Formatting Pages with Cascading Style Sheets

Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) can be added at any point in a site's development process, but ideally the design specification for a site will be implemented via style sheets, eliminating the need to code and maintain formatting for individual tags. More significantly, CSS lets developers and content providers focus on organizational and navigation issues by separating formatting from content. As a site's structure evolves, styles can be globally changed, added, and deleted, giving developers greater freedom (and more time) to achieve design goals.

A site can be retrofitted with CSS, although this requires deleting tag-based formatting code.

About the Style Editor

TopStyle Lite provides an integrated interface for designing and deploying Cascading Style Sheets. It is a special version of TopStyle Pro, an application written by Nick Bradbury, the original developer of HomeSite. To upgrade to the full version, visit http://www.bradsoft.com/.

TopStyle makes it easy to define, preview, and apply styles to Web content. This illustration shows the main components of the TopStyle interface.

The TopStyle online Help system includes a tutorial, a CSS reference, and procedures for using its features. The Help system also includes information about upgrading to the full version.

Using HomeSite
Chapter 6 Editing Pages