CSS+-+Cascading+Style+Sheets

= CSS - Cascading Style Sheets = toc Cascading Style Sheets, or CSS are a method used to determine the style that a given web page should have when displayed in a browser. Essentially, CSS is a page description language that complements HTML, and can be used either in the same document or as a separate, external document from the HTML coding for a web page. CSS was created to give web developers more control over his or her web designs. CSS version 2 is the current standard for use in web development. CSS 3 is in development; there is not a current expected date of release. Every browser has a built in style sheet. A website created in plain HTML makes use of the style sheet embedded in the web browser used to retrieve the page in order to determine how to display the document. Using a Cascading Style Sheet overrides that native sheet to allow the developer to cause the page to appear in the manner he or she chooses.

History of CSS
The development of CSS was first announced in 1994, after web developers realized a separate markup language would be needed to have greater control over the layout of a web page. CSS was not the first attempt at gaining greater control over the design of a document. Prior to the release of CSS, Cascading HTML Style Sheets and Stream-based Style Sheets were both used. Despite the new potential for design, it was necessary for web browsers to develop CSS support before the system could be fully implemented. It was with the ongoing development of web standards that CSS could truly be implemented and used. Even with the acceptance of CSS, there are still difficulties in implementation. Although much more common, web standards cannot remove the quirks of some web browsers. As a result, CSS may need to be adjusted to take these issues into account in web development.

Learning and Examples
There are a number of ways in which a user interested in web development can learn about CSS. Currently, CSS is a well-used tool to develop web pages. Many examples of the use of CSS to develop a web page can be found at sites like CSS Zen Garden. CSS Zen Garden does not encourage use of the complete style sheet, but does encourage users to learn from what has been written. The W3C has online tutorials that those interested in learning can use to develop CSS. An example of the differences between a website written with CSS and without can be seen below. As shown in the images, CSS can make a drastic change over that of a website created without the use of CSS.

Libraries, Archives, Information Centers and CSS
CSS makes the website of any given organization much easier to maintain. CSS can be embedded in the HTML or created on a separate sheet. For those organizations that use a separate sheet to contain the CSS updating a website becomes a much simpler affair. Instead of having to update the style as a part of the CSS, the organization can simply change the content of the page, without worrying about how it will affect the layout. This is because all of the layout information is contained in the CSS, and will not be affected by this change. Once the website has been created therefore, it is a much simpler process to update the page, allowing regular users to make updates to specific pages without worrying about accidentally changing the layout of the entire site. This gives various departments much more control over its own web page, as a user with some basic knowledge of HTML could update content without additional training.