Before we begin, lets make sure that we have all the tools we'll need to develop the style sheet.
Firstly, you'll need a browser that handles style sheets. Microsoft Internet Explorer 4, though far from perfect, does an adequate job for the purposes of this tutorial. Netscape Navigator 4 is not quite so good, but should pass muster. Opera 3.5 does a fine job, considering that this is their first release which attempts to provide support for style sheets. It's Windows only, while the others are available on most platforms.
If you are developing with style sheets, you'll need at least IE4 and Navigator 4, as these are the common platforms which support style sheets. As you progress in your knowledge of style sheets, you'll learn that each have their, well, quirks, to put it kindly. Just because something looks and feels fine in one, doesn't mean that it will even appear in the other.
If you're reading this, you probably have a copy of Style Master, but if not, you can download one in a few moments from our web site.
You probably already have one of these right? No matter how you develop your style sheet, you are going to have to have access to the actual HTML code. Now don't panic. Even if you've never looked at that stuff, we'll be doing only some very straightforward things that won't hurt a bit.
One thing to keep in mind is that some older WYSIWYG type tools, like Home Page 2 from Apple or FileMaker Inc., I'm not sure who at this stage, will not like a couple of the things we are going to do, so if you use Home Page, it might be an idea to upgrade to the latest version.
Other tools might have similar problems with HTML that they don't recognize.
That's all we'll need.
So, if you've got all the above, it's time to begin.
Next we will create our first style sheet. Ready?