| To start, let's take a look at what CSS is and why | | | | Traditionally, web pages were built using HTML with |
| it's so important to modern web design. CSS stands | | | | tables to layout the page structure and content. |
| for Cascading Style Sheets and was introduced by | | | | These cell based tables are very similar in form to a |
| the World Wide Web Consortium in late 1996 with | | | | table found in Microsoft Excel and Word. An |
| the aim to separate web page content (written | | | | advantage of using tables is when used properly, it |
| copy, images, multimedia, etc.) from presentation | | | | closely mimics the standard page layout in print media |
| (fonts, colors, layout, page structure, etc.). Another | | | | such as newspapers or magazine articles. However, |
| chief goal of CSS is to improve and enhance web | | | | as web technology has advanced and become more |
| accessibility. Previous to the introduction of CSS, a | | | | dynamic, a new era of design with greater |
| web page's HTML markup defined both content and | | | | possibilities has emerged. A new approach to |
| presentation. | | | | designing and laying out web pages was created to |
| CSS is usually contained in a separate file from an | | | | break the constraints of structured table layouts. This |
| HTML web page. This is why CSS files are frequently | | | | approach is called CSS tableless design. |
| referred to as "external style sheets". When an | | | | It's important to understand that traditional table |
| HTML page or other type of web page loads like | | | | based design and CSS are not mutually exclusive; |
| .aspx, .php, or .cgi, the page calls the external CSS file | | | | CSS is frequently used by web developers using |
| and reads all of the presentation properties defined in | | | | table based design to control the properties of tables |
| the file. The CSS file tells the HTML page how to | | | | and other items on their web pages. On the other |
| style the website's content and in the case of | | | | hand, tableless design wouldn't be possible without |
| tableless web design, where to place it. With CSS, a | | | | CSS. However, instead of using tables, a tableless |
| web designer can set rules for the presentation of | | | | designer uses what are known as "DIV"s, which is |
| individual web pages or an entire site. | | | | short for "division". |