beyond.
- Now, using CSSCheckUp , you may select a Cascading Style Sheet from your computer to be uploaded and checked
- Message index of www-style@w3.org mailing list Discussions by interested parties, including those responsible for the CSS Specification, on current and proposed implementation issues. Not the best place to ask questions about your own authoring problems, but a good place to glean current concerns.
- The Stylesheets Newsgroup The best place to ask questions about your own authoring problems. Also available via Google Groups
Useful links
- Web Standards is an effort to promote UA compliance to W3C recommendations.
- Toby Brown offers Web Site Development Information and Good Site Design Practice as part of the Enhanced Designs web site.
- Webmaster's Reference Room - Electronic Software Publishing provides an extensive listing of links of interest to authors.
- Web Design Group - Everything you wanted to know about HTML, but were afraid to ask.
- From Stephen Traub, two excellent selections, enhanced with CSS columns.
Essays & Articles
English Language
- Marcus Kazmierczak has Css and a bit of Javascript to share in his suite of CSS documents. (See Demo Pages)
- Stylizing the Web, Take 2 - Wired News looks at CSS2, and quotes Håkon Lie and Daniel Greene about the future of CSS, and browser implementations.
- A short guide to CSS1 by Urban Fredriksson.
- Tutorial from WDVL
- Creating your First Style Sheet
- Brief introduction to Style Sheets by Jukka Korpela.
- Colors in HTML (German). The longer version of Hubert Partl's essay. The
- Why Style Sheets are Harmful - "Yucca" shares concerns about the complexity, incomplete specification, change to the user/author paradigm, and warns of using CLASS declarations as a means to add extensibility to HTML.
- Effective Use of Cascading Style Sheets (Alertbox July 1997)
- Best viewed with CSS1 - Christopher Davis
- What Is…a cascading style sheet (a definition)
- Style Sheets-First Looks - Author Terry Sullivan's first musings on CSS.
- Style Sheets - Second Glances
Non-English
- Einführung in CSS: Grundlagen
- CSS by Lars M. Garshol (in Norwegian)
Resources
- Cascading Style Sheets - Another excellent reference from the Web Design Group. Very comprehensive, in a newly designed format, utilizing - CSS!
- The Definitive Style Sheet Reference - Meyer - Very complete comparison of IE and NN support on Win'95 and Mac platforms.
- Style Sheets Guide from Brian Wilson and Index DOT Html - Compilation of CSS resources, including an CSS FAQ (see link below).
- CSS1 Properties Quick Reference Table - Schwarte
- CSS Quick Ref - Pemberton
CSS FAQs
- The ciwas FAQ
- The ciwasa Authoring FAQ
- Italian FAQ
- IRT.ORG's CSS FAQ
- Scott Brady's Stylish CSS FAQ
- From the CSSPG, a Notafaq
- FAQ from the HTML Writer's Guild - Refreshing honesty about missing/buggy implementation, with concise examples, and some good "tips".
- FAQ from Brian Wilson - A basic CSS primer, with a reminder to consider backward compatibility.
- Everything you never wanted to know about forms
Contact Us
TM: (for notagif) It isn't really; it's just coined by Sue 2 February, 1998. (Happy birthday, Chris!)
Special thanks to Ian Feldman for some excellent design suggestions, which were Full-O-Reason. [tm]
These links were compiled by Toby Brown, Jan Roland Eriksson, and Sue Sims. Additional information about the authors' CSS philosophies and usage may be found online. Suggestions and criticisms are welcome.