Home > Articles > Graphics & Web Design > Dreamweaver & Flash

Formatting Web Pages Using Cascading Style Sheets

May 14, 2007

📄 Contents

␡

⎙ Print

< Back Page 3 of 11 Next >

This chapter is from the book 

Sams Teach Yourself Adobe Dreamweaver CS3 in 24 Hours

Learn More Buy

Exploring Style Settings

The CSS Rule Definition dialog box has eight categories with numerous settings you can use to define a style. As you are defining a style, select the panels to gain access to the settings for each category. Any settings that you do not need to set should be left alone. The following categories are available:

Type—This category defines type attributes, such as font and font size. These style settings can be applied to text or to objects that contain text.
Background—This category defines background attributes, such as color and image. These style settings can be applied to objects, such as layers and tables, where you can set a background.
Block—This category defines type attributes for paragraphs.
Box—This category defines attributes, such as margin size, that are applied to box objects, such as layers and tables.
Border—This category defines attributes that are applied to objects that have borders, such as layers and tables.
List—This category defines list attributes, such as bullet type.
Positioning—This category defines layer attributes, such as visibility and z-index. See Hour 17, "Using Dynamic HTML and AP Divs," for an explanation of layers and layer attributes.
Extensions—This category defines miscellaneous attributes that are either future enhancements or for Internet Explorer only.

Table 6.1 lists the style settings available in the various categories of the CSS Rule Definition dialog box.

Table 6.1. Style Settings in the CSS Rule Definition Dialog Box

Setting	Description
Type Category
Font	Sets the font family.
Size	Sets the font size and unit of measurement.
Style	Specifies the font as normal, italic, or oblique.
Line Height	Sets the height of the line of text and the unit of measurement. This setting is traditionally called leading. It is added before the line.
Decoration	Adds an underline, an overline, or a line through the text. You can set the text decoration to blink, or remove the decoration by choosing None (to remove the underline on hyperlinks, for instance).
Weight	Adds an amount of boldface to text. Regular bold is equal to 700 and normal, nonbold text is equal to 400. Many browsers only display 400, 700, and 900.
Variant	Sets the small caps variant on text. This displays with all the lowercase letters as uppercase letters but slightly smaller than the actual uppercase letters.
Case	Capitalizes the first letter of each word or sets all the text to lowercase or uppercase.
Color	Sets the text color.
Background Category
Background Color	Sets a background color for an element. You can use this attribute to set the background color for the body (the entire web page), a table, a paragraph, or any element on the web page.
Background Image	Sets a background image for an object.
Repeat	Controls how the background image repeats. No Repeat displays the image only once; Repeat tiles the image horizontally and vertically; Repeat-x tiles the image only horizontally; and Repeat-y tiles the image only vertically.
Attachment	Sets whether the background image scrolls with the content or is fixed in its original position.
Horizontal Position	Specifies the initial horizontal position of the background image.
Vertical Position	Specifies the initial vertical position of the background image.
Block Category
Word Spacing	Controls the space around words. Negative values reduce the space between words, whereas positive values increase the space.
Letter Spacing	Adds space between letters. Negative values reduce the space between letters, whereas positive values increase the space.
Vertical Alignment	Sets the alignment of the object relative to objects around it (these are the same alignment settings discussed in Hour 8, "Displaying Images").
Text Align	Aligns text within a container such as a paragraph, a table cell, or the entire web page. Choices are Left, Right, Center, and Justify.
Text Indent	Sets how far the first line is indented. Negative values create an outdent.
Whitespace	Sets how whitespace appears in an object; by default, white space is disregarding when displaying HTML. Normal disregards whitespace, Pre displays all the whitespace, and Nowrap sets the text to wrap only when a break tag (<br>) is encountered.
Display	Sets how and whether an element displays. The None setting, for instance, hides the item on the page; the Block setting displays the element with a line break before and after; and the Inline setting displays the element with no line breaks. The None setting is useful when creating dynamic style sheets. For instance, creating a style sheet for a printable web page that sets buttons and unnecessary interface elements to None so that they are not printed. You'll learn more about this in Hour 14.
Box Category
Width	Sets the width of an element.
Height	Sets the height of an element.
Float	Sets whether the element floats beside other elements and whether it floats to the left or the right of the other element.
Clear	Clears floating so that elements do not float around another element.
Padding	Sets the amount of space between the element and its border (or margin).
Margin	Sets the amount of space between the border of an element and other elements.
Border Category
Style	Sets the style appearance of the borders. The choices are Dotted, Dashed, Solid, Double, Groove, Ridge, Inset, Outset, and None (for no border). If the browser doesn't support one of the styles, it displays as solid.
Width	Sets the border thickness. You can set the widths of the top, right, bottom, and left borders separately.
Color	Sets the border color. You can set the colors of the top, right, bottom, and left borders separately.
List Category
Type	Sets the appearance of the lists. The choices are Disc, Circle, Square, Decimal, Lower-Roman, Upper-Roman, Lower-Alpha, Upper-Alpha, and None.
Bullet Image	Sets a custom image for bullets.
Position	Sets whether the list content wraps to the indent (Outside) or to the margin (Inside).
Positioning Category
Type	Sets how an element is positioned relative to the page. The choices are Relative (at the coordinates relative to its position on the page), Absolute (at the exact coordinates), and Static (at its place in the document flow).
Width	Sets the width of a container.
Height	Sets the height of a container.
Visibility	Sets the container's visibility. The choices are Inherit, Visible, and Hidden. You'll learn more about the attributes in this category in Hour 17.
Z-Index	Sets the container's z-index (that is, its stacking order).
Overflow	Sets what happens when the container's contents exceed its size. The choices are Visible, Hidden, Scroll, and Auto.
Placement	Sets the left, top, width, and height attributes for a container. These settings enable a container to be placed at an exact pixel position on the web page. The pixel position can sometimes vary a bit from browser to browser.
Clip	Sets the top, bottom, left, and right clipping attributes for a container. Clipping defines how much of an element is visible.
Extensions Category
Page Break	Forces a page break during printing, either before or after the object. Be careful with this property; use it only when you absolutely must control where the page breaks for printing.
Cursor	Changes the cursor when it is placed over the object. This attribute is supported only in modern browsers and can confuse users, so use it only when it is necessary.
Filter	Applies special effects, including page transitions, opacity, and blurs, to objects. The filters included with Dreamweaver are supported only in Internet Explorer 4.0 and later. See msdn.microsoft.com/workshop/Author/filter/filters.asp for more information. You can hand-code filters for other browsers (check out www.mandarindesign.com/opacity.html).

< Back Page 3 of 11 Next >

🔖 Save To Your Account

InformIT Promotional Mailings & Special Offers

I would like to receive exclusive offers and hear about products from InformIT and its family of brands. I can unsubscribe at any time.

Privacy Notice

Overview

Pearson Education, Inc., 221 River Street, Hoboken, New Jersey 07030, (Pearson) presents this site to provide information about products and services that can be purchased through this site.

This privacy notice provides an overview of our commitment to privacy and describes how we collect, protect, use and share personal information collected through this site. Please note that other Pearson websites and online products and services have their own separate privacy policies.

Collection and Use of Information

To conduct business and deliver products and services, Pearson collects and uses personal information in several ways in connection with this site, including:

Questions and Inquiries

For inquiries and questions, we collect the inquiry or question, together with name, contact details (email address, phone number and mailing address) and any other additional information voluntarily submitted to us through a Contact Us form or an email. We use this information to address the inquiry and respond to the question.

Online Store

For orders and purchases placed through our online store on this site, we collect order details, name, institution name and address (if applicable), email address, phone number, shipping and billing addresses, credit/debit card information, shipping options and any instructions. We use this information to complete transactions, fulfill orders, communicate with individuals placing orders or visiting the online store, and for related purposes.

Surveys

Pearson may offer opportunities to provide feedback or participate in surveys, including surveys evaluating Pearson products, services or sites. Participation is voluntary. Pearson collects information requested in the survey questions and uses the information to evaluate, support, maintain and improve products, services or sites, develop new products and services, conduct educational research and for other purposes specified in the survey.

Contests and Drawings

Occasionally, we may sponsor a contest or drawing. Participation is optional. Pearson collects name, contact information and other information specified on the entry form for the contest or drawing to conduct the contest or drawing. Pearson may collect additional personal information from the winners of a contest or drawing in order to award the prize and for tax reporting purposes, as required by law.

Newsletters

If you have elected to receive email newsletters or promotional mailings and special offers but want to unsubscribe, simply email information@informit.com.

Service Announcements

On rare occasions it is necessary to send out a strictly service related announcement. For instance, if our service is temporarily suspended for maintenance we might send users an email. Generally, users may not opt-out of these communications, though they can deactivate their account information. However, these communications are not promotional in nature.

Customer Service

We communicate with users on a regular basis to provide requested services and in regard to issues relating to their account we reply via email or phone in accordance with the users' wishes when a user submits their information through our Contact Us form.

Other Collection and Use of Information

Application and System Logs

Pearson automatically collects log data to help ensure the delivery, availability and security of this site. Log data may include technical information about how a user or visitor connected to this site, such as browser type, type of computer/device, operating system, internet service provider and IP address. We use this information for support purposes and to monitor the health of the site, identify problems, improve service, detect unauthorized access and fraudulent activity, prevent and respond to security incidents and appropriately scale computing resources.

Web Analytics

Pearson may use third party web trend analytical services, including Google Analytics, to collect visitor information, such as IP addresses, browser types, referring pages, pages visited and time spent on a particular site. While these analytical services collect and report information on an anonymous basis, they may use cookies to gather web trend information. The information gathered may enable Pearson (but not the third party web trend services) to link information with application and system log data. Pearson uses this information for system administration and to identify problems, improve service, detect unauthorized access and fraudulent activity, prevent and respond to security incidents, appropriately scale computing resources and otherwise support and deliver this site and its services.

Cookies and Related Technologies

This site uses cookies and similar technologies to personalize content, measure traffic patterns, control security, track use and access of information on this site, and provide interest-based messages and advertising. Users can manage and block the use of cookies through their browser. Disabling or blocking certain cookies may limit the functionality of this site.

Do Not Track

This site currently does not respond to Do Not Track signals.

Security

Pearson uses appropriate physical, administrative and technical security measures to protect personal information from unauthorized access, use and disclosure.

Children

This site is not directed to children under the age of 13.

Marketing

Pearson may send or direct marketing communications to users, provided that

Pearson will not use personal information collected or processed as a K-12 school service provider for the purpose of directed or targeted advertising.
Such marketing is consistent with applicable law and Pearson's legal obligations.
Pearson will not knowingly direct or send marketing communications to an individual who has expressed a preference not to receive marketing.
Where required by applicable law, express or implied consent to marketing exists and has not been withdrawn.

Pearson may provide personal information to a third party service provider on a restricted basis to provide marketing solely on behalf of Pearson or an affiliate or customer for whom Pearson is a service provider. Marketing preferences may be changed at any time.

Correcting/Updating Personal Information

If a user's personally identifiable information changes (such as your postal address or email address), we provide a way to correct or update that user's personal data provided to us. This can be done on the Account page. If a user no longer desires our service and desires to delete his or her account, please contact us at customer-service@informit.com and we will process the deletion of a user's account.

Choice/Opt-out

Users can always make an informed choice as to whether they should proceed with certain services offered by InformIT. If you choose to remove yourself from our mailing list(s) simply visit the following page and uncheck any communication you no longer want to receive: www.informit.com/u.aspx.

Sale of Personal Information

Pearson does not rent or sell personal information in exchange for any payment of money.

While Pearson does not sell personal information, as defined in Nevada law, Nevada residents may email a request for no sale of their personal information to NevadaDesignatedRequest@pearson.com.

Supplemental Privacy Statement for California Residents

California residents should read our Supplemental privacy statement for California residents in conjunction with this Privacy Notice. The Supplemental privacy statement for California residents explains Pearson's commitment to comply with California law and applies to personal information of California residents collected in connection with this site and the Services.

Sharing and Disclosure

Pearson may disclose personal information, as follows:

As required by law.
With the consent of the individual (or their parent, if the individual is a minor)
In response to a subpoena, court order or legal process, to the extent permitted or required by law
To protect the security and safety of individuals, data, assets and systems, consistent with applicable law
In connection the sale, joint venture or other transfer of some or all of its company or assets, subject to the provisions of this Privacy Notice
To investigate or address actual or suspected fraud or other illegal activities
To exercise its legal rights, including enforcement of the Terms of Use for this site or another contract
To affiliated Pearson companies and other companies and organizations who perform work for Pearson and are obligated to protect the privacy of personal information consistent with this Privacy Notice
To a school, organization, company or government agency, where Pearson collects or processes the personal information in a school setting or on behalf of such organization, company or government agency.

Links

This web site contains links to other sites. Please be aware that we are not responsible for the privacy practices of such other sites. We encourage our users to be aware when they leave our site and to read the privacy statements of each and every web site that collects Personal Information. This privacy statement applies solely to information collected by this web site.

Requests and Contact

Please contact us about this Privacy Notice or if you have any requests or questions relating to the privacy of your personal information.

Changes to this Privacy Notice

We may revise this Privacy Notice through an updated posting. We will identify the effective date of the revision in the posting. Often, updates are made to provide greater clarity or to comply with changes in regulatory requirements. If the updates involve material changes to the collection, protection, use or disclosure of Personal Information, Pearson will provide notice of the change through a conspicuous notice on this site or other appropriate way. Continued use of the site after the effective date of a posted revision evidences acceptance. Please contact us if you have questions or concerns about the Privacy Notice or any objection to any revisions.

Last Update: November 17, 2020

Email Address