A net pal writes:
----- Original Message -----
From: M
Sent: Monday, May 26, 2003 11:08 AM
Subject: Style Sheets, Again !

I am now somewhat confused... Notably, I do not understand Your distinction between in-line tags and block tags - I am not sure what that means.
I use bold for my standard written text in order to make them slightly larger than that normal typewriter text (which I do not use, nor New times Roman, except Special Effects). Then I use the blockquote as a means of margins. then I use p as just straightforward paragraphing. But I think I have noticed recently that close p and then open p gives one a line skip. Which I do not want. Indents, I do not know how to get !!
LOL ! So we are back to the ol' p blockquote b stuff ! LOL
You mean: I have to actually select font-size and type also, Select margins. And indent, instead of using p ??
I see that Tables is one thing. CSS is another. ...
I am discouraged and do not know which way to turn.
I see from my book, there is a little on CSS, that the Style Sheet is really very precise, once You have set it/them up. What are the disadvantages ??

--The Giddy Apprentice ! :-)

Dear M,

Style sheets are the wave of the future and widely in use now, but not perfectly done by all browsers. At present you can count on style sheets to set text features (font, size, color, spacing etc) and some, but not all, positioning. Many web pages today use some combination of tables for layout and stylesheets for text appearance.

The big advantage of style sheets is that you can set the font, color, pacing, etc. of a particular tag in the head of your document; you can write exceptions to it for particular purposes if you want. In any case, you dont use the FONT tag to set these properties. You can replace the use of tables for layout with style sheets, but that is pretty new and you have to be more familiar with it than I am to do it right. I see, however, that you do not use FONT tags either, just letting the browser present text in whatever its default dictates. That's ok. But with style sheets you can produce some interesting effects.

Take a look at a blogger help page ... see the yellow box that sets off an announcement? the styling is done using style sheets, though it is laid out using tables..

The Blogger example uses an inline style for that box (not placed in the head section):

Note: This feature is currently being beta tested by Blogger Pro users as part of the new publishing engine. It is not included in the default application
but can be tested and will be available soon. Click here to be notified when this feature or additional information is available.

<p style="border: 1px dashed gray; padding: 5px; font-size: 11px; width: 85%; background-color: rgb(255,255,210); text-align: left;">
Note: This feature is currently being beta tested by Blogger Pro users as part of the new publishing engine. It is not included in the default application
but can be tested and will be available soon. <a href="javascript:iWantSubmit()">Click here</a> to be notified when this feature or additional information is available.
</p>

You can read online some intoductory material to this stuff. I find when I read things online that some of it makes sense while other parts fly over my head. I go back to the hard parts later....

HTML- Getting started -- you already know most of this, but click on the link to advanced html for some other stuff, including tables.
There is also a link to how to add "a touch of style" and the main css page
The first of these includes an example of setting margins-- this is how you can have your text indented. I dont k ow how well it explains over allhow to use css. But give it a try. Just keep reading....


Block vs. inline tags... I guess the defining difference between them is that block level tags enter a line of white space before and after, as you have noticed with the P tag. That's so your paragraphs dont all run together. The BLOCKQUOTE tag, also a block tag, will do that as well, as will all of the H tags. You can put all of the above within table tags, but not within each other.

B, EM, S, U tags are inline and may be used within each . You can pile them all up within on P or H tag as well, so long as they are properly nested. Nesting is done much the same as parentheses [if you see (more or less) what I mean].

I hope some of this makes sense. If not, please write again.;-)

-p




-- posted by Palema on 5/26/2003