RE: CSS ROCKS!!

Phyllis asked me to outline some of the places I went to learn about
CSS.  I could have just given her a site name and left her at that, but
I thought some of you might find my experience useful.

For a start, I typed "CSS" and "Tutorial" in google and as always got a
staggering array of choices.   To tell the truth, most of them are
pretty useless.  What I wanted to do was learn how to use CSS to build
my sites and separate content from style and appearance, but the vast
majority of those sites only told me in effect that CSS would be great,
and gave the most basic low-level information.  Then for more
information they gave lots of links to other sites who did the same
thing.   I found my self with a dozen IE windows open and not a single
piece of useful information on the lot of them.   I'm a bit
old-fashioned in the way I like to learn something. I like to start with
basics, then move on in a logical way to the point where I feel
confident I can branch out on my own.

I tried looking at the W3C site, but I think that was written by a Unix
guy because the information there is totally impenetrable for someone
who doesn't have a lot of knowledge already. It's a reference, not an
education site.  It's a bit akin to saying it's POSSIBLE to learn to
speak English by poring over the dictionary, but that's almost certainly
not the most effective way to do it.   And you'll go stir-crazy before
you succeed in saying a single meaningful sentence.  But as a reference
you can't do without a dictionary.

A lot of the sites I looked at were old.  Since this is a fast-moving
aspect of our craft I didn't want to learn about old stuff.  CSS2 and
XHTML is what I want to learn about but a lot of the sites were dated
and therefore everything in them is suspect.  I have been using style
sheets for years up to CSS1 level.  So I don't need to learn how to link
one, how to specify a font, how to define a class.   I need to learn
about positioning and all the neat stuff that enables CSS2 to take care
of the look of a site.

It's not all bad news.  I did find some really useful sites.

For a start, you can't go past A List Apart,
http://www.alistapart.com/stories/taminglists/index.html which includes
a really useful explanation of the background to separation of
appearance and content. After reading the material here, I felt I
understood where the style sheet gurus were coming from.   I could see
what the objective was and why a lot of things were as they were.   And
they practice what they preach.  An excellent first step. 


Next I found the NY Library Style Guide.
http://www.nypl.org/styleguide/css/guidelines3.html  This site lays out
the specs for style on web pages in their site, and has many useful
links. (Yes I know I said earlier I didn't find that useful for this
learning exercise, but the site has lots of explanations for why they
want things done the way they are.)

Following one of the links on the NY Library guide, I found a superb
series of tutorials, the Complete CSS Guide at
http://www.westciv.com/style_master/academy/css_tutorial/introduction/in
dex.html   This is an extensive guide, taking you step by step through
the CSS2 process, is up to date and is all about the separation of
content and style.  It is for me the perfect learning tool.  It's in
lots of small sections so I can do them one by one, taking a few minutes
each time and still have time to run my one-man business.  The sections
follow logically, starting with the basics and getting more and more
advanced.   And there are books and other on line tutorials related to
other aspects of CSS.  I haven't finished this site yet, but I feel sure
that by the time I'm all the way through that I'll be able to do a
pretty workmanlike job of a CSS2/XHTML site. (With a little help from my
DreamweaverMX which can automatically handle a lot of XHTML issues and
my favourite style sheet app, Top Style)

This is still a work in progress for me, so I might well change my mind
about these sites before the end of the exercise, but I urge you, who
are putting tutorials together, to consider this maxim:  A list of links
is not a tutorial.  If you want to teach someone something, having them
darting all around the web looking for stuff is only going to frustrate
them. 

I build my sites from the premise that the vast majority of sites are
totally useless, so if I have actual READABLE content on my site, I'm
already well in front of most.

I hope this is a help to some of you. 

I'll post more as my understanding develops.


Cheers
Mike Kear
Windsor, NSW, Australia
AFP Webworks




-----Original Message-----
From: WebWizzard [mailto:ztog(at)ztog.com] 
Sent: Friday, 4 July 2003 7:41 AM
To: mkear(at)afpwebworks.com
Subject: Re: CSS ROCKS!!

Hi Mike,

What have you used in your studies to learn Style Sheets, etc??? I too
have
been thinking about moving upward and onward, but my time is limited in
how
much I can just sit in front of the keyboard and try stuff.  Can you
recommend a particular author or book or tutorial series that is good
for
learning CSS, etc.

TIA
phyllis
magnetqueen
www.photomagnets4u.com

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Mike Kear" <mkear(at)afpwebworks.com>
To: "Hwg-Techniques@Hwg. Org" <hwg-techniques(at)hwg.org>
Sent: Thursday, July 03, 2003 1:46 PM
Subject: CSS ROCKS!!


> I just thought I'd let you all know that since I decided to move on
from
the
> NN4 and IE4 users, it's like a huge weight has been lifted.  Suddenly,
html
> layout is the LEAST of my concerns.
>
> I have never been all that excited about CSS before, because the way
I'd
> been doing things, I spent more time fiddling about with html than
anything
> else.   Since I decided to move on and use DHTML and CSS2, I've been
> studying up on CSS techniques, and I'm sold!   Suddenly life is MUCH
easier!
>
> As it happens we can leave those old browsers behind and not have to
worry
> right now, and I'm taking full advantage of the opportunity, and I've
seen
> several techniques to get those people to upgrade to new browsers.
>
> I am but a babe in the woods when it comes to CSS2, but I'm studying
like
> crazy because I think being adept with style sheets is going to make
> building sites FAR faster, and much more flexible than it's ever been,
yet
> still giving me far more control than ever over the way the sites look
in
> different environments.  (Which of course is the intention of style
sheets!)
>
> I've spent a lot of time in the past few years separating display from
logic
> and data using ColdFusion and other techniques, and that made building
big
> and/or complex sites far faster and easier, and now by separating
content
> and appearance with style sheets, it's done it again.   I can see that
in
> the big shops, you'll have one group of people doing the content
stuff,
and
> another group doing the appearance/layout.   That's how I'm going to
be
> dividing up my tasks in my one-person development business too.
>
> I just wanted you all to know I've had my eyes opened to this CSS
thing
and
> it's a winner! (Yes, I know you all knew about this stuff a long time
ago,
> but I only just found out how good CSS2 was.  You're all smarter than
me
> that's clear.)
>
>
>
> Cheers,
> Michael Kear
> Windsor, NSW, Australia
> AFP Webworks.
>
>
>
>
>

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