Web Style Sheets

Obviously, each developer or programmer displays a style of their own which marks his trademark. These styles are manifested in the designs of the web pages and other web-based applications that they create. All aspects of a web-based application, such as shapes and colors, text and pictures, they are made up of CSS code. This code can be modified or edited by means of available tools.

One tool that might come in handy to a programmer is a language editor. It enables the developer to create a custom template or to combine a series of codes in order to create a template. Additionally, once the template has been combined, the programmer now has the ability to preview the application and to test it for possible bugs and errors. Such an editor, makes it also possible to preview two distinct templates in order to compare them for the improvement of one being developed. Language editors are typically available online, and there is no need to download them. Nevertheless, there are some programs you can download as freeware, which basically are designed to serve the same purpose.

A tool for template-customization is also available online and for download. It enables you to download a template from the web and introduce changes that fit your preferences. In most cases, this tool is available online as a customization feature of online communities in the design and development of personal web pages. Example of such communities are Friendster, MySpace, Facebook, Multiply, and others.

The aim of this article is to describe some CSS properties that in my opinion are usually forgotten or neglected by web designers

Text Indent

The function of this property is to push forward the first line of text in a paragraph. This effect is similar to what we can typically see in printed media. The other justification to use this property is to displace the text entirely off the web page while applying image replacement methods on titles or navigation bar. This technique is most commonly resolved by means of text-indent attribute.

Letter Spacing

This property is hardly ever used. Most of you have probably used it once or twice and that’s it. The property does exactly what its name suggest, namely sets the space between the letters. Although it seems very simple, its uses are quite practical indeed. You should always bear in mind that the space adjusted by letter-spacing is not absolute space, but rather, it is relative to the space that already exists by default. Consequently, it is possible for the letter-spacing property to accepts also negative values. For example, using letter-spacing of -1px will decrease the space between elements by 1 pixel. On the other hand letter-spacing of 3px will increase any already existing space.

White-Space

Any time you want to insert an inline element from breaking onto a second line, just use the white-space: nowrap property.

Typical uses of this property are short anchor text and span elements. Because this property is able to cause an element to become larger in width than the element that contains it, remember to proceed cautiously when using it.

Among many virtues of CSS that made it so popular in the community of web designers and developers is its ability to define multiple versatile properties of elements. One of the most interesting and useful features of CSS properties is the ability to control and add backgrounds. It is possible to create backgrounds/backdrops located behind the text, regardless of the size of the paragraph, it might be very large or, if you wish so, very small. You can achieve this effect by using the URL of the desired image.

The CSS background property is used by professional webmasters to prepare astonishing background patterns as well as to reduce web page loading time. However, it is advisable to remain extremely cautious when choosing backgrounds for your site. Remember, that the image you have chosen must blend well with the text pattern and other elements present on a web page. My advice is to always nice to keep in your mind the general color scheme of the website and then choose the background that will fit in best.

Bear in mind, that the size of the backdrop or the image used must be appropriate to the length of the text or paragraph. If you fail to match length of the image and length of the text you will witness an unnecessary repetition of the image, which you probably want to avoid. It is not uncommon to use images that are small in comparison to size of the whole page. By combining the small image with CSS Background Property, you can create the tiling effects on your web page. If you use properly matched colors and choose you image carefully as not to blend poorly with the text, this tiling effect will allows you to create a very nice pattern.