Week Nine:

REQUIRED READING NOTES

W3 School Cascading Style Sheet Tutorial
http://www.w3schools.com/css/

• This website provided good examples on CSS and how to control the style and layout of Web pages all at once.
• CSS - defined as how to display HTML elements on a Web page.
• Stands for Cascading Style Sheets
• Styles were added to HTML 4.0 to solve problems.
• External Style Sheets save work and are stored in CSS files.
• All browsers support CSS today. --> It defines how HTML elements are meant to be displayed.
• Much like the HTML page, the quiz was a helpful tool also for remembering various components of CSS and its' defining characteristics.
• The most helpful page on this site was the CSS Examples tab

CSS Tutorial: starting with HTML + CSS
http://www.w3.org/Style/Examples/011/firstcss

• This tutorial is aimed for individuals looking to start using CSS, but have not written a CSS style sheet before.
• while it does not explain the components of CSS, it does explain how to create an HTML file, a CSS file, and how to make them work together.

•  This page takes the user through a series of steps that ultimately create an HTML page with the CSS style sheet. It walks you through step by step, adding colors, fonts, navigation tools, styling links, and external CSS.
• It was fun to create my first webpage through the tutorial!

"CSS"
Chapter 2 of Cascading Style Sheets, designing for the Web by Hakon Wium Lie and Bert Bos
http://www.w3.org/Style/LieBos2e/enter/

• This chapter in this book is also an introduction to CSS as it is an HTML element that enables Web page designers to mark up a document as to its structure.
• CSS puts the designer in the driver's seat. This chapter introduces the basics of how to write CSS and HTML work together.
• Two ways to create CSS are described:
• a normal text editor and writing the style sheets "by hand"
• a dedicated tool that supports CSS writing.
• It is recommended to write the CSS by hand so that the developer of a dedicated tool does not interfere with the style you intend for a page.
• A rule is a statement about one stylistic aspect of one or more elements.
• consists of two parts: selector and declaration 
• selector is the part before the left curly brace. selector { ... } - link between HTML and the style. it specifies the elements affected by the declaration.
• declaration is the part within the curly braces { declaration } - part of the rule that sets forth what the effect will be.
• has two parts separated by a colon: property - { color: green } COLOR is the property. value - { color: green } GREEN is the value.
• The selector is based on the type of the element. 
• A style sheet is a set of one or more rules that apply to an HTML document.
• There are many definitions provided within this chapter that give a good base knowledge of the CSS and HTML elements needed.
• It becomes very technical, describing common tasks, properties, and perspectives on the information provided.

Thoughts 

I found this information very useful, especially after reviewing the terms with the W3 School tutorials. CSS and HTML are very in-depth, but this website provides a great basic coverage and examples for someone like myself to understand. I can see this information being utilized in my future as an academic librarian because I will need to create webpages for students and faculty to access. I enjoyed learning so much about these correlating topics.