CSS: Cascading Style Sheets: © 2004, Robert K. Moniot

Chapter 6
CSS : Cascading Style Sheets
2004, Robert K. Moniot

Style Sheets
Each element on a page has a style defined for it.
The style is defined by a set of attribute : value pairs.
Style attributes can control:
Typeface and font properties
Background properties
Box-related properties
List properties

Ways to define styles
Default style: provides values for all element properties,
unless you change it. (Note: user can customize
browser to change defaults!)
Inline style: style is defined as an attribute of the
element in-place. Use this for one-off or special styles.
Embedded style sheet: styles defined in the head
portion of web page. Use this if you dont have very
many web pages, or for styles that are useful only for the
given page.
External style sheet: styles defined in a separate file.
Use this to centralize style definitions and provide
uniformity across all pages of a web site.

Embedded Style Sheet
<html>
<head>
<title>Page with embedded style</title>
<style type="text/css">
selector { attribute : value ;
attribute : value ... }
...
Style definitions go into a <style>
</style>
element in document head.
</head> Selector determines what elements the
... style rule applies to.
</html> Style definitions separated by ; are
enclosed in { }

Embedded Style Sheet (contd)
<html>
<head>
<title>Page with embedded style</title>
...
</style>
The type attribute can only be "text/css".
</head>
(It is leaving room for future alternative style
...
languages.)
</html> Note: CSS is not HTML!
Example
<html>
<head>
<title>Example page with embedded style</title>
body { font-family : sans-serif;
color : blue;
background-color : yellow }
h1 { font-style : italic }
p { font-size : 14pt }
ol { font-size : 12pt;
color : red;
font-family : serif }
</style>
</head> Here the selectors are simply tag names. The
... style rules will apply to elements defined by
</html> those tags. Result (Example 1)
Inheritance
A descendant is an element that is enclosed (nested) in
another, its ancestor. (If it is an immediate descendant,
it is a child of the enclosing element, its parent.
Elements having the same parent are siblings.)
All descendants of an element inherit its style properties,
unless these are overridden by their own style rules.
If two styles could apply to the same element, the one
defined by the more specific rule will be used. For
instance, an explicit rule is always more specific than an
inherited rule.

Compound Selectors
Selectors can be defined so that a style rule applies to
an element only when it is a descendant of a certain
other type of element. Examples:
ul ul { list-style-type : square }
This specifies that an unordered list inside another
unordered list will be bulleted by squares.
h1 em em { color : red }
This specifies that emphasized text inside emphasized text in
an <h1> header will appear in red.

Compound Selectors
Compound selectors are more specific than simple

selectors. For instance, if a style sheet defines both
p { color : red }
div p { color : blue }
then for a <p> tag that is inside a <div> element, the

second rule would apply.

Style Classes
These allow you to control which elements of a given
type should use a style rule. This method has two parts:
In the style sheet, the selector defines the class name, which is
preceded by a period.
In the HTML, the tag includes the class attribute and specifies
the value of the class name
Example:
Define the nodec class for anchor tags:

a.nodec { text-decoration : none }
This suppresses the usual underlining. Use it in HTML like so:
<a class="nodec" href="somepage.html">Link text</a>

Style Classes
Style classes can also be generic, i.e. not tied to a
specific element type. Example:
Define the zowie class:

.zowie { text-decoration : blink }
Use it on an emphasized element:
<em class="zowie">Important!</em>
Use it with no other style attributes: Example 2
<span class="zowie">Buy Now!</span>
By the way: promise me you wont ever use blink!

The <span> and <div> Tags
These tags are provided to allow arbitrary chunks of
HTML to be treated as elements. This is usually done in
order to apply style attributes to them, as in the
preceding example.
A <span> ... </span> element defines an inline
structure, i.e. it simply defines a stretch of text. Thus it
can be used within a paragraph or table element without
affecting the flow of the text.
A <div> ... </div> element defines a block structure.
Usually the browser will place line breaks before and
after this element, but otherwise it has no effect itself.

Pseudo-classes
These are like style classes, but an element acquires a
pseudo-class by user action or by a relationship other
than descendancy.
In the style sheet, a pseudo-class name is preceded by a
colon.
In the HTML, the pseudo-class name is NOT used with
the affected tag, because it is implied.

Pseudo-classes
Link-related pseudo-classes
a:link { color : red }

Applies when the link has not yet been visited.
a:visited { color : green }

Applies when the link has been visited.
a:hover { color: yellow }

Applies when the mouse is over the link.

Cascading Rule
If two equally specific rules can apply to the same
element, the one that comes last in the style sheet is
used. Thus, in the example below, a:hover must follow
a:link and a:visited in order to have effect, since a
link can be both visited (or not) and hovering. The order
of the first two doesnt matter since they are mutually
exclusive.
a:link { color : red }

Result (Example 3)
a:visited { color : green }
a:hover { color : yellow }

Pseudo-elements
Closely related to pseudo-classes, in that they are
defined by relationships, not by explicit declarations.
A pseudo-element refers to a virtual element that is
part of an actual element, rather than a special case of
a whole element.
:first-line is a pseudo-element that consists of the

first line of text in a block-level element.
:first-letter is a pseudo-element that consists of
the first letter of the text in an element.

Pseudo-elements
p { text-indent: 1em }
p.initial { text-indent: 0 }
p.initial:first-line { text-transform: uppercase }
p.initial:first-letter { font-size: 24pt }
This indents all normal paragraphs. A paragraph that is declared

with class="initial" is not indented, and its first line appears
in all capital letters, with an extra-large first letter.
Result (Example 4)

Inline Styles
Defined for individual elements, at the point of use (in the
HTML).
Useful for one-off styles that are not likely to be used
elsewhere.
Method:
<tag style="attribute:value; attribute:value ...">
HTML text</tag>
The attribute:value pairs are what would go between { } if this

were a style-sheet rule. There is no selector since the style applies
to this element only.
Example 4
External Style Sheets
A style sheet can be placed in a separate file (usually
named with suffix .css) and referenced by HTML files
that need it.
Useful for centralizing control of style and ensuring
uniform appearance across many pages of a web site.
The contents of the file are what would go between
<style> ... </style> of an embedded style sheet.
Note: this file is not HTML!
The file is referenced using a <link> tag in the HTML
document's head portion.

Example of style sheet
Here is what an external style sheet (named
style.css) could contain:
/* This style sheet defines an "excerpt" class

for paragraphs that is much like blockquote. */
p.excerpt { font-style : italic;

margin-right : 2em;
margin-left : 2em;
}
Note that there is no HTML in this file! This example also illustrates
a CSS comment between /* and */ . Such comments can be
placed in external or embedded style sheets.
Example of using style sheet
<html>
<head>
<title>Style Example</title>
<link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="style.css">
</head>
... <p class="excerpt">affected text</p> ...
</html>
The rel attribute specifies the relationship of the referenced file to this
page.
The type attribute must be "text/css".
The href attribute is a URL pointing to the external style sheet.
Result (Example 5)

CSS: Cascading Style Sheets: © 2004, Robert K. Moniot

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Chapter 6

CSS : Cascading Style Sheets

2004, Robert K. Moniot

2004, Robert K. Moniot

2004, Robert K. Moniot

2004, Robert K. Moniot

2004, Robert K. Moniot

2004, Robert K. Moniot

Compound selectors are more specific than simple

then for a <p> tag that is inside a <div> element, the

2004, Robert K. Moniot

Define the nodec class for anchor tags:

2004, Robert K. Moniot

Define the zowie class:

<span class="zowie">Buy Now!</span>

By the way: promise me you wont ever use blink!

2004, Robert K. Moniot

2004, Robert K. Moniot

a:link { color : red }

a:visited { color : green }

a:hover { color: yellow }

2004, Robert K. Moniot

a:link { color : red }

2004, Robert K. Moniot

:first-line is a pseudo-element that consists of the

2004, Robert K. Moniot

This indents all normal paragraphs. A paragraph that is declared

2004, Robert K. Moniot

The attribute:value pairs are what would go between { } if this

2004, Robert K. Moniot

/* This style sheet defines an "excerpt" class

p.excerpt { font-style : italic;

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