A cascading style sheet, also called a css, is a wonderful file that defines the overall style of your website. Since it is in one file, it does not need to keep being reloaded onto a computer with every web page that is loaded. It just gets referred to when needed by the website. It also is a wonderful way to keep consistency. When a change is made in this file, the change on every single page of the website.
Let's look at the code in the css file. Open up HomeSite. Go to the "includes" folder of the website and locate the file called "sitestyle.css". This time, instead of double clicking on the file to open it, right click on the file name and choose the "Edit StyleSheet…" option. This will open up the css file in another program called TopStyle Lite. If you double click on the file in HomeSite, it will open up in that program, but TopStyle Lite is much easier to edit this file in.
TopStyle Lite comes free with HomeSite and is a great way to edit cascading style sheets. When looking at the program, you will be able to see three sections.
The first section is the area that has the actual code that is being created.
The actual code should look like this:
Notice that the code is divided into several sectors or elements.
Each sector starts with a name.
After the name are two symbols, the "{" and the "}".
Everything between the two symbols is the instructions or rules for the sector name.
The second section is the area that allows you to pick and choose options for a particular sector.
To define the options, click into a sector on the left side of the screen.
Then choose the options with the drop-down boxes on the right side.
The bottom area gives you a quick preview of what each sector would look like when it is integrated into a webpage. Each section in the preview is displayed by the sector name to give you an idea of what the css will do.
Ok, let's get to work and modify this file for your website.
"Four things for success. Work and Pray, Think and Believe." -Norman Vincent Peale
