Looking for advice/opinions - CSS vs Std. HTML

[Dave Sell]

Hi all,

I never got on board the Style Sheets bandwagon. I keep hearing advice that I should stop using the standard Font and Table tags, etc.. and start using CSS which I know nothing about.

I don't even know why I don't make the switch except that I see no value in it.

Am I a dumb dinosaur who needs to get my head out of the sand? OR are CSS over-hyped and not used that much?

I've heard that CSS are not well supported across different browsers which may be one reason I don't like it.

Dave

[Jop]

I can definitely tell you that's it worth the effort learning CSS and valid semanticly correct (x)html.

It actually is well supported in all of the recent browsers (IE has some bugs, but they all have fixes/workarounds), and the thing is, as long as you use valid code you can be sure that it will be supported in future browsers too (including those on PDA's , telephones and screenreaders). It also makes it easier for you, nice well-formatted clean HTML, and the design is seperated from the content.
If you need a sidewide change, a fontcolor for example, you just edit it in one place and it changes over all your pages.

I could go on for ages, but thrust me, it's well worth it. And it actually is used a lot these days.

Have a look at:
http://www.alistapart.com
http://www.simplebits.com
http://www.stopdesign.com
http://www.mezzoblue.com

and this site showcases what's possible with CSS:
http://www.csszengarden.com


This will get you started, and hopefully excited to start making sites of the future.

[ober0330]

What you are probably using as "Standard HTML" isn't "standard" any more. I'd challenge you to validate your html documents at the w3c site. I didn't like CSS at first either and I certainly didn't think it was worth the switch, but 1.5 years later and I would NEVER go back.

It makes maintenance and layout a snap and makes updating your website with a new look a 1 day job instead of a 1 week job.

I started out with internal style sheets and have since moved on to external style sheets, and I'd recommend jumping straight to external sheets in your case.

If you have any questions, feel free to ask, as there are several people here that can answer your questions.

[Acidic]

Most definately go with CSS. The only browsers that will give you problems is IE, I ingore those problems, but if you don't want to, there are several hacks/fixes you can use to make it show properly.

You might not know, but you have surely already been using CSS. Anything inside a style="" attribute is actually CSS code, just not put where it normally goes (but equally valid).

As has already been metioned external CSS files allow to extremely easy maintaining of the aestetics of a site, or a whole bunch of sites.

I don't think things like <table border=""> are valid any more anyways. Browsers accept it, but only becasuse they are being kind. really CSS shold be used for that.

You can do much more with CSS than "ordinary" styling methods. I recently found out that you no longer have to use RGB colours, you can use CSS to specify colours in terms of HSL (Hue-Saturation-Lightness).

Simply put, CSS gives you more power to style your pages, while allowing for easier editing and less code.