Course Description

This is an introductory 6-week course in using CSS; the efficient way to add and manage style elements in web documents. Students will learn how to create inline, embedded, and linked style sheets, as well as how to use classes, IDs, and span elements for control of web page objects. Browser differences in handling CSS will also be discussed. NOTE: We ask that you do NOT take this class at the same as taking the Build I or II class. The same CSS skills that are taught in the Build I and II classes combined are taught in this class but this class does not cover XHTML. XHTML is covered in the Build I and II classes along with CSS. Taking this class at the same time as the Build I or II class may be confusing for the student. This is a 6 week, self-paced, online course. If you need additional help understanding the material presented, you can communicate with the instructor and fellow classmates. The instructor will monitor and track your progress throughout the class. LVS Online offers many wonderful learning tools to help you get the most out of your online course, including an online portfolio service that manages all your course registrations, certificate of completion option, a class discussion board to interact with your instructor and fellow classmates, free hosting account, and a student upload area. LVS is a Corel Training Partner. LVS students may purchase Corel products at a significant savings. Follow this link for details. LVS students are also eligible take advantage of special offers made available by famous software developers such as Andromeda, AV Bros, Extensis, Harry Heim, namesuppressed, Nik Multimedia, and Ulead. Details are provided in the classinfo link found in the confirmation of registration. If you would like to receive more information regarding this course, click on the "Contact Us" link in the Information section and we'll try to answer any of your questions within the day.

Course Requirements

Homework must be reviewed by the instructor in order to earn a certificate. Students have the option of using the free web hosting or a student hosting account made available for LVS students. Details are provided in the classroom. Students should have working knowledge of their operating system: Free Windows Class Here Directory Structure Tutorial Here Zip files may be necessary to complete the exercises provided each week. WinZip, PKZip, Windows Compression or similar program is required to unzip these files. Winzip Tutorial Here Windows Compression All lessons are available in PDF format. Adobe Acrobat Reader is required to view/print the lessons. Plan to devote 4 - 6 hours per week on the lesson and assignment.

Course Prerequisites

Class Level - This is an introductory course which assumes no prior CSS experience. You must have a good solid basic knowledge of HTML 4 or XHTML, including the ability to write valid/clean code. This class teaches CSS only. If you have questions about this, please contact Course Instructor.

Course Syllabus

Lesson 1 Introduction Inheritance Font and text properties Embedded Style Browser differences Lesson 2 The Cascade Linked Style Simple Classes ID Selectors div and span tags Inline Style Lesson 3 Combined Selectors Contextual Selectors Line Height Lists Lesson 4 Backgrounds Boxes Forms Lesson 5 Margins Borders CSS Shorthand Grouping Selectors Display z-index Lesson 6 Printing-based style sheets Review Final

Course Excerpt

LESSON 1 What is CSS? CSS (Cascading Style Sheets) is a set of stylistic guidelines for presenting HTML documents on the web. HTML was designed specifically to present a document's structure - where the various parts, like paragraphs or tables, are placed on a web page. CSS determines those parts' appearance or how they will look to the visitor. Style sheets allow the designer much more flexibility in, and control over, how their web pages look. CSS is a relatively simple language that, unlike other computer languages, is easy to read. Remember how confusing HTML seemed when you were first learning to create a web document? Well, CSS is easier to learn and write than HTML! Really! And, if you have any experience in desktop publishing, you'll find a lot of familiar terminology in CSS. Are there more reasons to learn CSS? Well, if you… are tired of having to enter a long font tag over and over again just to make all the section headers look the same… want to be able to "layer" elements in IE the way you can in Netscape… have lots of and commands in your HTML coding… want to determine the size and color of borders on elements other than tables… have always wanted to be able to determine the height of text lines, apply different spacing to characters and indent text… have been using complicated table commands or invisible gifs to position elements on your web pages… want to improve the appearance of your site, have it load quicker and reduce maintenance time…… You're going to love CSS! CSS 1 includes more than 70 properties that can be applied to HTML tags - and there are many more in CSS 2! We won't be using all of them in this class, but there are extensive options for creating styles with CSS. Deprecated Elements One very important reason for adopting style commands is that many of the HTML tags that we used every day are now considered deprecated or their use is discouraged according to the W3C. This means their use is not recommended and at least some of them will be obsolete in the future. What is the W3C recommending instead? Style sheets! The information below is from W3C - the World Wide Web Consortium - http://www.w3.org/ - the group that establishes the international standards for the web. Some of the deprecated tags and their alternatives include: <center> - used to center text or graphics, is deprecated in favor of using the align attribute set to "center" or using text-align: center; in style when referring to text. <basefont> - used to set the size, color, and face of the font for the page, is deprecated in favor of using Style Sheets. <font> - allowed the specification of font sizes, colors, and faces. Style Sheets, rather than HTML code, have taken over character formatting duties. <u> - created underlined characters. As with the tags above, use Style Sheets to create underlines. This isn't the complete list, but as you can see, a lot of common tags are going to be obsolete and replaced by Style Sheets. Discouraged (in HTML 4.01) in favor of CSS The following list contains elements that are not considered deprecated, but their use is discouraged in favor of using Style Sheets. <body> - All desired attributes for the element should be implemented using Style. This means the BODY element is defined using a style command. The body tag itself should still be used, but it's attributes are considered deprecated. <b> - created bold characters. As with the tags above, use Style Sheets to create bold text. <i> - created characters in italics. As with the tags above, use Style Sheets to create italicized text. <big> - rendered text in a large font. As with the tags above, use Style Sheets to increase text size. <small> - rendered text in a small font. As with the tags above, use Style Sheets to decrease text size. Continued. . . Please note: Lessons provide step-by-step instructions with detailed screen captures.

Course Goals

At the end of this course you will know the basics of CSS and how to implement style sheets on your web pages.

Course Reviews

Tracy: “I started this class not knowing what a CSS was, now I can build a web page using CSS. The lessons were very informative and assignments were helpful in putting lessons to work.” More...