CSS, or Cascading Style Sheets, is a markup language used to design the appearance of web pages. It covers the layout, font styles and sizes, formatting, tables, and link properties, among others, of a page. CSS can dictate the overall appearance of a website using only a single document, which we refer to as the style sheet. In case you have not encountered CSS, this is your lucky day for CSS will prove to be a beneficial tool in designing your web pages.

You might ask: Why should I use CSS when in fact, using my <font> and <table> tags suits me just fine?
There are a string of reasons why and I will share some of them as based on my experience:
1. CSS offers greater flexibility. It takes only a single page to edit and format several web pages.
2. CSS takes away unnecessary codes, reducing the size of your web documents.
3. CSS makes your web pages more accessible, even for the differently abled.

Flexibility
Style sheets allow the flexible editing and formatting of pages. For instance, altering the width value of a table column, or any <table> or <font> aspect for that matter, would usually take days or weeks to complete. The conventional method requires going through every page and changing the targeted element on each one of the pages.

If you are using Macromedia Dreamweaver, it might be less tedious because all you need to do is use templates or the Find and Replace functions. However, CSS still offers the easiest way. Do you want to alter the size of your header tags and link texts? Easy does it. Just input your edits on the external CSS file and you’re good to go.

Faster Download Speed
The <table> tags are still widely used in designing web pages and in some cases, still necessary. However, most web designs could also be carried out in CSS with minimal problems. Complicated coding causes your file size to expand to the inconvenience of your users.

It is safe to assume that many people veer away from aptly coded colspans and rowspans and as a result, only a few efficiently coded tables. The main problem lies with the <font> tags that sometimes tend to scatter along GoLive and Dreamweaver-generated web pages.

If you use a CSS class or declaration, you could easily alter all your web pages’ attributes via a single style sheet.

Tags: Why Use CSS