How useful is CSS? I know how to use Flash, Dreamweaver, and Photoshop?

[Dr. Basketballz]

I've done minor XHTML but never touched CCS and want to know the main reason too because some of the sites I've done look better then a lot of sites using it because I'm also an artist but I need to know how am I limiting myself in actual practice? I've been either designing all Flash Sites or HTML sites done in Photoshop and sliced up in Image Ready. I guess I always thought CSS would be more useful for a corporate website but not entertainment.

[sexystickfigures]

CSS stands for Cascading Style Sheet. It has several uses. You can do several things with a css style sheet. they can even be made in dreamweaver. You can define a background , make links change colors, do almost anything imaginable. plus there is an advantage. if you attach your style sheets to all of your pages that you have (when a background is defined) if you have a background that you no longer like you can just change the css style instead of having to modify all of your pages.

[Bob R]

CSS is really helpful in terms of keeping file sizes low and providing flexibility to the end user. Dreamweaver has some nifty CSS tools. You can use CSS together with images, Flash and other traditional techniques. In the entertainment space, there are loads of great examples. Perhaps ESPN is the most famous as it was one of the first large, mainstream sites to move to css. Check out csszengarden.com for inspiration. Adobe maintains a list of helpful links. http://del.icio.us/adobe/css

[jayztttight]

Very useful.In laments terms, instead of changing code on every single page of your website (which also is very sloppy and not a good habit), you can alter one page with CSS and change how a page looks.But that is just in laments terms.Since you know how to use Dreamweaver, use CSS! I don't know about previous versions, but Dreamweaver 8 completely incorporates CSS, and makes it easy! Hope that helps.

[deltawing1]

This may have been different a few years ago, but now, CSS is *absolutely crucial* to the development of any website. It has become the industry standard, which is rapidly replacing obsolete techniques like using HTML tables for layout and other HTML tags for formatting. The use of using HTML and tables to create websites is considered bad form today. In fact, the tag is depracated and should not be used. CSS gives many benefits. * Change your design (CSS) without affecting content (HTML) * You can change the look of one page (e.g. font, color, background, line spacing, margins and pretty much every single thing, etc) and it will affect each page * Change your content without affecting your design * Allows you to focus on content once finished with the design - isn’t content what’s most important? * For accessability - a browser with a “refreshable braille display” will ignore the layout and just focus on the content. * Easier to maintain a consistent website. * Allow user created design (a CSS file) to be applied to your webpage * No messy, inconsistent markup that is hard to keep track ofThe main idea of CSS is to seperate content (HTML) from the look of your website (CSS). This is very, very important to understand.I'll give you an example. A highly graphical site is http://www.gamespot.com. When you switch off the CSS for that site, all you will get is the content (i.e. the graphics are gone, and all you see is raw text, bullet points and hyperlinks). This is the separation of content.Want to know how to disable CSS? First, you should have Firefox installed as your browser. Then go to https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/60 and download the Web Developer add-on. Once installed, you will see a CSS icon - third from the left. Click on it and disable styles -> all styles, while you are on the website that you want the CSS to be disabled. You will be very, very surprised how many sites make full use of CSS. A totally must-see site regarding CSS is css Zen Garden http://www.csszengarden.com. This will give you an idea of what CSS can do.For a CSS tutorial, start with http://www.w3schools.com/css/default.aspThat being said, there are *some* situations where it is OK to use tables for layout. However, as newer versions of CSS are released in the future, will may never see the light of HTML tables again :)PS I don't recommend using the Dreamweaver templates, as it creates lots of confusion and extra code to sift through. It will very likely confuse you in the future, or programmers such as PHP programmers who need to insert their PHP code into your website (if you work with a team).PPS Of course, keep your design process of starting in Photoshop and slicing the design up, just don't use tables as a layout tool. But because CSS is not HTML layout, you may have to rethink the way you slice and place your images. A CSS tutorial will make you understand :)