JavaScript: The Definitive Guide, 5th Edition

Chapter 16. Cascading Style Sheets and Dynamic HTML

Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) is a standard for specifying the presentation of HTML or XML documents. In theory, you use HTML markup to specify the structure of your document, resisting the temptation to use deprecated HTML tags such as <font> to specify how the document should look. Instead, you use CSS to define a stylesheet that specifies how the structured elements of your document should be displayed. For example, you can use CSS to specify that the level-one headings defined by <h1> tags should be displayed in bold, sans-serif, centered, uppercase, 24-point letters.

CSS is a technology intended for use by graphic designers or anyone concerned with the precise visual display of HTML documents. It is of interest to client-side JavaScript programmers because the Document Object Model allows the styles that are applied to the individual elements of a document to be scripted. Used together, CSS and JavaScript enable a variety of visual effects loosely referred to as Dynamic HTML (DHTML).^[*]

The ability to script CSS styles allows you to dynamically change colors, fonts, and so on. More importantly, it allows you to set and change the position of elements and even to hide and show elements. This means that you can use DHTML techniques to create animated transitions where document content “slides in” from the right, for example, or to create an expanding and collapsing outline list in which the user can control the amount of information ...