Cascading Style Sheets

You will learn how to

• Develop fast, efficient, accessible and attractive Web pages using CSS
• Generate tableless page layouts with pure CSS
• Structure site layout and content to make your site faster and more maintainable
• Apply best practices to develop cross-browser compatible Web pages and avoid pitfalls
• Implement menu designs for effective site navigation
• Create Web sites that meet Section 508 and W3C accessibility standards

Course benefits
Organisations are under increasing pressure to produce sophisticated, attractive and contemporary Web sites that work on a variety of browsers and mobile devices. Web sites must also meet increasingly stringent requirements to fulfill accessibility guidelines.

In this course, you design and rapidly develop cross-platform Web pages using CSS and HTML. You also learn how to create effective site navigation, and optimise pages for printing.

Who should attend
This course is valuable for those involved in establishing, designing, developing and maintaining Web sites.

Hands-on training
You gain extensive hands-on experience through an evolving case study that provides you with the skills to design and develop an effective, accessible and exciting Web pages. Exercises include:

• Constructing vertical and horizontal menus using lists
• Creating non-JavaScript rollover effects
• Developing Cascading Style Sheets that work with different browsers
• Building site navigation using different horizontal and vertical menu designs
• Styling tables using proven techniques
• Incorporating background images in page designs
• Optimising document layout for usability and accessibility
• Positioning and floating page content
• Designing absolute positioning of page elements

Course content

Employing CSS Benefits of CSS CSS vs. HTML styling Enhancing the visitor experience CSS standards Accessibility guidelines Applying CSS Fundamentals CSS formatting conventions Defining CSS structure Units of measure Fixed vs. relative sizing Employing font and color properties Abbreviating and simplifying style sheets with shorthand styles Choosing and applying styles Class vs. ID attributes Incorporating DIV and SPAN tags Comparing inline and block styling Integrating style sheets External and embedded style sheets Importing vs. linking to external style sheets Working with the CSS cascade The CSS box model Grouping and styling content Implementing margins, borders and padding Enriching site design with backgrounds and images Managing collapsed margins Manipulating the Style Sheet Directing browser behaviour The importance of the !DOCTYPE directive Choosing document standards Switching between quirks and standards compliant modes Deriving and overriding styles Inheritance and style behaviour Assigning styles and applying rules Working with specificity Structuring Page Layout Managing page elements with CSS Building layout pages using pure CSS tableless techniques Floating Absolute vs. relative positioning Effectively organising content Optimising page layout for accessibility, search engines and portable devices Producing rollover effects Implementing linear layout Implementing Cross-Browser Techniques Incorporating best practices Building pages to display a variety of platforms Designing for PDAs and mobile phone browsers Producing printable content without creating additional printer-friendly pages Styling for optimal print formatting Cross-browser workarounds Targeting specific browsers Developing pages that work with quirky browsers and broken boxes Employing Effective Navigation Organising Web site information Comparing menu techniques for optimal site usability Pinpointing visitor location in site structure with crumbtrails Creating search-friendly menus using lists Constructing menus Implementing easily maintained tableless menus using HTML lists Designing accessible and attractive horizontal, vertical and tabbed menus Applying rollover techniques to menus Styling Forms and Tables for Accessibility Formatting tabular data Effective table design techniques Employing CSS to attractively style tables Applying accessibility techniques to table design Form aesthetics to meet standards Creating effective and accessible forms that work with diverse browsers Applying style sheet properties to forms