Re: C S S - B A S I C Q U E S T I O N

by "Ted Temer" <temer(at)c-zone.net>

 Date:  Mon, 30 Apr 2001 14:25:33 -0700
 To:  "HWGBASICS" <hwg-basics(at)hwg.org>
 References: 
  todo: View Thread, Original
Michael and others:

>In a year or two somebody
>will be making a wysiwyg editor that generates css.

Actually there are already WYSIWYG editors, (of sorts) for CSS.

One that has been around for quite a while is CoffeeCup's Cascading Style
Sheet Maker. www.coffeecup.com/  It works as smooth as a sailplane landing
on grass and is very inexpensive.

Although more of a wizard or "point and click" type editor, it is very close
to WYSIWYG. Especially when used in conjunction with programs like FrontPage
2000 which allows the style to be included right in the page or "called"--as
desired.

And incidentally, FrontPage 2000 allows you to create--and/or modify--a
style sheet, just like you do paragraph styles in Word. Except it allows a
lot more functions that are exclusive to webs. Its menus change depending on
the object being edited.
You will find Styles in the Format menu.

Either or both programs also allow direct editing in the raw code as well.

And of course, both Dreamweaver and Flash also incorporate a certain amount
of CSS.

[Silly grin] Just be sure to include a "download" button for IE-5 on your
web pages for the browser challenged ...

Speaking of the Netscape problem. I have not tried this myself as I use the
CoffeeCup applet with external style sheets--but it has been mentioned on
the FrontPage list that when FP-2000 is set to render code that will work in
BOTH Netscape and IE, several style functions are "grayed" out.

Hey Fuzzy -- That's what they call automatic validation ???

Whoops---don't throw that rock--I was only fun-ning.

Best wishes
Ted Temer
Temercraft Designs Redding, CA
temer(at)c-zone.net
www.temercraft.com/novels/
www.newsredding.com/
www.ramac-rc.org/


> Good question Ray, and with all the comments about Netscape 4.x not
> working right very understandable. I guess the answer depends on why
> you want to learn html for. If it is just a casual hobby or you only
> want to make a home page or two for yourself and family/friends, it
> probably is more trouble than it's worth. In a year or two somebody
> will be making a wysiwyg editor that generates css.
>
> If you want to do this professionally then you don't have a lot of
> choice. The W3C standards are depreciating html styling and
> recommending style sheets. With the big push that Microsoft is
> making toward using XML in all their applications they will certainly
> support xhtml and the style sheets that go with it. And to be honest,
> they have most of the browser market anyway, at least 4/5's of it.
> And Netscape's newest browser does a good job of displaying style
> sheets anyway. As that gets out through AOL and gets its bugs worked
> out, style sheets will be easier to work with.
>
> Besides, EE and NN never did display pages exactly alike anyway. Half
> the html and javascript books out there spend a lot of pages telling
> us what we can do where and how to work around the browser
> differences. What's any different with css?
>
> One book I've found that does a good job of laying out what works
> where and how to compensate is "Cascading Style Sheets: The
> Definitive Guide" by Eric A. Meyer. Somebody else has been praising
> this book here recently. I want to second that. It's remarkably easy
> to read for an O'Reilly book.
>
> best,
> Michael
>
>

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