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01_584251 ffirs.qxd 2/10/05 11:01 PM Page i CSS Web Design FOR DUMmIES ‰ TEAM LinG - Live, Informative, Non-cost and Genuine ! 01_584251 ffirs.qxd 2/10/05 11:01 PM Page ii TEAM LinG - Live, Informative, Non-cost and Genuine ! 01_584251 ffirs.qxd 2/10/05 11:01 PM Page iii CSS Web Design FOR DUMmIES ‰ by Richard Mansfield TEAM LinG - Live, Informative, Non-cost and Genuine ! 01_584251 ffirs.qxd 2/10/05 11:01 PM Page iv CSS Web Design For Dummies® Published by Wiley Publishing, Inc. 111 River Street Hoboken, NJ 07030-5774 www.wiley.com Copyright © 2005 by Wiley Publishing, Inc., Indianapolis, Indiana Published by Wiley Publishing, Inc., Indianapolis, Indiana Published simultaneously in Canada No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, scanning or otherwise, except as permitted under Sections 107 or 108 of the 1976 United States Copyright Act, without either the prior written permission of the Publisher, or authorization through payment of the appropriate per-copy fee to the Copyright Clearance Center, 222 Rosewood Drive, Danvers, MA 01923, (978) 750-8400, fax (978) 646-8600. 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Library of Congress Control Number: 2005920081 ISBN: 0-7645-8425-1 Manufactured in the United States of America 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 1O/QS/QT/QV/IN TEAM LinG - Live, Informative, Non-cost and Genuine ! 01_584251 ffirs.qxd 2/10/05 11:01 PM Page v About the Author Richard Mansfieldwas the editor of COMPUTE!Magazine from 1981 to 1987. During that time, he wrote hundreds of magazine articles and two columns. From 1987 to 1991, he was editorial director and partner at Signal Research. He began writing books full-time in 1991 and has written 36 computer books since 1982. Of those, four became bestsellers: Machine Language for Beginners (COMPUTE! Books), The Second Book of Machine Language(COMPUTE! Books), The Visual Guide to Visual Basic(Ventana), and The Visual Basic Power Toolkit(Ventana, coauthored by Evangelos Petroutsos). His books combined have sold more than 500,000 copies worldwide and have been translated into 12 languages. Richard’s recent titles include Office 2003 Application Development All-in-One Desk Reference For Dummies, Visual Basic .NET All-in-One Desk Reference ForDummies, Visual Basic .NET Weekend Crash Course, Visual Basic .NET Database Programming For Dummies, Visual Basic 6 Database Programming For Dummies (all published by Wiley), Hacker Attack(Sybex), and The Wi-Fi Experience: Everyone’s Guide to 802.11b Wireless Networking(Pearson Education, coauthored by Harold Davis). TEAM LinG - Live, Informative, Non-cost and Genuine ! 01_584251 ffirs.qxd 2/10/05 11:01 PM Page vi TEAM LinG - Live, Informative, Non-cost and Genuine ! 01_584251 ffirs.qxd 2/10/05 11:01 PM Page vii Dedication This book is dedicated to David Lee Roach. Author’s Acknowledgments I want to thank acquisitions editor Katie Feltman for her thoughtful and help- ful advice. I’ve worked with Katie before, and she knows her stuff. I was also lucky to have two strong editors improve this book. Project editor Linda Morris asks the right questions, makes lots of good suggestions, and overall stands in as a representative of the reader. She requests clarification when necessary, and ensures that the reader will find consistent, useful information. She deserves credit for her taste and the high quality of her editing. The technical editor, Vanessa Williams, reviewed the entire manuscript for technical quality. For that I thank her. I’m happy to report that she found few flaws in the programming code, but I’m certainly glad to have an opportunity to fix the few flaws she did spot. Vanessa also suggested alternative CSS techniques and additional resources, deepening the technical information available in the book. To these, and all the other good people at Wiley who contributed to the book, my thanks for the time and care they took to ensure quality every step along the way to publication. TEAM LinG - Live, Informative, Non-cost and Genuine ! 01_584251 ffirs.qxd 2/10/05 11:01 PM Page viii Publisher’s Acknowledgments We’re proud of this book; please send us your comments through our online registration form located at www.dummies.com/register/. Some of the people who helped bring this book to market include the following: Acquisitions, Editorial, and Composition Services Media Development Project Coordinator: Adrienne Martinez Project Editor:Linda Morris Layout and Graphics: Carl Byers, Andrea Dahl, Acquisitions Editor:Katie Feltman Lauren Goddard, JoyceHaughey, Stephanie D. Jumper, Melanee Prendergast Copy Editor:Linda Morris Proofreaders: Leeann Harney, Jessica Kramer Technical Editor:Vanessa Williams Indexer: TECHBOOKS Production Services Editorial Manager:Carol Sheehan Media Development Manager: LauraVanWinkle Media Development Supervisor: Richard Graves Editorial Assistant:Amanda Foxworth Cartoons:Rich Tennant (www.the5thwave.com) Publishing and Editorial for Technology Dummies Richard Swadley,Vice President and Executive Group Publisher Andy Cummings,Vice President and Publisher Mary Bednarek,Executive Acquisitions Director Mary C. Corder,Editorial Director Publishing for Consumer Dummies Diane Graves Steele,Vice President and Publisher Joyce Pepple,Acquisitions Director Composition Services Gerry Fahey,Vice President of Production Services Debbie Stailey,Director of Composition Services TEAM LinG - Live, Informative, Non-cost and Genuine ! 02_584251 ftoc.qxd 2/10/05 11:06 PM Page ix Contents at a Glance Introduction ................................................................1 Part I: The ABCs of CSS .............................................13 Chapter 1: CSS Fulfills a Promise ...................................................................................15 Chapter 2: Getting Results with CSS ............................................................................31 Chapter 3: Up and Running with Selectors ..................................................................47 Part II: Looking Good with CSS ...................................67 Chapter 4: Taking a Position ..........................................................................................69 Chapter 5: All About Text ..............................................................................................85 Chapter 6: Managing Details in Style Sheets ..............................................................107 Chapter 7: Styling It Your Way .....................................................................................127 Part III: Adding Artistry: Design and Composition with CSS .................................................................153 Chapter 8: Web Design Basics ......................................................................................155 Chapter 9: Spacing Out with Boxes .............................................................................169 Chapter 10: Organizing Your Web Pages Visually ....................................................183 Chapter 11: Designing with Auto and Inline Elements ..............................................197 Chapter 12: Handling Tables and Lists (And Doing Away with Tables) ..................................................................................207 Chapter 13: Creating Dramatic Visual Effects ............................................................233 Part IV: Advanced CSS Techniques ............................251 Chapter 14: Specializing in Selection ..........................................................................253 Chapter 15: CSS Moves into the Future ......................................................................265 Chapter 16: Programmatic CSS ....................................................................................279 Chapter 17: Testing and Debugging ............................................................................297 Part V: The Part of Tens ...........................................317 Chapter 18: Ten Great CSS Tips and Tricks ................................................................319 Chapter 19: Ten Topics That Don’t Fit Elsewhere in the Book (But Are Important) ....................................................................................................329 Index.......................................................................339 TEAM LinG - Live, Informative, Non-cost and Genuine !