Which comes first?

[RoseW]

Almost like the chicken or the egg query but it has been a question in my
mind while going through the process of changing over from TABLES to
stylesheet.

I wondered how one knows all that is needed in a stylesheet list before
starting the page. Yesterday, I redid a small page which used tables over to
an external stylesheet. I used references from pagersource.com and articles
from sitepoint.com. I discovered in the process,which went along fairly
well, that I needed another class. That was easy enough to do since I had
the page and the stylesheet open in a tabbed text editor.

1. I wondered what are the BASIC items usually put into an external
stylesheet before launching into putting a web page together and is it part
of the procedure to just add extra things as they are needed?
2. I suppose the labels for these classes are an individual thing but I
wondered if there was a source that gave suggestions for the title of a
class. Since my extra was a <p> situation I just named it .p2 so it could
have its own characteristics (font colour, absence of background etc)
3. Are external stylesheets stored in their own folder on the server
therefore requiring a link path in the head reference?

A friend asked for a website which I put together last month using 'what I
know'. After doing research on the current state of affairs I realized my
'known' was a classic example of 'how not to do a website' -tables,
transparent gifs, nested tables,- When follow up edit or revision comes on
the plate the issue of css or tables is a non-argument I concluded and I'm
NOT an ongoing web production person. That site is complete and does look
good but I'm launching into 'getting to know' css just for its ease of use.

Its one thing to edit an existing web page but to prepare a stylesheet to
start from scratch had me wondering. Many of the very good css reference
sites tend to assume that the content of a stylesheet is a known. I couldn't
find a definite answer to storing the stylesheet either....in with the index
of the whole site or in a stylesheet folder?

Rose

--
"Success is when you don't know whether you're working or playing

[Lauri Raittila]

in comp.infosystems.www.authoring.stylesheets, RoseW wrote:

Almost like the chicken or the egg query but it has been a question in my
mind while going through the process of changing over from TABLES to
stylesheet.

I wondered how one knows all that is needed in a stylesheet list before
starting the page.
Experience.
1. I wondered what are the BASIC items usually put into an external
stylesheet before launching into putting a web page together and is it part
of the procedure to just add extra things as they are needed?
Usually.
2. I suppose the labels for these classes are an individual thing but I
wondered if there was a source that gave suggestions for the title of a
class. Since my extra was a <p> situation I just named it .p2 so it could
have its own characteristics (font colour, absence of background etc)
Use class names that descrie what is the content. So if you have intro
paragraph, use class intro. If you have important paragraph, use class
important. Even if you use same style for both. (you may desice later
that you need to stress important paragraphs more/less)
3. Are external stylesheets stored in their own folder on the server
Practically always.
therefore requiring a link path in the head reference?
In practice.
That site is complete and does look
good but I'm launching into 'getting to know' css just for its ease of use.
Yes. Creating website using CSS for style instead of tables and other
html stuff is much easier. But it is not trivial, mainly because of
browser bugs.
Its one thing to edit an existing web page but to prepare a stylesheet to
start from scratch had me wondering.
The problem with making stylesheet is that it is very hard to do it
before you know what to show. Not that it is easy to style table layout
eiher without knowing content.
Many of the very good css reference
sites tend to assume that the content of a stylesheet is a known.
Don't undertand why you think it is problem? (it is, but several ways...)
I couldn't
find a definite answer to storing the stylesheet either....in with the index
of the whole site or in a stylesheet folder?

Doesn't matter. (expect in some old, now irrelevant, browser had bug on
finding background images etc)
--
Lauri Raittila <http://www.iki.fi/lr> <http://www.iki.fi/zwak/fonts>
Utrecht, NL.

[RoseW]

Laura answered: > 3. Are external stylesheets stored in their own folder on
the server

Practically always-Doesn't matter. (expect in some old, now irrelevant,
browser had bug on finding background images etc) ...Creating website using
CSS for style instead of tables and other html stuff is much easier. But it
is not trivial, mainly because of browser bugs.
Thanks for your immediate response!
I had something hanging in my head and it must have been from a long time
ago that the style.css went in the same area as the index.html. This info
goes along with all the rest of the material that has changed (evolved?)in
the last year or so<grin>

I knew and understood-a little- about css and for sure I agree that it is
NOT trivial just with a month of reviewing and catching up. There is an
acronym K.I.S.S. (keep it simple...) and it seems to me that this 'simple'
concept is drifting away and perhaps its the security factor with browsers
but that's another topic.

Again, I appreciate your answer-saved a lot of searching around again today
:)

Rose
in Canada

[Martin Bialasinski]

"RoseW" <wd**@NShurontel.on.ca> wrote:

1. I wondered what are the BASIC items usually put into an external
stylesheet before launching into putting a web page together
I use a variation of this stylesheet to remove to inconsistency among
browsers and make a plain sheet to start with:
http://tantek.com/log/2004/undohtml.css
and is it part of the procedure to just add extra things as they are
needed?
Yes, I would say so. Creating a web page is a iterative procedure.
2. I suppose the labels for these classes are an individual thing
but I wondered if there was a source that gave suggestions for the
title of a class.
It should describe the content if possible, not the current look
wanted. Like ".annotation" or ".example".
3. Are external stylesheets stored in their own folder on the server
therefore requiring a link path in the head reference?

Technically, it doesn't matter. Storing it in a separate directory is
just a way to keep things sorted.

Bye,
Martin