Introduction
Cascading Style Sheets are used to control the appearance of a Web page. For most Web builders CSS are tools to specify the color and style of text, background images or color, basic borders, and a limited range of other options. However, CSS can be used to do more than that. For instance, the CSS3 specification allows builders to create rounded corners and drop shadows for block elements such as divisions. When combined with "classic" CSS rules for links, it is possible to make very interesting effects that have the appearance of images but the advantages of Cascading Style Sheets.
Unfortunately, as the details of CSS3 are being worked out, not all of the current crop of browsers support every new rule. In some instances, the method of implementing the new rule varies slightly from browser to browser. Although, as time goes on most of these differences have been disappearing. We will discuss the various methods implementing the rules. But, be aware that the capabilities of the browsers change, so what cannot be done today might very well be acceptable tomorrow.
The good news is that as new browsers appear, the are both integrating the rules of CSS3 and HTML5. We will address these changes to the best of our abilities as they occur.
To take full advantage of this tutorial you will need to-
- Have a good basic understanding of Cascading Style Sheets. Visit our online tutorial to discover how CSS works.
- Have installed on your computer different browsers so you can see how each rule and style is presented. You should have the latest versions of:
- Internet Explorer
- Firefox
- Chrome
- Safari
- Opera
- Write and edit CSS. You don't need a fancy program to do this. Dreamweaver is great, but NotePad will work fine, too.
To start learning about advanced CSS effects, simply click a link on the left.
The techniques discussed here really work. These pages are built using them.