Category: CSS

Rachel Andrew’s new Web Histories Project Includes Yours Truly

Rachel Andrew has a new project to record some of the early histories of underrepresented folks from the web development world. She calls the project Web Histories. I was delighted that she called on me to tell my story.

I hope you’ll take a minute to read about my contributions to web design.

Rachel explains that she, “intends this site to become a place to gather the stories of the efforts to create an open web. I’m starting with some of the early stories.” She provides a way for you to participate by taking a survey about the early history of the industry.

I seldom get recognized or remembered in the web design world, so I’m grateful to Rachel for thinking of me and including me in the project.

Go support her efforts, folks.

Working with rem in CSS

Working with rem in CSS

Is the relative measure rem new to you? Most people are familiar with the em unit of measure, but the rem hasn’t been around quite as long. It came into being with CSS3.

The definition of rem is “root relative em.” So a rem is really nothing new, it’s merely an em living in a very close relationship with the page root – typically the html element.

The default font size in most browsers is 16px. We equate this with a font-size value of 100% or 1em or 1rem. These are the relative font units used for responsive web pages.

To repeat, a rem is relative to the root. Why is this so important? Because an em bases font-size on the element it’s used on, and those sizes are inherited. For example, if a ul had a declared font-size of 0.75em, a nested ul within that list would have a font-size of 0.75em of the parent list.

On the other hand, if a rule for ul set the font-size at 0.75rem, any nested list would remain at that 0.75rem size because it is root relative, not relative to the parent element.

Browser support for the rem is very good among modern browsers. Why not give rem a try?

Attribute Selectors: All the Bells and Whistles

There are many types of selectors in CSS. If you’re still making your way through the darkness with nothing more than a few element selectors, a few classes, some ids, and the occasional pseudo selector, you need to find your way into the light with attribute selectors.

I wrote about Attribute Selectors in CSS back in 2008, but there are 3 new types of attribute selectors in CSS3. And they have good browser support.

Attribute Selector Basics

The basic syntax is to name an element, with an attribute in brackets following it, then give the CSS rule.

element[attribute] {
some rules here;
}

This rule, for example, would target any image with a title attribute.

img[title] {
some rules here;
}

This rule would target any anchor element with an href attribute.

a[href] {
some rules here;
}

Beyond that basic type of attribute selector, there are several operators can can be used to refine or broaden what you are selecting.

Using an equals sign, you can add specific values to the chosen attributes, making the selector even more precise. For example,

img[title="mybunny"] {
some rules here;
}

a[href="http://blogher.com"] {
some rules here;
}

The first example would select any image with the exact title attribute “mybunny.” The second would choose any link going to exactly “http://blogher.com,” but not to, say, “http://blogher.com/tech.”

The ~= operator select elements with an attribute value containing a specified word.

i [lang~="en"] {
some rules here;
}

This would match any italic element with a language attribute of English.

The |= uses the syntax |= to match hyphenated elements. This most often is used in rules targeting specific language declarations, where you might have hyphenated attributes in an HTML element such as en-US or en-GB. An example selector is:

body [lang|="en"]{
some rules here;
}

New in CSS3

The ^= operator uses the caret (^) with the equals sign to select what something begins with. It will match elements that have an attribute containing a value that starts with the specified value. For example,

a[href^="https:"] {
some rules here;
}

That selector would match only anchor elements with an href that began with https:.

The *= operator will match elements that have an attribute which contains the specified value somewhere in the attribute value. For example,

a[href*="blogher.com"] {
some rules here;
}

That would select any anchor element with an href value that contained blogher.com somewhere. This gives you a much wider sweep than the simple = operator.

Finally, the $= operator uses the dollar sign ($), which matches to elements that have a  specified value at the end. Examples:

img[src$=".gif"] {
some rules here;
}

a[href$=".doc"] {
some rules here;
}

These two examples would select only image elements ending with .gif or only href attributes ending in .doc.

Use our code for free enrollment in the Udemy “Web Design from the Ground Up” Online Course (50 only)

This is a $98 class at Udemy.
This is a $98 class at Udemy.

The first 50 people to sign up for the Web Design from the Ground Up course at Udemy using the special code webteacher.ws will receive access to the class absolutely free. This is a class for beginners. Here’s what you’ll learn:

  • Over 38 lectures and 9.5 hours of content
  • Introduction to HTML and XHTML including the most commonly used elements like linking
  • Introduction to CSS (Cascading Style Sheets) for working with fonts, colors, and complete layout control
  • Web Graphics and Image manipulation with an introduction to Photoshop
  • Introduction to JavaScript with practical applications including script tags, alert boxes, form validation, and much more
  • Domain name registration – how it works, pointing your domain to your site, best practices and much more
  • How to put your site on the Internet, including choosing a web host, working with FTP, and much more
  • Accessibility – make your site visible to all users
  • Ecommerce with PayPal – setting up a shopping cart, integrating PayPal, making money with your site!

That’s a lot for 10 hours, so I’m guessing it will be basic info, but that’s what a beginner needs, isn’t it?

Many thanks to Udemy for making this special offer available to Web Teacher readers.

CSS4 May Include Some Useful Pseudo Classes

The editor’s draft (emphasis on draft) for Level 4 Selectors from the W3C mentions some potential new pseudo selectors that the W3C describes as functional.

The matches-any Pseudo Class

This allows you to create a selector that targets a comma separated list of selectors. Here’s the syntax.

E:matches(selector1[, selector2, …]) {
    /* declarations */
}

For example

h1:matches(section, article, aside) {
    color: blue;
}

Another example, which selects a list of classes:

blockquote:matches(.pull, .feature, .break) { 
    color: blue; 
}

The negation Pseudo Class

The syntax:

E:not(negation-selector1[, negation-selector2, …]) {
    /* declarations */
}

In CSS3, only one selector was allow for this pseudo class. Now you can have a comma separated list as the syntax shows.

For example:

a:not([rel="prev"], [rel="next"]) {
    color: red;
}

The has Pseudo Class

This is a relational pseudo-class. It’s mentioned in the W3C draft document I mentioned, but it’s not mentioned in other places. I’m not sure if that means it’s brand new or was already discarded.

For example:

a:has(> img) {
     border: none;
}

That selector would remove a border from an <a> element that contain an <img> child.

Support?

You can check your efforts to work with these new CSS4 potential selectors using the test at css4-selectors.com. There’s also a list of all selectors from CSS1 to CSS4 on that site, but it does not mention the :has selector.

Using Clearfix to Clear Floats in a Layout

First, let’s review some of the older methods of clearing floats in a layout. In a CSS layout with two or more columns, there is generally some use of float to create the column structure. For the layout to include a footer at the bottom of the page, those floats need to be cleared.

A technique used some time back was to add some element – a br or a div – with a class attached that applied clear:both. This br or div was inserted immediately after the elements that needed clearing. This element added no content, it simply cleared the float (or floats). This works, but it does add an unnecessary element into the HTML content.

Another technique put a clear:both rule in the element following the float (or floats) preceding it. So a footer element might be set to clear:both to move it below any floated elements above it. This works. It puts the clear after the elements that need to be cleared.

Example code for this type of clearing in a two column layout.

<div class="container">
 <header>
 . . .
 </header>
 <main>
 . . .
 </main>
 <div class="sidebar">
 . . .
 </div>
 <footer><!--clear:both rule applied to footer-->
 . . .
 </footer>
</div>

Clearfix

The .clearfix difference is that the class is applied to the parent element containing the floats. The parent element becomes self-clearing.

An advantage of using .clearfix is that it makes the container div height equal to the tallest of the floated columns enclosed. This gives you options with borders, backgrounds and more, particularly when all of the contained elements are floated.

Using .clearfix generally will require the addition of another wrapper div to the HTML. Here’s a example similar to the one above, but designed for .clearfix. The header and footer elements are outside the wrapper div which contains the floated columns.

<div class="container">
<header>
. . .
</header>
 <div class="wrapper"><!--.clearfix class applied to wrapper-->
 <main>
 . . .
 </main>
 <div class="sidebar">
 . . .
 </div>
 </div><!--end wrapper div-->
<footer>
. . .
</footer>
</div><!--end of container div-->

The Clearfix Rule

The CSS for a .clearfix class rule is applied to the parent element containing the floats. It uses the pseudo class :after with no content. It declares the element as display:table.

.clearfix:after {
  content: "";
  display: table;
  clear: both;
}

That’s it.

Review: HTML & CSS: Design and Build Websites


HTML and CSS: Design and Build Websites by Jon Duckett is from Wiley & Sons (2011). This book is a little old (4 years) but I was so impressed with the JavaScript book by the same author and in the same format that I requested a copy from the publisher for review.

Everything I said about pedagogy and color coding in the review of the JavaScript book applies to this book as well. In fact, this book is where the author first honed the techniques used in presenting information so simply and clearly.

An infographic page from the book
A diagram and infographic page from the book

Simple illustrations with color coding and annotations for every point are used to teach the coding rules.

A reference page shows the HTML (or CSS) and the results of using it.
A reference page shows the HTML (or CSS) and the results of using it.

The reference pages are also color coded, with HTML shown in blue and CSS in pink as well as results examples.

As with the JavaScript book, all the code is downloadable. And, as with the JavaScript book, the language used to explain each concept is exceptionally clear and simple. Here’s a quote from the page introducing CSS.

CSS Associates Style Rules with HTML Elements

CSS works by associating rules with HTML elements. These rules govern how the content of specified elements should be displayed. A CSS rule contains two parts: a selector and a declaration.

The book went completely through all the HTML it included (page structure, text, lists, links, images, tables, forms, audio and video and a few other bits of HTML) before getting to any CSS. Normally that would bother me, but it worked in this book. The CSS part of the book included color, text, boxes, lists, tables, forms, layout, images and some info on layout using HTML5.

Where the book is a little out of date is the information about HTML5. It’s no fault of the author, it’s just that the book came out in 2011. A few things are included (like hgroup or codec issues with video elements) that have gone away, and a few things that are more recent (like the main element) didn’t get mentioned. I reduced the star rating on the book because of that, but if I’d seen the book and reviewed it 4 years ago, I would have given it 5 stars. I simply want anyone who buys and uses it now to be aware that small parts of the book in the HTML 5 descriptions are different now. The book is still a perfectly good way to learn HTML and CSS – in fact, the book is an excellent way to learn HTML and CSS.

A review by Virginia DeBolt of HTML & CSS: Design and Build Websites (rating: 4 stars). The rating is based not on the quality of the book but on the fact that some of it is a little out of date.

Summary: Detailed, careful, guide to HTML, CSS and more.

Disclosure: I received a free copy of this book from the publisher for this review. Opinions are my own. Here is my review policy. Links to Amazon are affiliate links. You can buy the book from Wiley, as well as Amazon. The link to Wiley is not an affiliate link.