These days, there are a lot of easy ways to design website content. You’ll find drag-and-drop solutions, website builders, and even full Content Management Systems (CMS). However, these tools can only take you so far.
If you want to create truly original designs – rather than risk ending up with a copy-cat website – it pays to learn a little coding. The best place to start is with Cascading Style Sheets (CSS), a language that enables you to control how elements on a web page are presented.
In this post, we’ll explain what CSS is and how it works, in beginner-friendly terms. Then we’ll help you get started on the road to learning CSS – which is easier than you might expect. Let’s jump right in!
The Fundamental Building Blocks of a Website
Even if you don’t have much technical experience, you probably know that programs and websites are created using various coding languages. This can make it a little intimidating to consider going ‘under the hood’ to make custom changes on your own site.
However, the basic languages used for building websites are more user-friendly than your standard programming language. The three most important of these are:
HTML: Hypertext Markup Language (HTML) is how web pages are ‘built’. It determines what types of elements appear on the page, and where.
CSS: This language is designed to be used alongside a ‘markup’ language like HTML. CSS defines how HTML elements are formatted – controlling their layout, colors, fonts, and so on.
JavaScript: While the previous two languages are mainly concerned with static (unmoving) content, JavaScript is used to create interactive features and elements.
These descriptions are a simplification, of course, and all three languages are well worth learning about. For designers, however, CSS is the most crucial. Let’s look at how this particular language works in more detail.
What CSS Is and How It Works
Remember how we said that HTML is a ‘markup language’? CSS, on the other hand, is a ‘style sheet language’. This is a useful descriptor, since it lets you know what CSS is all about – styling and presentation.
While you can add CSS directly to a specific web page’s code, this isn’t considered a best practice. Instead, designers create style sheets, which are separate files that contain just CSS code. There are a few important things to understand about these files:
One CSS style sheet can contain rules that affect the styling of multiple pages on a site. When any one of those pages are visited, the style sheet code is accessed, and it determines how the HTML that makes up the page is displayed.
A site typically contains multiple style sheets, each governing one or more pages. You might have one style sheet for your home page, for example, another for all other pages, and a third for blog posts.
By editing style sheets or adding new ones to your site, you can change its appearance and layout without affecting any of the actual content (which is determined by HTML instead).
Again, this system is more complex than these simple rules suggest. Still, this should be enough to give you a sense for what style sheets do and why they matter.
An Example of CSS in Action
By now, you may be wondering what’s contained in the style sheets we’ve been talking about. Here’s an example of what a website style sheet looks like:
A style sheet can contain as much or as little information as needed. Typically, it includes rules that govern a page’s layout and formatting, along with the colors, fonts, and other styling information for individual elements (such as text).
Let’s look at a simple example of CSS code:
p {
font-family: verdana;
font-size: 20px;
color: green;
}
The “p” is called a ‘selector’, which indicates what element the code should effect. In this case, “p” stands for paragraph. That means the following rules will be applied to all elements that are marked as paragraphs in the relevant pages’ HTML.
The next few lines are fairly self-explanatory. They determine the font family, size, and color for all text within those paragraphs. If you change color:green to color:blue, the text on the page will change color accordingly. These lines are also surrounded by brackets, so it’s clear which rules within the style sheet apply to which elements.
How You Can Learn More About CSS
While the above example is very basic, hopefully you can start to see the applications when it comes to website design. Using CSS, you can indicate any specific element on a page, and decide exactly what it will look like, how big it will be, and so on.
The best way to learn how to use CSS is to jump in and start experimenting. Set up a private testing website using a CMS that enables you to access style sheets easily, such as WordPress. Then, practice making changes and seeing what happens on the front end of your site. It’s a lot easier to learn through incremental tweaking than to try creating a new style sheet from scratch.
There are also plenty of handy resources that can help you learn more about CSS. One of the best – and the one we’d suggest starting with – is the?W3Schools CSS Tutorial:
This interactive series of lessons will walk you through the language step by step, teaching you the fundamental terminology and giving you plenty of opportunities to practice.
Conclusion
Design and coding may seem like two entirely different skill sets. When it comes to websites, however, the two are inextricably linked. Fortunately, anyone who wants to learn how to design web pages has access to a language that’s designed to be as user-friendly as possible – CSS.
By making changes to a website’s CSS, you can get near-total control over its layout and appearance. What’s more, since your edits are contained in style sheets, you can alter the site’s look without affecting its content. The best way to learn CSS is to start experimenting with it on a practice site, and to check out beginner tutorials such as the one offered by W3Schools.
Do you have any questions about how to use CSS as a designer? Let us know in the comments section below!
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That again was no use: he but got another smile and a friendly look of the sort he no longer wanted. I said I thought I could gallop if Harry could, and in a few minutes we were up with the ambulance. It had stopped. There were several men about it, including Sergeant Jim and Kendall, which two had come from Quinn, and having just been in the ambulance, at Ferry's side, were now remounting, both of them openly in tears. "Hello, Kendall." We have this great advantage in dealing with Plato—that his philosophical writings have come down to us entire, while the thinkers who preceded him are known only through fragments and second-hand reports. Nor is the difference merely accidental. Plato was the creator of speculative literature, properly so called: he was the first and also the greatest artist that ever clothed abstract thought in language of appropriate majesty and splendour; and it is probably to their beauty of form that we owe the preservation of his writings. Rather unfortunately, however, along with the genuine works of the master, a certain number of pieces have been handed down to us under his name, of which some are almost universally admitted to be spurious, while the authenticity of others is a question on which the best scholars are still divided. In the absence of any very cogent external evidence, an immense amount of industry and learning has been expended on this subject, and the arguments employed on both sides sometimes make us doubt whether the reasoning powers of philologists are better developed than, according to Plato, were those of mathematicians in his time. The176 two extreme positions are occupied by Grote, who accepts the whole Alexandrian canon, and Krohn, who admits nothing but the Republic;115 while much more serious critics, such as Schaarschmidt, reject along with a mass of worthless compositions several Dialogues almost equal in interest and importance to those whose authenticity has never been doubted. The great historian of Greece seems to have been rather undiscriminating both in his scepticism and in his belief; and the exclusive importance which he attributed to contemporary testimony, or to what passed for such with him, may have unduly biassed his judgment in both directions. As it happens, the authority of the canon is much weaker than Grote imagined; but even granting his extreme contention, our view of Plato’s philosophy would not be seriously affected by it, for the pieces which are rejected by all other critics have no speculative importance whatever. The case would be far different were we to agree with those who impugn the genuineness of the Parmenides, the Sophist, the Statesman, the Philêbus, and the Laws; for these compositions mark a new departure in Platonism amounting to a complete transformation of its fundamental principles, which indeed is one of the reasons why their authenticity has been denied. Apart, however, from the numerous evidences of Platonic authorship furnished by the Dialogues themselves, as well as by the indirect references to them in Aristotle’s writings, it seems utterly incredible that a thinker scarcely, if at all, inferior to the master himself—as the supposed imitator must assuredly have been—should have consented to let his reasonings pass current under a false name, and that, too, the name of one whose teaching he in some respects controverted; while there is a further difficulty in assuming that his existence could pass unnoticed at a period marked by intense literary and philosophical activity. Readers who177 wish for fuller information on the subject will find in Zeller’s pages a careful and lucid digest of the whole controversy leading to a moderately conservative conclusion. Others will doubtless be content to accept Prof. Jowett’s verdict, that ‘on the whole not a sixteenth part of the writings which pass under the name of Plato, if we exclude the works rejected by the ancients themselves, can be fairly doubted by those who are willing to allow that a considerable change and growth may have taken place in his philosophy.’116 To which we may add that the Platonic dialogues, whether the work of one or more hands, and however widely differing among themselves, together represent a single phase of thought, and are appropriately studied as a connected series. Before entering on our task, one more difficulty remains to be noticed. Plato, although the greatest master of prose composition that ever lived, and for his time a remarkably voluminous author, cherished a strong dislike for books, and even affected to regret that the art of writing had ever been invented. A man, he said, might amuse himself by putting down his ideas on paper, and might even find written178 memoranda useful for private reference, but the only instruction worth speaking of was conveyed by oral communication, which made it possible for objections unforeseen by the teacher to be freely urged and answered.117 Such had been the method of Socrates, and such was doubtless the practice of Plato himself whenever it was possible for him to set forth his philosophy by word of mouth. It has been supposed, for this reason, that the great writer did not take his own books in earnest, and wished them to be regarded as no more than the elegant recreations of a leisure hour, while his deeper and more serious thoughts were reserved for lectures and conversations, of which, beyond a few allusions in Aristotle, every record has perished. That such, however, was not the case, may be easily shown. In the first place it is evident, from the extreme pains taken by Plato to throw his philosophical expositions into conversational form, that he did not despair of providing a literary substitute for spoken dialogue. Secondly, it is a strong confirmation of this theory that Aristotle, a personal friend and pupil of Plato during many years, should so frequently refer to the Dialogues as authoritative evidences of his master’s opinions on the most important topics. And, lastly, if it can be shown that the documents in question do actually embody a comprehensive and connected view of life and of the world, we shall feel satisfied that the oral teaching of Plato, had it been preserved, would not modify in any material degree the impression conveyed by his written compositions. breakfast in the kitchen by candle-light, and then drove the five The bargaining was interminable, something in this manner:— Then follows a long discussion in Hindi with the bystanders, who always escort a foreigner in a mob, ending in the question— There was a bright I. D. blanket spread on the ground a little way back from the fire, and she threw herself down upon it. All that was picturesque in his memories of history flashed back to Cairness, as he took his place beside Landor on the log and looked at her. Boadicea might have sat so in the depths of the Icenean forests, in the light of the torches of the Druids. So the Babylonian queen might have rested in the midst of her victorious armies, or she of Palmyra, after the lion hunt in the deserts of Syria. Her eyes, red lighted beneath the shadowing lashes, met his. Then she glanced away into the blackness of the pine forest, and calling her dog to lie down beside her, stroked its silky red head. The retreat was made, and the men found themselves again in the morning on the bleak, black heath of Drummossie, hungry and worn out, yet in expectation of a battle. There was yet time to do the only wise thing—retreat into the mountains, and depend upon a guerilla warfare, in which they would have the decided advantage. Lord George Murray now earnestly proposed this, but in vain. Sir Thomas Sheridan and other officers from France grew outrageous at that proposal, contending that they could easily beat the English, as they had done at Prestonpans and Falkirk—forgetting that the Highlanders then were full of vigour and spirit. Unfortunately, Charles listened to this foolish reasoning, and the fatal die was cast. "They said they were going for our breakfast," said Harry. "And I hope it's true, for I'm hungrier'n a rip-saw. But I could put off breakfast for awhile, if they'd only bring us our guns. I hope they'll be nice Springfield rifles that'll kill a man at a mile." "Dod durn it," blubbered Pete, "I ain't cryin' bekase Pm skeered. I'm cryin' bekase I'm afeared you'll lose me. I know durned well you'll lose me yit, with all this foolin' around." He came nearly every night. If she was not at the gate he would whistle a few bars of "Rio Bay," and she would steal out as soon as she could do so without rousing suspicion. Boarzell became theirs, their accomplice in some subtle, beautiful way. There was a little hollow on the western slope where they would crouch together and sniff the apricot scent of the gorse, which was ever afterwards to be the remembrancer of their love, and watch the farmhouse lights at Castweasel gleam and gutter beside Ramstile woods. "Yes, De Boteler," continued the lady, "I will write to him, and try to soothe his humour. You think it a humiliation—I would humble myself to the meanest serf that tills your land, could I learn the fate of my child. The abbot may have power to draw from this monk what he would conceal from us; I will at least make the experiment." The lady then, though much against De Boteler's wish, penned an epistle to the abbot, in which concession and apologies were made, and a strong invitation conveyed, that he would honour Sudley castle by his presence. The parchment was then folded, and dispatched to the abbot. "A very pretty method, truly! You know not the miners and forgers of Dean Forest!—why I would stake a noble to a silver-penny, that if you had discovered he was hidden there, and legally demanded him, he would be popped down in a bucket, to the bottom of some mine, where, even the art of Master Calverley could not have dragged him to the light of day until the Forest was clear of the pack:—but, however, to speak to the point," perceiving that the steward's patience was well nigh exhausted—"I saw Stephen Holgrave yesterday, in the Forest." HoME欧美一级 片a高清
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