Week 11 Articles: CSS
April 14, 2009
Very important topic tackled by different authors in different ways and herein somewhat lies the problem.
- Understanding CSS:
A general review of CSS rules, and the application of CSS. Read Understanding CSS >>
Jon Varese of Adobe has written a good general overview in his two articles (see next article below as well). Yet he does slip into some ‘inside-basball’ discussions leaving new users behind. He writes better than most ‘geeks’ for sure, but his aspirations work against him and us. What do I mean. His articles, at the end, announce that he is currently pursuing a PhD in 19th century British Literature. This will be both his and our loss. This will guarantee that he will never be able to write in clear and concise language – two higly valuable traits needed in the industry and in his current line of work.
- CSS Layouts:
Using the CSS Layouts that are included with Dreamweaver, you can select a premade CSS layout to use and customize in Dreamweaver. Read “CSS Page Layout Basics” >>
The above is an excellent article and I will now sing his praises as a Geek who can write. What a delight, this article!
This next article I must take exception by saying that it is not as advertised. I thought that I was getting a pretty good handle on IDs and Class from our earlier readings and exposure, but now I am not so sure after reading this confusing and poorly written piece on the topics.
But then again – he may have offered me an important insight if I am inferring correctly that you can indeed have multiple ID’s on a page. Who knew? If I understood him correctly (a big assumption) – as long as the IDs are on different elements you can. In other words I was aware that no single element can have multiple IDs. This article is posted below.
- ID and Class Rules – the Difference:
Confused about the difference between an ID and a class? A great explanation. Read “ID and Class Rules>>”
This last article leaves me breathless in that it is not really an article at all in that there is very little, if any, explanation among all the great visual information as to what is really going on beyond the stated headline or premise that they all use the same code. Is as if someone (Adobe in this case) is showing off a great feature but without andy real world context or end user benefit analysis. I am left wonder what is the point beyond seeing some attractive sites. In the technology world this is referred to as a solution looking for a problem.
- CSS Zen Garden website:
A fantastic site that solicits designers from around the world to take the same content area, and using CSS, create a custom, original design. Amazing example of what can be done with CSS from a design standpoint – all of the page examples are the exact same code, with only the stylesheet changing. Review CSS Zen Garden, as well as some of the examples (click on the links on the right side of the homepage).
