Dreamweaver CC: The Missing Manual

Chapter 9. Advanced CSS

Chapter 3 introduced you to the basics of Cascading Style Sheets. In other chapters, you learned how to use CSS to style links, navigation bars, text, and tables. You can go a long way in web design with just those techniques (and many people do). However, to really become a web design expert, you should become familiar with a handful of advanced CSS concepts. Fortunately, Dreamweaver includes tools to help you with these concepts so you can work more efficiently and avoid those head-scratching “Why the heck does my design look like that?!” moments. In addition, Dreamweaver CC includes a few approaches for adding shiny, new CSS3 properties and a fun tool for adding basic CSS animations. (Even if you’re not ready for some of the advanced CSS concepts discussed in this chapter, don’t skip the section on CSS Transitions [CSS Transitions] because they’re fun and easy to create.)

Note

This chapter will help you on your journey from CSS novice to master. But keep in mind that it’s the rare mortal who understands everything about CSS from reading a single chapter. If you really want to know the ins and outs of CSS, check out CSS3: The Missing Manual.

Compound Selectors

It’s pretty easy to learn how to use class, ID, and tag styles. Technically, however, these aren’t really styles at all. In CSS lingo, they’re selectors, instructions that tell a browser what page element to look for so it can then apply CSS formatting rules. For example, a tag selector (not to be mistaken ...