Now when you hear the words "Why I switched" in
tech circles, it usually means why somebody switched from
Windows to a Mac, or possibly to Linux. Always here to break
the stereotypical ice-breakers I'm here to talk about something
totally different.
I came from the web page design world of hard coding each
table, font and background on each page I did by hand. Adding
up the hours I spent on just page to page in a site trying
to achieve my previous work was tedious at best. That all
changed about a year ago when I started to play around with
Cascading Style Sheets, or how they are usually referred
to, CSS.
Now first you have to know what CSS really is. It's a string
of data or code that sits internally or externally that
will tell you this block of code is green, or your body
tag is 598 pixels long. Now I won't go into the details
of how you structure this data. I'll leave the hardcore
learning to you. Learning CSS isn't hard and as with many
things a quick search in Google will provide you with many
tutorials and examples.
The advantages of using CSS over the out-dated method of
changing each little thing on each page are immense. Think
of it as painting your garage. Now when you go out to paint
your garage would you go to the store, buy the paint and
brushes, then paint one stroke just to go back to the store
to buy your materials again? Of course not. CSS allows for
you to have all of your tools right at your side and allows
you to structure your data how you want it. If you don't
like your menu on the left, then just change a few strings
of code, and look at that! Your menu is now on the right.
The time designing in CSS shaves hours off of your project
completion time.
Another advantage of using CSS is that if you are using
an external CSS, there's only one place you have to change
to modify the entire look of your site. Gone are the days
of shifting through page after page after page just to change
one aspect of the page. All you need to do is fill your
site with the CSS markers and the site's content then let
CSS do the work for you. Every rose has it's thorn though
and this also plays a point into the use of CSS. The actual
act of using CSS is perfect for designing your pages, the
flaw comes in when you go to your browser of choice. Now
some browsers do a better job of figuring out the code than
others do. Most up to date browsers will, with a few tweaks
here and there, display your pages as they were supposed
to be seen. The downside is many of the older browsers don't
support CSS all that well, so you might be cutting them
from your demographics.
The last point I want to make is the fact that you don't
have to go fully one way or another. If there are a few
aspects of regular HTML codding you still can't break yourself
of doing or would rather do instead, please do so! The two
will work hand in hand together. Maybe not enough to give
you that warm and fuzzy feeling inside, but enough to get
the job done.
For myself the good outweighed the bad in my decision to
lean a little bit more towards going for CSS. The functionality
and extra time I had after a layout was so immense that
now I have time for other things, like giving my readers
more content. The best advice I can give you though is do
your homework on it, and see what works best for you. You
might give it a try at least. That's what I did, and I'm
hooked now!
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