CSS Introduction
CSS is yet another awesome technology maintained by the World Wide Web Consortium. CSS is an acronym that stands for Cascading Style Sheets. CSS is used by web masters to style their HTML elements for display on their web pages. CSS can also handle some application logic regarding user interaction that Javascript also handles.
CSS has two main components which make the magic happen:
CSS Selectors
CSS Properties
CSS works by allowing you to target your web page elements by using the CSS Selectors, then applying the various CSS Properties to your targeted elements.
As a webmaster and web applications creator I use external CSS to style my web pages and help me to keep my website more easily managed. Separating content from its styling logic becomes more important the larger your website becomes. And if you get into building large scale dynamic websites for clients, CSS is a must.
Within this CSS guide you can learn about the inner workings of CSS, as well as get real world CSS examples and tutorials to help you on your way. Don't forget that we have some video tutorials for CSS + HTML after you get cozy with CSS syntax and scan all of the properties/selectors at your disposal. The video tutorials may help you see application logic being formed.
CSS Levels and Summary of CSS History
CSS is a perpetual work in progress by the individuals who draft, develop and deploy it. Each time major enhancements are made to CSS it goes up in levels that build upon the previous levels. We are currently looking forward to CSS3 as the next recommended specification. CSS4 is on the drafting table as well. This site will attempt to keep it's library up to date regarding CSS as the technology evolves.
CSS level 1 - CSS1 is the first official release of the style recommendations set forth in 1996.
CSS level 2 - CSS2 is the 1998 release of recommended specifications to CSS.
CSS level 2 revision 1 - CSS2.1 is a revision that replaces the mechanics of CSS2 that lead to problems. Recommended as specification June 2011 by W3C.
CSS level 3 - Drafts to CSS3 started appearing in 1999. CSS3 is made more modular and extensible for browser software vendors than previous levels of CSS. CSS3 is made up of modules that browser software(user agent) creators can implement as they deem the modules worthy of implementation. CSS3 is not a complete recommended specification yet but more and more modules of CSS3 are getting implemented into various big name browsers.
CSS level 4 - Drafts of CSS4 began September 2009. None of its modules are supported yet by browser software.