CSS has been around for more than 10 years already beginning in its development in 1997 but it seems it has been in the public consciousness for only a relatively short time. The reason for this is because it wasn’t until the year 2000 that many web browsers began using the capabilities of CSS beyond its more basic color and font characteristics. Of course things are way different now and virtually all modern day browsers feature support for all CSS Level 1 aspects, many aspects of CSS Level 2 and some web browsers have even gone beyond that to support some of the capabilities of CSS Level 3.

Indeed, it is rarely that you find a web site nowadays that does not utilize some form of CSS in their design and development. For better or worse, web sites that rely solely on HTML are quickly going the way of the dinosaur. May industry pundits as well as end users have even gone so far as to consider a thorough knowledge of CSS as being far more necessary than a thorough knowledge of HTML. While in truth they are both equally important and will continue to be an important facet of the web for many years to come, there is no denying the widespread impact that CSS has brought upon the World Wide Web.

CSS was originally developed as a means by which web developers could define both the look and the feel of their web pages. With its inception, web designers were now able to treat content and design as two separate entities, thereby allowing HTML to function more in accord with its intended purpose, which was to focus on the markup of a particular web site’s content and leaving the responsibility of the design and layout to CSS.

The term CSS itself is an abbreviation for Cascading Style Sheet. The style sheet in this particular instance refers to the document itself. The concept of style sheets itself is nothing new; designers have used them in their documents for many years. Strictly speaking, style sheets are the set of technical specifications that govern a particular layout, whether it is online or on print. The purpose of these of course is to ensure that any subsequent designs will conform to the predetermined specifications upon printing.

This concept can be translated easily enough to the World Wide Web only in this particular case, Cascading Style Sheets not only determine the technical specifications of a particular document on the web but also has the added function of communicating to the viewing vehicle (in this case the web browser that the end user is using to surf the Internet) exactly how the document that is being viewed is to be rendered.

One of the most important things to remember in all of this is the key word Cascade. Much like a stream of water running of a cliff or elevated area comes into direct contact with the rocks and soil that line the full course of the incline, yet is ultimately only affected in terms of its final destination by the land elements at the end of the slope, Cascading Style Sheets by their very nature flows or cascades through any number of separate style sheets. To follow the stream of water analogy even further, the appearance of a particular web site is ultimately dependent upon the user agent style sheet, which in many cases is the default style that the Web browser will utilize in the task of displaying a particular web page in the absence of any other set of instructions.

Of course more often than not, a web designer will probably provide any number of his own instructions that are embedded in the web page in question. The Cascading Style Sheet in this particular scenario will be tasked with dictating to the web browser which particular set of instructions will have top priority. The most commonly seen usage of this is in the fonts that are used for a web site. Even if your web browser is set to display web pages in a specific font and type size, say Arial narrow 10 points, the font size and family that is specified in the Cascading Style Sheet will take precedence overriding the default values that have been set in your browser.

Cascading Style Sheet go far beyond font specifications however into the areas of XHTML and XML markup. This means that Cascading Style Sheets could be used to define the look of any XHTML and XML markup that you use in your web site.

Clearly Cascading Style Sheets are one of the most powerful tools that any web designer can have in his or her arsenal and they can have a tremendous impact on the whole look and feel of a web site. If you are at all interested in becoming a professional web designer, a thorough knowledge of Cascading Style Sheets is crucial.

In the modern era of regular web development, CSS or Cascading Style Sheets are style sheet languages used for describing presentations of documents that are written in different markup languages. The simplest applications of these style sheets are seen in style websites, which are written in XHTML or HTML. This language is also applied for almost all XML documents including XUL and SVG.

CSS3 is the latest style sheet format, which is in a continuous developing stage. It is perfect for the evolving specifications of XHTML and has been continuously under modularization for the same. You find numerous areas where CSS3 has made its mark. It is amongst the most powerful and comfortable tool for any user. Let us discuss some important advantages of CSS3 that has led to its popularity.

Usage of style sheet

Before the inception of CSS3 or as a matter of fact any other versions of CSS, web designers were utilizing HTML markup for denoting border size, font colors and background styles. However with CSS concept, these features moved into an area of separate style sheets making users have an easy and comfortable time in HTML markup.

CSS3 allows changes and modifications to be made in individual modules. Again, testing of these modules is also carried out with it. This allows integration of the overall system and simplifies the maintenance procedure.

Isolation & Differentiation

CSS3 concept helps users in separating presentations from structures. Prior to this concept, web designers used HTML markup for depicting a heading to different formats in a page. The HTML structure was tough for managing, as markups required repetition for every heading while applying them. This made the presentation and maintenance more complex.

However with CSS3 concept, presentations got separated from the structure. In this case, style sheets defined presentational characteristics whereas the document structures were defined in separate heading. Separation of structure and presentation concept can help users for maintaining their web page in an easier, comfortable and efficient manner. Henceforth, it helps in developing the systems on each module basis.

Thus, it provides a more flexible system.Helps in achieving Multi-Column Layouts Multi-Column Layouts are important features that are available only with CSS3 concept. It allows users in flowing content of different elements into different multiple columns. It provides users with a feature of auto-scrolling. Your texts are wrapped in such a manner that they become more user-friendly and simultaneously simpler for reading. All these text features are carried out without making shorter lines or words. Again, everything can be embedded in one page only. Henceforth, it makes an economical and comfortable stay for you on the web world.

Handling Flexibility

CSS3 concept also provides users with handling flexibility in web designing, as CSS3 styled information can be kept as separate documents. Again if the user desires, they can attach the information within HTML documents. These multiple formatted style sheets are easily imported anywhere too. Henceforth, it can be easily seen that CSS3 concept has changed the face of web designing with its introduction into the web world.

Like many other web designers, I began laying out web pages using graphical tools and discovered the wonders of tables for layout without anyone telling me to use them. Since browser support for CSS Is better than it used to be, and tables cause problems, CSS offers you a benefit you may not have thought about before, the benefit of better SEO.

I want to say right away that quality content should be your highest priority, not SEO tricks. The advice given here will help you get better search engine results because the key to real SEO begins with good page structure and organizing your content . By understanding how search engines "see" your pages, you can build better page structure.

Search engines use what is called "top down" logic in looking at web pages. They look at your code, not the visual display that users see. Human eyes are drawn to the page content right away, even when there are other things on the page. Search engine robots do not see things the same way, but, they are logical and predictable once you understand them.

You have most likely seen search engine results that do not make sense because some obscure content gets displayed instead of the actual content of the page. I will illustrate top down logic so you can understand how to make CSS work for you.

In the mind of a search engine, the gist of your web page is determined first by what content is at the top of the page. If you start with certain words, they appear often throughout the page, and then again at the bottom so it is essentially your closing point, that, in the automated brains of a search engine is what your page is about.

Your well trained eyeballs will probably look for a title, then read the content; so to you, this is the top down logic of the page. Read your HTML code from the top down. You may be surprised how far you have to scroll before you get to the real content, and, how much other "content" a search engine will see first. If you use tables for layout, the top down logic of your code looks like it has the legs cut off and the place settings are on the floor.

Using CSS, you can organize your code so the search engines see your real content first regardless of where it appears on the page.