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Save a lot of work with CSS! In our CSS tutorial you will learn how to use CSS to control the style and layout of multiple Web pages all at once. Start learning CSS now!

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body { background-color:#d0e4fe; } h1 { color:orange; text-align:center; } p { font-family:"Times New Roman"; font-size:20px; }
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CSS Introduction
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What You Should Already Know

Before you continue you should have a basic understanding of the following:

HTML / XHTML

If you want to study these subjects first, find the tutorials on our Home page.

What is CSS?

CSS stands for Cascading Style Sheets Styles define how to display HTML elements Styles were added to HTML 4.0 to solve a problem External Style Sheets can save a lot of work External Style Sheets are stored in CSS files

CSS Demo

An HTML document can be displayed with different styles: See how it works

Styles Solved a Big Problem

HTML was never intended to contain tags for formatting a document. HTML was intended to define the content of a document, like: <h1>This is a heading</h1> <p>This is a paragraph.</p> When tags like <font>, and color attributes were added to the HTML 3.2 specification, it started a nightmare for web developers. Development of large web sites, where fonts and color information were added to every single page, became a long and expensive process. To solve this problem, the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) created CSS. In HTML 4.0, all formatting could be removed from the HTML document, and stored in a separate CSS file. All browsers support CSS today.

CSS Saves a Lot of Work!

CSS defines HOW HTML elements are to be displayed. Styles are normally saved in external .css files. External style sheets enable you to change the appearance and layout of all the pages in a Web site, just by editing one single file!

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CSS Syntax
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Examples

Look at Example 1 Look at Example 2

CSS Syntax
A CSS rule has two main parts: a selector, and one or more declarations:

The selector is normally the HTML element you want to style. Each declaration consists of a property and a value. The property is the style attribute you want to change. Each property has a value.

CSS Example
A CSS declaration always ends with a semicolon, and declaration groups are surrounded by curly brackets:

p {color:red;text-align:center;}
To make the CSS more readable, you can put one declaration on each line, like this:

Example
p { color:red; text-align:center; }
Try it yourself

CSS Comments
Comments are used to explain your code, and may help you when you edit the source code at a later date. Comments are ignored by browsers. A CSS comment begins with "/*", and ends with "*/", like this:

/*This is a comment*/ p { text-align:center; /*This is another comment*/ color:black; font-family:arial; }

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CSS Id and Class

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The id and class Selectors

In addition to setting a style for a HTML element, CSS allows you to specify your own selectors called "id" and "class".

The id Selector
The id selector is used to specify a style for a single, unique element.

The id selector uses the id attribute of the HTML element, and is defined with a "#". The style rule below will be applied to the element with id="para1":

Example
#para1 { text-align:center; color:red; }
Try it yourself

Do NOT start an ID name with a number! It will not work in Mozilla/Firefox.

The class Selector

The class selector is used to specify a style for a group of elements. Unlike the id selector, the class selector is most often used on several elements. This allows you to set a particular style for many HTML elements with the same class. The class selector uses the HTML class attribute, and is defined with a "." In the example below, all HTML elements with class="center" will be center-aligned:

Example
.center {text-align:center;}
Try it yourself

You can also specify that only specific HTML elements should be affected by a class. In the example below, all p elements with class="center" will be center-aligned:

Example
p.center {text-align:center;}
Try it yourself

Do NOT start a class name with a number! This is only supported in Internet Explorer.

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CSS How To...

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When a browser reads a style sheet, it will format the document according to it.

Three Ways to Insert CSS

There are three ways of inserting a style sheet:

External style sheet Internal style sheet Inline style

External Style Sheet

An external style sheet is ideal when the style is applied to many pages. With an external style sheet, you can change the look of an entire Web site by changing one file. Each page must link to the style sheet using the <link> tag. The <link> tag goes inside the head section:

<head> <link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="mystyle.css" /> </head>

An external style sheet can be written in any text editor. The file should not contain any html tags. Your style sheet should be saved with a .css extension. An example of a style sheet file is shown below:

hr {color:sienna;} p {margin-left:20px;} body {background-image:url("images/back40.gif");}

Do not leave spaces between the property value and the units! "margin-left:20 px" (instead of "margin-left:20px") will work in IE, but not in Firefox or Opera.

Internal Style Sheet

An internal style sheet should be used when a single document has a unique style. You define internal styles in the head section of an HTML page, by using the <style> tag, like this:

<head> <style type="text/css"> hr {color:sienna;} p {margin-left:20px;} body {background-image:url("images/back40.gif");} </style> </head>

Inline Styles
An inline style loses many of the advantages of style sheets by mixing content with presentation. Use this method sparingly! To use inline styles you use the style attribute in the relevant tag. The style attribute can contain any CSS property. The example shows how to change the color and the left margin of a paragraph:

<p style="color:sienna;margin-left:20px">This is a paragraph.</p>

Multiple Style Sheets

If some properties have been set for the same selector in different style sheets, the values will be inherited from the more specific style sheet. For example, an external style sheet has these properties for the h3 selector:

h3 { color:red; text-align:left; font-size:8pt; }

And an internal style sheet has these properties for the h3 selector:

h3 { text-align:right; font-size:20pt; }
If the page with the internal style sheet also links to the external style sheet the properties for h3 will be:

color:red; text-align:right; font-size:20pt;

The color is inherited from the external style sheet and the text-alignment and the font-size is replaced by the internal style sheet.

Multiple Styles Will Cascade into One

Styles can be specified:

inside an HTML element inside the head section of an HTML page in an external CSS file

Tip: Even multiple external style sheets can be referenced inside a single HTML document.

Cascading order
What style will be used when there is more than one style specified for an HTML element? Generally speaking we can say that all the styles will "cascade" into a new "virtual" style sheet by the following rules, where number four has the highest priority: 1. 2. 3. 4. Browser default External style sheet Internal style sheet (in the head section) Inline style (inside an HTML element)

So, an inline style (inside an HTML element) has the highest priority, which means that it will override a style defined inside the <head> tag, or in an external style sheet, or in a browser (a default value). Note: If the link to the external style sheet is placed after the internal style sheet in HTML <head>, the external style sheet will override the internal style sheet!

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CSS Background

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CSS background properties are used to define the background effects of an element. CSS properties used for background effects:

background-color background-image background-repeat background-attachment background-position

Background Color
The background-color property specifies the background color of an element. The background color of a page is defined in the body selector:

Example
body {background-color:#b0c4de;}
Try it yourself

With CSS, a color is most often specified by:

a HEX value - like "#ff0000" an RGB value - like "rgb(255,0,0)" a color name - like "red"

Look at CSS Color Values for a complete list of possible color values. In the example below, the h1, p, and div elements have different background colors:

Example
h1 {background-color:#6495ed;} p {background-color:#e0ffff;} div {background-color:#b0c4de;}
Try it yourself

Background Image
The background-image property specifies an image to use as the background of an element. By default, the image is repeated so it covers the entire element. The background image for a page can be set like this:

Example
body {background-image:url('paper.gif');}
Try it yourself

Below is an example of a bad combination of text and background image. The text is almost not readable:

Example
body {background-image:url('bgdesert.jpg');}
Try it yourself

Background Image - Repeat Horizontally or Vertically

By default, the background-image property repeats an image both horizontally and vertically. Some images should be repeated only horizontally or vertically, or they will look strange, like this:

Example
body { background-image:url('gradient2.png'); }
Try it yourself

If the image is repeated only horizontally (repeat-x), the background will look better:

Example
body { background-image:url('gradient2.png'); background-repeat:repeat-x; }
Try it yourself

Background Image - Set position and no-repeat

When using a background image, use an image that does not disturb the text. Showing the image only once is specified by the background-repeat property:

Example
body { background-image:url('img_tree.png'); background-repeat:no-repeat; }
Try it yourself

In the example above, the background image is shown in the same place as the text. We want to change the position of the image, so that it does not disturb the text too much. The position of the image is specified by the background-position property:

Example
body { background-image:url('img_tree.png');

background-repeat:no-repeat; background-position:right top; }

Try it yourself

Background - Shorthand property

As you can see from the examples above, there are many properties to consider when dealing with backgrounds. To shorten the code, it is also possible to specify all the properties in one single property. This is called a shorthand property. The shorthand property for background is simply "background":

Example
body {background:#ffffff url('img_tree.png') no-repeat right top;}
Try it yourself

When using the shorthand property the order of the property values are:

background-color background-image background-repeat background-attachment background-position

It does not matter if one of the property values is missing, as long as the ones that are present are in this order. This example uses more advanced CSS. Take a look: Advanced example

More Examples
How to set a fixed background image This example demonstrates how to set a fixed background image. The image will not scroll with the rest of the page.

All CSS Background Properties

Property background background-attachment background-color background-image background-position background-repeat Description Sets all the background properties in one declaration Sets whether a background image is fixed or scrolls with the rest of the page Sets the background color of an element Sets the background image for an element Sets the starting position of a background image Sets how a background image will be repeated

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CSS Text
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TEXT FORMATTING
This text is styled with some of the text formatting properties. The heading uses the text-align, text-transform, and color properties. The paragraph is indented, aligned, and the space between characters is specified. The underline is removed from the "Try it yourself" link.

Text Color
The color property is used to set the color of the text. With CSS, a color is most often specified by:

a HEX value - like "#ff0000" an RGB value - like "rgb(255,0,0)" a color name - like "red"

Look at CSS Color Values for a complete list of possible color values. The default color for a page is defined in the body selector.

Example
body {color:blue;} h1 {color:#00ff00;} h2 {color:rgb(255,0,0);}
Try it yourself

For W3C compliant CSS: If you define the color property, you must also define the backgroundcolor property.

Text Alignment
The text-align property is used to set the horizontal alignment of a text. Text can be centered, or aligned to the left or right, or justified. When text-align is set to "justify", each line is stretched so that every line has equal width, and the left and right margins are straight (like in magazines and newspapers).

Example
h1 {text-align:center;} p.date {text-align:right;} p.main {text-align:justify;}
Try it yourself

Text Decoration

The text-decoration property is used to set or remove decorations from text. The text-decoration property is mostly used to remove underlines from links for design purposes:

Example
a {text-decoration:none;}
Try it yourself

It can also be used to decorate text:

Example
h1 h2 h3 h4 {text-decoration:overline;} {text-decoration:line-through;} {text-decoration:underline;} {text-decoration:blink;}

Try it yourself

It is not recommended to underline text that is not a link, as this often confuses users.

Text Transformation
The text-transform property is used to specify uppercase and lowercase letters in a text. It can be used to turn everything into uppercase or lowercase letters, or capitalize the first letter of each word.

Example
p.uppercase {text-transform:uppercase;} p.lowercase {text-transform:lowercase;} p.capitalize {text-transform:capitalize;}
Try it yourself

Text Indentation
The text-indentation property is used to specify the indentation of the first line of a text.

Example
p {text-indent:50px;}
Try it yourself

More Examples
Specify the space between characters This example demonstrates how to increase or decrease the space between characters. Specify the space between lines This example demonstrates how to specify the space between the lines in a paragraph. Set the text direction of an element This example demonstrates how to change the text direction of an element.

Increase the white space between words This example demonstrates how to increase the white space between words in a paragraph. Disable text wrapping inside an element This example demonstrates how to disable text wrapping inside an element. Vertical alignment of an image This example demonstrates how to set the vertical align of an image in a text.

All CSS Text Properties

Property color direction letter-spacing line-height text-align text-decoration text-indent text-shadow text-transform unicode-bidi vertical-align white-space word-spacing Sets the vertical alignment of an element Specifies how white-space inside an element is handled Increases or decreases the space between words in a text Description Sets the color of text Specifies the text direction/writing direction Increases or decreases the space between characters in a text Sets the line height Specifies the horizontal alignment of text Specifies the decoration added to text Specifies the indentation of the first line in a text-block Specifies the shadow effect added to text Controls the capitalization of text

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CSS Font
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CSS font properties define the font family, boldness, size, and the style of a text.

Difference Between Serif and Sans-serif Fonts

On computer screens, sans-serif fonts are considered easier to read than serif fonts.

CSS Font Families

In CSS, there are two types of font family names:

generic family - a group of font families with a similar look (like "Serif" or "Monospace") font family - a specific font family (like "Times New Roman" or "Arial") Font family Description Serif fonts have small lines at the ends on some characters "Sans" means without - these fonts do not have the lines at the ends of characters All monospace characters have the same width

Generic family Serif

Times New Roman Georgia Arial Verdana Courier New Lucida Console

Sans-serif

Monospace

Font Family
The font family of a text is set with the font-family property. The font-family property should hold several font names as a "fallback" system. If the browser does not support the first font, it tries the next font. Start with the font you want, and end with a generic family, to let the browser pick a similar font in the generic family, if no other fonts are available. Note: If the name of a font family is more than one word, it must be in quotation marks, like fontfamily: "Times New Roman". More than one font family is specified in a comma-separated list:

Example
p{font-family:"Times New Roman", Times, serif;}
Try it yourself

For more commonly used font combinations, look at our Web Safe Font Combinations.

Font Style
The font-style property is mostly used to specify italic text. This property has three values:

normal - The text is shown normally italic - The text is shown in italics oblique - The text is "leaning" (oblique is very similar to italic, but less supported)

Example
p.normal {font-style:normal;} p.italic {font-style:italic;} p.oblique {font-style:oblique;}
Try it yourself

Font Size
The font-size property sets the size of the text.

Being able to manage the text size is important in web design. However, you should not use font size adjustments to make paragraphs look like headings, or headings look like paragraphs. Always use the proper HTML tags, like <h1> - <h6> for headings and <p> for paragraphs. The font-size value can be an absolute, or relative size. Absolute size:

Sets the text to a specified size Does not allow a user to change the text size in all browsers (bad for accessibility reasons) Absolute size is useful when the physical size of the output is known

Relative size:

Sets the size relative to surrounding elements Allows a user to change the text size in browsers

If you do not specify a font size, the default size for normal text, like paragraphs, is 16px (16px=1em).

Set Font Size With Pixels

Setting the text size with pixels, gives you full control over the text size:

Example
h1 {font-size:40px;} h2 {font-size:30px;} p {font-size:14px;}
Try it yourself

The example above allows Firefox, Chrome, and Safari to resize the text, but not Internet Explorer. The text can be resized in all browsers using the zoom tool (however, this resizes the entire page, not just the text).

Set Font Size With Em

To avoid the resizing problem with Internet Explorer, many developers use em instead of pixels. The em size unit is recommended by the W3C. 1em is equal to the current font size. The default text size in browsers is 16px. So, the default size of 1em is 16px. The size can be calculated from pixels to em using this formula: pixels/16=em

Example
h1 {font-size:2.5em;} /* 40px/16=2.5em */ h2 {font-size:1.875em;} /* 30px/16=1.875em */ p {font-size:0.875em;} /* 14px/16=0.875em */
Try it yourself

In the example above, the text size in em is the same as the previous example in pixels. However, with the em size, it is possible to adjust the text size in all browsers.

Unfortunately, there is still a problem with IE. When resizing the text, it becomes larger than it should when made larger, and smaller than it should when made smaller.

Use a Combination of Percent and Em

The solution that works in all browsers, is to set a default font-size in percent for the body element:

Example
body {font-size:100%;} h1 {font-size:2.5em;} h2 {font-size:1.875em;} p {font-size:0.875em;}
Try it yourself

Our code now works great! It shows the same text size in all browsers, and allows all browsers to zoom or resize the text!

More Examples
Set the boldness of the font This example demonstrates how to set the boldness of a font. Set the variant of the font This example demonstrates how to set the variant of a font. All the font properties in one declaration This example demonstrates how to use the shorthand property for setting all of the font properties in one declaration.

All CSS Font Properties

Property font font-family font-size font-style font-variant font-weight Description Sets all the font properties in one declaration Specifies the font family for text Specifies the font size of text Specifies the font style for text Specifies whether or not a text should be displayed in a small-caps font Specifies the weight of a font

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CSS Links
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Links can be styled in different ways.

Styling Links
Links can be styled with any CSS property (e.g. color, font-family, background, etc.). Special for links are that they can be styled differently depending on what state they are in. The four links states are:

a:link - a normal, unvisited link a:visited - a link the user has visited a:hover - a link when the user mouses over it a:active - a link the moment it is clicked

Example
a:link {color:#FF0000;} /* unvisited link */ a:visited {color:#00FF00;} /* visited link */ a:hover {color:#FF00FF;} /* mouse over link */ a:active {color:#0000FF;} /* selected link */
Try it yourself

When setting the style for several link states, there are some order rules:

a:hover MUST come after a:link and a:visited a:active MUST come after a:hover

Common Link Styles

In the example above the link changes color depending on what state it is in. Lets go through some of the other common ways to style links:

Text Decoration
The text-decoration property is mostly used to remove underlines from links:

Example
a:link {text-decoration:none;} a:visited {text-decoration:none;} a:hover {text-decoration:underline;} a:active {text-decoration:underline;}
Try it yourself

Background Color
The background-color property specifies the background color for links:

Example
a:link {background-color:#B2FF99;} a:visited {background-color:#FFFF85;} a:hover {background-color:#FF704D;} a:active {background-color:#FF704D;}
Try it yourself

More Examples
Add different styles to hyperlinks This example demonstrates how to add other styles to hyperlinks. Advanced - Create link boxes This example demonstrates a more advanced example where we combine several CSS properties to display links as boxes.

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CSS Lists
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The CSS list properties allow you to:

Set different list item markers for ordered lists Set different list item markers for unordered lists Set an image as the list item marker

List
In HTML, there are two types of lists:

unordered lists - the list items are marked with bullets ordered lists - the list items are marked with numbers or letters

With CSS, lists can be styled further, and images can be used as the list item marker.

Different List Item Markers

The type of list item marker is specified with the list-style-type property:

Example
ul.a {list-style-type: circle;} ul.b {list-style-type: square;} ol.c {list-style-type: upper-roman;} ol.d {list-style-type: lower-alpha;}
Try it yourself

Some of the values are for unordered lists, and some for ordered lists.

An Image as The List Item Marker

To specify an image as the list item marker, use the list-style-image property:

Example
ul { list-style-image: url('sqpurple.gif'); }
Try it yourself

The example above does not display equally in all browsers. IE and Opera will display the imagemarker a little bit higher than Firefox, Chrome, and Safari. If you want the image-marker to be placed equally in all browsers, a crossbrowser solution is explained below.

Crossbrowser Solution
The following example displays the image-marker equally in all browsers:

Example
ul { list-style-type: none; padding: 0px; margin: 0px; } li { background-image: url(sqpurple.gif); background-repeat: no-repeat; background-position: 0px 5px; padding-left: 14px; }
Try it yourself

Example explained:

For ul:

o o
For li:

Set the list-style-type to none to remove the list item marker Set both padding and margin to 0px (for cross-browser compatibility) Set the URL of the image, and show it only once (no-repeat) Position the image where you want it (left 0px and down 5px) Position the text in the list with padding-left

o o o

List - Shorthand property

It is also possible to specify all the list properties in one, single property. This is called a shorthand property. The shorthand property used for lists, is the list-style property:

Example
ul { list-style: square url("sqpurple.gif"); }
Try it yourself

When using the shorthand property, the order of the values are:

list-style-type list-style-position (for a description, see the CSS properties table below) list-style-image

It does not matter if one of the values above are missing, as long as the rest are in the specified order.

More Examples
All the different list-item markers for lists This example demonstrates all the different list-item markers in CSS.

All CSS List Properties

Property list-style list-style-image list-style-position list-style-type Description Sets all the properties for a list in one declaration Specifies an image as the list-item marker Specifies if the list-item markers should appear inside or outside the content flow Specifies the type of list-item marker

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CSS Tables
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The look of an HTML table can be greatly improved with CSS:

Company
Alfreds Futterkiste Berglunds snabbkp Centro comercial Moctezuma Ernst Handel Island Trading Kniglich Essen Laughing Bacchus Winecellars Magazzini Alimentari Riuniti North/South Paris spcialits The Big Cheese Vaffeljernet

Contact
Maria Anders Christina Berglund Francisco Chang Roland Mendel Helen Bennett Philip Cramer Yoshi Tannamuri Giovanni Rovelli Simon Crowther Marie Bertrand Liz Nixon Palle Ibsen

Country
Germany Sweden Mexico Austria UK Germany Canada Italy UK France USA Denmark

Table Borders

To specify table borders in CSS, use the border property. The example below specifies a black border for table, th, and td elements:

Example
table, th, td { border: 1px solid black; }
Try it yourself

Notice that the table in the example above has double borders. This is because both the table and the th/td elements have separate borders. To display a single border for the table, use the border-collapse property.

Collapse Borders
The border-collapse property sets whether the table borders are collapsed into a single border or separated:

Example
table { border-collapse:collapse; } table,th, td { border: 1px solid black; }
Try it yourself

Table Width and Height

Width and height of a table is defined by the width and height properties. The example below sets the width of the table to 100%, and the height of the th elements to 50px:

Example
table { width:100%; } th { height:50px; }
Try it yourself

Table Text Alignment

The text in a table is aligned with the text-align and vertical-align properties. The text-align property sets the horizontal alignment, like left, right, or center:

Example
td { text-align:right; }
Try it yourself

The vertical-align property sets the vertical alignment, like top, bottom, or middle:

Example
td { height:50px; vertical-align:bottom; }
Try it yourself

Table Padding
To control the space between the border and content in a table, use the padding property on td and th elements:

Example
td { padding:15px; }
Try it yourself

Table Color
The example below specifies the color of the borders, and the text and background color of th elements:

Example
table, td, th { border:1px solid green; } th { background-color:green; color:white; }
Try it yourself

More Examples
Make a fancy table This example demonstrates how to create a fancy table.

Set the position of the table caption This example demonstrates how to position the table caption.

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CSS Box Model

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The CSS Box Model

All HTML elements can be considered as boxes. In CSS, the term "box model" is used when talking about design and layout. The CSS box model is essentially a box that wraps around HTML elements, and it consists of: margins, borders, padding, and the actual content. The box model allows us to place a border around elements and space elements in relation to other elements. The image below illustrates the box model:

Explanation of the different parts:

Margin - Clears an area around the border. The margin does not have a background color, it is completely transparent Border - A border that goes around the padding and content. The border is affected by the background color of the box Padding - Clears an area around the content. The padding is affected by the background color of the box Content - The content of the box, where text and images appear

In order to set the width and height of an element correctly in all browsers, you need to know how the box model works.

Width and Height of an Element

Important: When you set the width and height properties of an element with CSS, you just set the width and height of the content area. To calculate the full size of an element, you must also add the padding, borders and margins. The total width of the element in the example below is 300px:

width:250px; padding:10px; border:5px solid gray; margin:10px;

Let's do the math: 250px (width) + 20px (left and right padding) + 10px (left and right border) + 20px (left and right margin) = 300px Assume that you had only 250px of space. Let's make an element with a total width of 250px:

Example
width:220px; padding:10px; border:5px solid gray; margin:0px;
Try it yourself

The total width of an element should be calculated like this: Total element width = width + left padding + right padding + left border + right border + left margin + right margin The total height of an element should be calculated like this: Total element height = height + top padding + bottom padding + top border + bottom border + top margin + bottom margin

Browsers Compatibility Issue

The example above does not display properly in IE8 and earlier versions. IE8 and earlier versions includes padding and border in the width, if a DOCTYPE is NOT declared. To fix this problem, just add a DOCTYPE to the HTML page:

Example
<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd"> <html> <head> <style type="text/css"> div.ex { width:220px; padding:10px; border:5px solid gray; margin:0px; }

</style> </head>
Try it yourself

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CSS Border
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CSS Border Properties

The CSS border properties allow you to specify the style and color of an element's border.

Border Style
The border-style property specifies what kind of border to display. None of the border properties will have ANY effect unless the border-style property is set!

border-style values:
none: Defines no border dotted: Defines a dotted border dashed: Defines a dashed border solid: Defines a solid border double: Defines two borders. The width of the two borders are the same as the border-width value

groove: Defines a 3D grooved border. The effect depends on the border-color value

ridge: Defines a 3D ridged border. The effect depends on the border-color value

inset: Defines a 3D inset border. The effect depends on the border-color value

outset: Defines a 3D outset border. The effect depends on the border-color value

Try it yourself: Set the style of the border

Border Width
The border-width property is used to set the width of the border.

The width is set in pixels, or by using one of the three pre-defined values: thin, medium, or thick. Note: The "border-width" property does not work if it is used alone. Use the "border-style" property to set the borders first.

Example
p.one { border-style:solid; border-width:5px; } p.two { border-style:solid; border-width:medium; }
Try it yourself

Border Color
The border-color property is used to set the color of the border. The color can be set by:

name - specify a color name, like "red" RGB - specify a RGB value, like "rgb(255,0,0)" Hex - specify a hex value, like "#ff0000"

You can also set the border color to "transparent". Note: The "border-color" property does not work if it is used alone. Use the "border-style" property to set the borders first.

Example
p.one { border-style:solid; border-color:red; } p.two { border-style:solid; border-color:#98bf21; }
Try it yourself

Border - Individual sides

In CSS it is possible to specify different borders for different sides:

Example
p { border-top-style:dotted; border-right-style:solid; border-bottom-style:dotted; border-left-style:solid; }

Try it yourself

The example above can also be set with a single property:

Example
border-style:dotted solid;
Try it yourself

The border-style property can have from one to four values.

border-style:dotted solid double dashed; o top border is dotted o right border is solid o bottom border is double o left border is dashed

border-style:dotted solid double; o top border is dotted o right and left borders are solid o bottom border is double

border-style:dotted solid; o top and bottom borders are dotted o right and left borders are solid

border-style:dotted; o all four borders are dotted

The border-style property is used in the example above. However, it also works with border-width and border-color.

Border - Shorthand property

As you can see from the examples above, there are many properties to consider when dealing with borders. To shorten the code, it is also possible to specify all the border properties in one property. This is called a shorthand property. The shorthand property for the border properties is "border":

Example
border:5px solid red;
Try it yourself

When using the border property, the order of the values are:

border-width border-style border-color

It does not matter if one of the values above are missing (although, border-style is required), as long as the rest are in the specified order.

More Examples
All the top border properties in one declaration This example demonstrates a shorthand property for setting all of the properties for the top border in one declaration. Set the style of the bottom border This example demonstrates how to set the style of the bottom border. Set the width of the left border This example demonstrates how to set the width of the left border. Set the color of the four borders This example demonstrates how to set the color of the four borders. It can have from one to four colors. Set the color of the right border This example demonstrates how to set the color of the right border.

All CSS Border Properties

Property border border-bottom border-bottom-color border-bottom-style border-bottom-width border-color border-left border-left-color border-left-style border-left-width border-right border-right-color border-right-style border-right-width border-style border-top border-top-color border-top-style border-top-width border-width Description Sets all the border properties in one declaration Sets all the bottom border properties in one declaration Sets the color of the bottom border Sets the style of the bottom border Sets the width of the bottom border Sets the color of the four borders Sets all the left border properties in one declaration Sets the color of the left border Sets the style of the left border Sets the width of the left border Sets all the right border properties in one declaration Sets the color of the right border Sets the style of the right border Sets the width of the right border Sets the style of the four borders Sets all the top border properties in one declaration Sets the color of the top border Sets the style of the top border Sets the width of the top border Sets the width of the four borders

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CSS Outlines

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 Previous Next Chapter

An outline is a line that is drawn around elements, outside the border edge, to make the element "stand out". The outline properties specifies the style, color, and width of an outline.

Examples
Draw a line around an element (outline) This example demonstrates how to draw a line around an element, outside the border edge. Set the style of an outline This example demonstrates how to set the style of an outline. Set the color of an outline This example demonstrates how to set the color of an outline. Set the width of an outline This example demonstrates how to set the width of an outline.

CSS Outline
An outline is a line that is drawn around elements (outside the borders) to make the element "stand out". However, it is different from the border property. The outline is not a part of the element's dimensions, therefore the element's width and height properties do not contain the width of the outline.

All CSS Outline Properties

The number in the "CSS" column indicates in which CSS version the property is defined (CSS1 or CSS2). Property outline Description Sets all the outline properties in one declaration Values outline-color outline-style outline-width inherit color_name hex_number rgb_number invert inherit none dotted dashed solid double groove ridge inset outset inherit thin CSS 2

outline-color

Sets the color of an outline

outline-style

Sets the style of an outline

outline-width

Sets the width of an outline

medium thick length inherit

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CSS Margin
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The CSS margin properties define the space around elements.

Margin
The margin clears an area around an element (outside the border). The margin does not have a background color, and is completely transparent. The top, right, bottom, and left margin can be changed independently using separate properties. A shorthand margin property can also be used, to change all margins at once.

Possible Values
Value auto length % Description The browser sets the margin. The result of this is dependant of the browser Defines a fixed margin (in pixels, pt, em, etc.) Defines a margin in % of the containing element It is possible to use negative values, to overlap content.

Margin - Individual sides

In CSS, it is possible to specify different margins for different sides:

Example
margin-top:100px; margin-bottom:100px; margin-right:50px; margin-left:50px;
Try it yourself

Margin - Shorthand property

To shorten the code, it is possible to specify all the margin properties in one property. This is called a shorthand property. The shorthand property for all the margin properties is "margin":

Example
margin:100px 50px;

Try it yourself

The margin property can have from one to four values.

margin:25px 50px 75px 100px; o top margin is 25px o right margin is 50px o bottom margin is 75px o left margin is 100px

margin:25px 50px 75px; o top margin is 25px o right and left margins are 50px o bottom margin is 75px

margin:25px 50px; o top and bottom margins are 25px o right and left margins are 50px

margin:25px; o all four margins are 25px

More Examples
Set the top margin of a text using a cm value This example demonstrates how to set the top margin of a text using a cm value. Set the bottom margin of a text using a percent value This example demonstrates how to set the bottom margin in percent, relative to the width of the containing element.

All CSS Margin Properties

Property margin margin-bottom margin-left margin-right margin-top Description A shorthand property for setting the margin properties in one declaration Sets the bottom margin of an element Sets the left margin of an element Sets the right margin of an element Sets the top margin of an element

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CSS Padding
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The CSS padding properties define the space between the element border and the element content.

Padding
The padding clears an area around the content (inside the border) of an element. The padding is affected by the background color of the element. The top, right, bottom, and left padding can be changed independently using separate properties. A shorthand padding property can also be used, to change all paddings at once.

Possible Values
Value length % Description Defines a fixed padding (in pixels, pt, em, etc.) Defines a padding in % of the containing element

Padding - Individual sides

In CSS, it is possible to specify different padding for different sides:

Example
padding-top:25px; padding-bottom:25px; padding-right:50px; padding-left:50px;
Try it yourself

Padding - Shorthand property

To shorten the code, it is possible to specify all the padding properties in one property. This is called a shorthand property. The shorthand property for all the padding properties is "padding":

Example
padding:25px 50px;
Try it yourself

The padding property can have from one to four values.

padding:25px 50px 75px 100px; o top padding is 25px o right padding is 50px o bottom padding is 75px o left padding is 100px

padding:25px 50px 75px; o top padding is 25px o right and left paddings are 50px

bottom padding is 75px

padding:25px 50px; o top and bottom paddings are 25px o right and left paddings are 50px

padding:25px; o all four paddings are 25px

More Examples
All the padding properties in one declaration This example demonstrates a shorthand property for setting all of the padding properties in one declaration, can have from one to four values. Set the left padding This example demonstrates how to set the left padding of a p element. Set the right padding This example demonstrates how to set the right padding of a p element. Set the top padding This example demonstrates how to set the top padding of a p element. Set the bottom padding This example demonstrates how to set the bottom padding of a p element.

All CSS Padding Properties

Property padding padding-bottom padding-left padding-right padding-top Description A shorthand property for setting all the padding properties in one declaration Sets the bottom padding of an element Sets the left padding of an element Sets the right padding of an element Sets the top padding of an element

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CSS Grouping and Nesting Selectors

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Grouping Selectors
In style sheets there are often elements with the same style.

h1 { color:green; } h2 { color:green; } p { color:green; }

To minimize the code, you can group selectors. Separate each selector with a comma. In the example below we have grouped the selectors from the code above:

Example
h1,h2,p { color:green; }
Try it yourself

Nesting Selectors
It is possible to apply a style for a selector within a selector. In the example below, one style is specified for all p elements, one style is specified for all elements with class="marked", and a third style is specified only for p elements within elements with class="marked":

Example
p { color:blue; text-align:center; } .marked { background-color:red; } .marked p { color:white; }
Try it yourself

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CSS Dimension
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The CSS dimension properties allow you to control the height and width of an element.

Try it Yourself - Examples

Set the height of elements This example demonstrates how to set the height of different elements. Set the height of an image using percent This example demonstrates how to set the height of an element using a percent value. Set the width of an element using a pixel value This example demonstrates how to set the width of an element using a pixel value. Set the maximum height of an element This example demonstrates how to set the maximum height of an element. Set the maximum width of an element using percent This example demonstrates how to set the maximum width of an element using a percent value. Set the minimum height of an element This example demonstrates how to set the minimum height of an element. Set the minimum width of an element using a pixel value This example demonstrates how to set the minimum width of an element using a pixel value.

All CSS Dimension Properties

The number in the "CSS" column indicates in which CSS version the property is defined (CSS1 or CSS2). Property height Description Sets the height of an element Values auto length % inherit none length % inherit none length % inherit length % inherit length % inherit auto length % inherit CSS 1

max-height

Sets the maximum height of an element

max-width

Sets the maximum width of an element

min-height

Sets the minimum height of an element

min-width

Sets the minimum width of an element

width

Sets the width of an element

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CSS Display and Visibility

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The display property specifies if/how an element is displayed, and the visibility property specifies if an element should be visible or hidden.
Box 1

Box 2

Box 3

Hiding an Element - display:none or visibility:hidden

Hiding an element can be done by setting the display property to "none" or the visibility property to "hidden". However, notice that these two methods produce different results: visibility:hidden hides an element, but it will still take up the same space as before. The element will be hidden, but still affect the layout.

Example
h1.hidden {visibility:hidden;}
Try it yourself

display:none hides an element, and it will not take up any space. The element will be hidden, and the page will be displayed as the element is not there:

Example
h1.hidden {display:none;}
Try it yourself

CSS Display - Block and Inline Elements

A block element is an element that takes up the full width available, and has a line break before and after it. Examples of block elements:

<h1> <p> <div>

An inline element only takes up as much width as necessary, and does not force line breaks. Examples of inline elements:

<span> <a>

Changing How an Element is Displayed

Changing an inline element to a block element, or vice versa, can be useful for making the page look a specific way, and still follow web standards. The following example displays list items as inline elements:

Example
li {display:inline;}
Try it yourself

The following example displays span elements as block elements:

Example
span {display:block;}
Try it yourself

Note: Changing the display type of an element changes only how the element is displayed, NOT what kind of element it is. For example: An inline element set to display:block is not allowed to have a block element nested inside of it.

More Examples
How to display an element as an inline element. This example demonstrates how to display an element as an inline element. How to display an element as a block element This example demonstrates how to display an element as a block element. How to make a table element collapse This example demonstrates how to make a table element collapse.

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CSS Positioning
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Positioning can be tricky sometimes!

Decide which element to display in front! Elements can overlap! Positioning

The CSS positioning properties allow you to position an element. It can also place an element behind another, and specify what should happen when an element's content is too big. Elements can be positioned using the top, bottom, left, and right properties. However, these properties will not work unless the position property is set first. They also work differently depending on the positioning method. There are four different positioning methods.

Static Positioning
HTML elements are positioned static by default. A static positioned element is always positioned according to the normal flow of the page. Static positioned elements are not affected by the top, bottom, left, and right properties.

Fixed Positioning
An element with fixed position is positioned relative to the browser window. It will not move even if the window is scrolled:

Example
p.pos_fixed { position:fixed; top:30px; right:5px; }
Try it yourself

Note: IE7 and IE8 support the fixed value only if a !DOCTYPE is specified. Fixed positioned elements are removed from the normal flow. The document and other elements behave like the fixed positioned element does not exist. Fixed positioned elements can overlap other elements.

Relative Positioning
A relative positioned element is positioned relative to its normal position.

Example
h2.pos_left { position:relative;

left:-20px; } h2.pos_right { position:relative; left:20px; }

Try it yourself

The content of relatively positioned elements can be moved and overlap other elements, but the reserved space for the element is still preserved in the normal flow.

Example
h2.pos_top { position:relative; top:-50px; }
Try it yourself

Relatively positioned elements are often used as container blocks for absolutely positioned elements.

Absolute Positioning
An absolute position element is positioned relative to the first parent element that has a position other than static. If no such element is found, the containing block is <html>:

Example
h2 { position:absolute; left:100px; top:150px; }
Try it yourself

Absolutely positioned elements are removed from the normal flow. The document and other elements behave like the absolutely positioned element does not exist. Absolutely positioned elements can overlap other elements.

Overlapping Elements
When elements are positioned outside the normal flow, they can overlap other elements. The z-index property specifies the stack order of an element (which element should be placed in front of, or behind, the others). An element can have a positive or negative stack order:

Example
img { position:absolute; left:0px;

top:0px; z-index:-1 }
Try it yourself

An element with greater stack order is always in front of an element with a lower stack order. Note: If two positioned elements overlap, without a z-index specified, the element positioned last in the HTML code will be shown on top.

More Examples
Set the shape of an element This example demonstrates how to set the shape of an element. The element is clipped into this shape, and displayed. How to show overflow in an element using scroll This example demonstrates how to set the overflow property to create a scroll bar when an element's content is too big to fit in a specified area. How to set the browser to automatically handle overflow This example demonstrates how to set the browser to automatically handle overflow. Change the cursor This example demonstrates how to change the cursor.

All CSS Positioning Properties

The number in the "CSS" column indicates in which CSS version the property is defined (CSS1 or CSS2). Property bottom Description Sets the bottom margin edge for a positioned box Values auto length % inherit shape auto inherit CSS 2

clip

Clips an absolutely positioned element

cursor

Specifies the type of cursor to be displayed url auto crosshair default pointer move e-resize ne-resize nw-resize n-resize se-resize sw-resize s-resize w-resize text wait help Sets the left margin edge for a positioned auto

left

box

length % inherit 2

overflow

Specifies what happens if content overflows auto an element's box hidden scroll visible inherit Specifies the type of positioning for an element absolute fixed relative static inherit

position

right

Sets the right margin edge for a positioned auto box length % inherit Sets the top margin edge for a positioned box auto length % inherit number auto inherit

top

z-index

Sets the stack order of an element

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CSS Float
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What is CSS Float?

With CSS float, an element can be pushed to the left or right, allowing other elements to wrap around it. Float is very often used for images, but it is also useful when working with layouts.

How Elements Float

Elements are floated horizontally, this means that an element can only be floated left or right, not up or down. A floated element will move as far to the left or right as it can. Usually this means all the way to the left or right of the containing element. The elements after the floating element will flow around it. The elements before the floating element will not be affected. If an image is floated to the right, a following text flows around it, to the left:

Example
img { float:right; }
Try it yourself

Floating Elements Next to Each Other

If you place several floating elements after each other, they will float next to each other if there is room. Here we have made an image gallery using the float property:

Example
.thumbnail { float:left; width:110px; height:90px; margin:5px; }
Try it yourself

Turning off Float - Using Clear

Elements after the floating element will flow around it. To avoid this, use the clear property. The clear property specifies which sides of an element other floating elements are not allowed. Add a text line into the image gallery, using the clear property:

Example
.text_line {

clear:both; }
Try it yourself

More Examples
An image with border and margins that floats to the right in a paragraph Let an image float to the right in a paragraph. Add border and margins to the image. An image with a caption that floats to the right Let an image with a caption float to the right. Let the first letter of a paragraph float to the left Let the first letter of a paragraph float to the left and style the letter. Creating a horizontal menu Use float with a list of hyperlinks to create a horizontal menu. Creating a homepage without tables Use float to create a homepage with a header, footer, left content and main content.

All CSS Float Properties

The number in the "CSS" column indicates in which CSS version the property is defined (CSS1 or CSS2). Property clear Description Specifies which sides of an element where other floating elements are not allowed Values left right both none inherit left right none inherit CSS 1

float

Specifies whether or not a box should float

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CSS Horizontal Align

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In CSS, several properties are used to align elements horizontally. Aligning Block Elements
A block element is an element that takes up the full width available, and has a line break before and after it.

Examples of block elements:

<h1> <p> <div>

For aligning text, see the CSS Text chapter. In this chapter we will show you how to horizontally align block elements for layout purposes.

Center Aligning Using the margin Property

Block elements can be aligned by setting the left and right margins to "auto". Note: Using margin:auto will not work in IE8 and earlier, unless a !DOCTYPE is declared. Setting the left and right margins to auto specifies that they should split the available margin equally. The result is a centered element:

Example
.center { margin-left:auto; margin-right:auto; width:70%; background-color:#b0e0e6; }
Try it yourself

Tip: Aligning has no effect if the width is 100%. Note: In IE5 there is a margin handling bug for block elements. To make the example above work in IE5, add some extra code. Try it yourself

Left and Right Aligning Using the position Property

One method of aligning elements is to use absolute positioning:

Example
.right { position:absolute; right:0px; width:300px; background-color:#b0e0e6; }
Try it yourself

Note: Absolute positioned elements are removed from the normal flow, and can overlap elements.

Crossbrowser Compatibility Issues

When aligning elements like this, it is always a good idea to predefine margin and padding for the <body> element. This is to avoid visual differences in different browsers.

There is a problem with IE8 and earlier, when using the position property. If a container element (in our case <div class="container">) has a specified width, and the !DOCTYPE declaration is missing, IE8 and earlier versions will add a 17px margin on the right side. This seems to be space reserved for a scrollbar. Always set the !DOCTYPE declaration when using the position property:

Example
body { margin:0; padding:0; } .container { position:relative; width:100%; } .right { position:absolute; right:0px; width:300px; background-color:#b0e0e6; }
Try it yourself

Left and Right Aligning Using the float Property

One method of aligning elements is to use the float property:

Example
.right { float:right; width:300px; background-color:#b0e0e6; }
Try it yourself

Crossbrowser Compatibility Issues

When aligning elements like this, it is always a good idea to predefine margin and padding for the <body> element. This is to avoid visual differences in different browsers. There is a problem with IE8 and earlier when using the float property. If the !DOCTYPE declaration is missing, IE8 and earlier versions will add a 17px margin on the right side. This seems to be space reserved for a scrollbar. Always set the !DOCTYPE declaration when using the float property:

Example
body { margin:0; padding:0; } .right { float:right; width:300px;

background-color:#b0e0e6; }
Try it yourself

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CSS Pseudo-classes
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CSS pseudo-classes are used to add special effects to some selectors.

Syntax
The syntax of pseudo-classes:

selector:pseudo-class {property:value;}
CSS classes can also be used with pseudo-classes:

selector.class:pseudo-class {property:value;}

Anchor Pseudo-classes
Links can be displayed in different ways in a CSS-supporting browser:

Example
a:link {color:#FF0000;} /* unvisited link */ a:visited {color:#00FF00;} /* visited link */ a:hover {color:#FF00FF;} /* mouse over link */ a:active {color:#0000FF;} /* selected link */
Try it yourself

Note: a:hover MUST come after a:link and a:visited in the CSS definition in order to be effective!! Note: a:active MUST come after a:hover in the CSS definition in order to be effective!! Note: Pseudo-class names are not case-sensitive.

Pseudo-classes and CSS Classes

Pseudo-classes can be combined with CSS classes:

a.red:visited {color:#FF0000;} <a class="red" href="css_syntax.asp">CSS Syntax</a>

If the link in the example above has been visited, it will be displayed in red.

CSS - The :first-child Pseudo-class

The :first-child pseudo-class matches a specified element that is the first child of another element. Note: For :first-child to work in IE8 and earlier, a <!DOCTYPE> must be declared.

Match the first <p> element

In the following example, the selector matches any <p> element that is the first child of any element:

Example
<html> <head> <style type="text/css"> p:first-child { color:blue; } </style> </head> <body> <p>I am a strong man.</p> <p>I am a strong man.</p> </body> </html>
Try it yourself

Match the first <i> element in all <p> elements

In the following example, the selector matches the first <i> element in all <p> elements:

Example
<html> <head> <style type="text/css"> p > i:first-child { font-weight:bold; } </style> </head> <body> <p>I am a <i>strong</i> man. I am a <i>strong</i> man.</p> <p>I am a <i>strong</i> man. I am a <i>strong</i> man.</p> </body> </html>
Try it yourself

Match all <i> elements in all first child <p> elements

In the following example, the selector matches all <i> elements in <p> elements that are the first child of another element:

Example
<html> <head> <style type="text/css"> p:first-child i {

color:blue; } </style> </head> <body> <p>I am a <i>strong</i> man. I am a <i>strong</i> man.</p> <p>I am a <i>strong</i> man. I am a <i>strong</i> man.</p> </body> </html>
Try it yourself

CSS - The :lang Pseudo-class

The :lang pseudo-class allows you to define special rules for different languages. Note: IE8 supports the :lang pseudo-class only if a <!DOCTYPE> is specified. In the example below, the :lang class defines the quotation marks for q elements with lang="no":

Example
<html> <head> <style type="text/css"> q:lang(no) {quotes: "~" "~";} </style> </head> <body> <p>Some text <q lang="no">A quote in a paragraph</q> Some text.</p> </body> </html>
Try it yourself

More Examples
Add different styles to hyperlinks This example demonstrates how to add other styles to hyperlinks. Use of :focus This example demonstrates how to use the :focus pseudo-class.

All CSS Pseudo Classes/Elements

Selector :link :visited :active :hover :focus :first-letter :first-line :first-child Example a:link a:visited a:active a:hover input:focus p:first-letter p:first-line p:first-child Example description Selects all unvisited links Selects all visited links Selects the active link Selects links on mouse over Selects the input element which has focus Selects the first letter of every <p> element Selects the first line of every <p> element Selects every <p> elements that is the first child of its parent

:before :after :lang(language)

p:before p:after p:lang(it)

Insert content before every <p> element Insert content after every <p> element Selects every <p> element with a lang attribute value starting with "it"

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CSS Pseudo-elements
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CSS pseudo-elements are used to add special effects to some selectors.

Syntax
The syntax of pseudo-elements:

selector:pseudo-element {property:value;}
CSS classes can also be used with pseudo-elements:

selector.class:pseudo-element {property:value;}

The :first-line Pseudo-element

The "first-line" pseudo-element is used to add a special style to the first line of a text. In the following example the browser formats the first line of text in a p element according to the style in the "first-line" pseudo-element (where the browser breaks the line, depends on the size of the browser window):

Example
p:first-line { color:#ff0000; font-variant:small-caps; }
Try it yourself

Note: The "first-line" pseudo-element can only be used with block-level elements. Note: The following properties apply to the "first-line" pseudo-element:

font properties color properties background properties word-spacing letter-spacing text-decoration vertical-align text-transform line-height clear

The :first-letter Pseudo-element

The "first-letter" pseudo-element is used to add a special style to the first letter of a text:

Example
p:first-letter { color:#ff0000; font-size:xx-large; }
Try it yourself

Note: The "first-letter" pseudo-element can only be used with block-level elements. Note: The following properties apply to the "first-letter" pseudo- element:

font properties color properties background properties margin properties padding properties border properties text-decoration vertical-align (only if "float" is "none") text-transform line-height float clear

Pseudo-elements and CSS Classes

Pseudo-elements can be combined with CSS classes:

p.article:first-letter {color:#ff0000;} <p class="article">A paragraph in an article</p>

The example above will display the first letter of all paragraphs with class="article", in red.

Multiple Pseudo-elements
Several pseudo-elements can also be combined. In the following example, the first letter of a paragraph will be red, in an xx-large font size. The rest of the first line will be blue, and in small-caps. The rest of the paragraph will be the default font size and color:

Example
p:first-letter { color:#ff0000; font-size:xx-large; } p:first-line { color:#0000ff;

font-variant:small-caps; }
Try it yourself

CSS - The :before Pseudo-element

The ":before" pseudo-element can be used to insert some content before the content of an element. The following example inserts an image before each <h1> element:

Example
h1:before { content:url(smiley.gif); }
Try it yourself

CSS - The :after Pseudo-element

The ":after" pseudo-element can be used to insert some content after the content of an element. The following example inserts an image after each <h1> element:

Example
h1:after { content:url(smiley.gif); }
Try it yourself

All CSS Pseudo Classes/Elements

Selector :link :visited :active :hover :focus :first-letter :first-line :first-child :before :after :lang(language) Example a:link a:visited a:active a:hover input:focus p:first-letter p:first-line p:first-child p:before p:after p:lang(it) Example description Selects all unvisited links Selects all visited links Selects the active link Selects links on mouse over Selects the input element which has focus Selects the first letter of every <p> element Selects the first line of every <p> element Selects every <p> elements that is the first child of its parent Insert content before every <p> element Insert content after every <p> element Selects every <p> element with a lang attribute value starting with "it"

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CSS Navigation Bar

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Demo: Navigation Bar

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Navigation Bars
Having easy-to-use navigation is important for any web site. With CSS you can transform boring HTML menus into good-looking navigation bars.

Navigation Bar = List of Links

A navigation bar needs standard HTML as a base. In our examples we will build the navigation bar from a standard HTML list. A navigation bar is basically a list of links, so using the <ul> and <li> elements makes perfect sense:

Example
<ul> <li><a <li><a <li><a <li><a </ul> href="default.asp">Home</a></li> href="news.asp">News</a></li> href="contact.asp">Contact</a></li> href="about.asp">About</a></li>

Try it yourself

Now let's remove the bullets and the margins and padding from the list:

Example
ul { list-style-type:none; margin:0; padding:0; }
Try it yourself

Example explained:

list-style-type:none - Removes the bullets. A navigation bar does not need list markers Setting margins and padding to 0 to remove browser default settings

The code in the example above is the standard code used in both vertical, and horizontal navigation bars.

Vertical Navigation Bar

To build a vertical navigation bar we only need to style the <a> elements, in addition to the code above:

Example
a { display:block; width:60px; }
Try it yourself

Example explained:

display:block - Displaying the links as block elements makes the whole link area clickable (not just the text), and it allows us to specify the width width:60px - Block elements take up the full width available by default. We want to specify a 60 px width

Tip: Also take a look at our fully styled vertical navigation bar example. Note: Always specify the width for <a> elements in a vertical navigation bar. If you omit the width, IE6 can produce unexpected results.

Horizontal Navigation Bar

There are two ways to create a horizontal navigation bar. Using inline or floating list items. Both methods work fine, but if you want the links to be the same size, you have to use the floating method.

Inline List Items

One way to build a horizontal navigation bar is to specify the <li> elements as inline, in addition to the "standard" code above:

Example
li { display:inline; }
Try it yourself

Example explained:

display:inline; - By default, <li> elements are block elements. Here, we remove the line breaks before and after each list item, to display them on one line

Tip: Also take a look at our fully styled horizontal navigation bar example.

Floating List Items

In the example above the links have different widths.

For all the links to have an equal width, float the <li> elements and specify a width for the <a> elements:

Example
li { float:left; } a { display:block; width:60px; }
Try it yourself

Example explained:

float:left - use float to get block elements to slide next to each other display:block - Displaying the links as block elements makes the whole link area clickable (not just the text), and it allows us to specify the width width:60px - Since block elements take up the full width available, they cannot float next to each other. We specify the width of the links to 60px

Tip: Also take a look at our fully styled horizontal navigation bar example.

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CSS Image Gallery

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CSS can be used to create an image gallery.

Add a description of the image here

Add a description of the image here

Add a description of the image here

Add a description of the image here

Image Gallery
The following image gallery is created with CSS:

Example
<html> <head> <style type="text/css"> div.img { margin:2px; border:1px solid #0000ff; height:auto; width:auto; float:left; text-align:center; } div.img img { display:inline; margin:3px; border:1px solid #ffffff; } div.img a:hover img { border:1px solid #0000ff; } div.desc { text-align:center; font-weight:normal; width:120px; margin:2px; } </style> </head> <body> <div class="img"> <a target="_blank" href="klematis_big.htm"> <img src="klematis_small.jpg" alt="Klematis" width="110" height="90" /> </a> <div class="desc">Add a description of the image here</div> </div> <div class="img"> <a target="_blank" href="klematis2_big.htm"> <img src="klematis2_small.jpg" alt="Klematis" width="110" height="90" /> </a> <div class="desc">Add a description of the image here</div> </div> <div class="img"> <a target="_blank" href="klematis3_big.htm"> <img src="klematis3_small.jpg" alt="Klematis" width="110" height="90" /> </a> <div class="desc">Add a description of the image here</div> </div> <div class="img">

<a target="_blank" href="klematis4_big.htm"> <img src="klematis4_small.jpg" alt="Klematis" width="110" height="90" /> </a> <div class="desc">Add a description of the image here</div> </div> </body> </html>
Try it yourself

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CSS Image Opacity / Transparency

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Creating transparent images with CSS is easy. Note: The CSS opacity property is a part of the W3C CSS3 recommendation.

Try it Yourself - Examples

Creating transparent images - Hover effect Creating a transparent box with text on a background image

Example 1 - Creating a Transparent Image

The CSS3 property for transparency is opacity. First we will show you how to create a transparent image with CSS. Regular image:

The same image with transparency:

Look at the following CSS:

img { opacity:0.4; filter:alpha(opacity=40); /* For IE8 and earlier */ }

IE9, Firefox, Chrome, Opera, and Safari use the property opacity for transparency. The opacity property can take a value from 0.0 - 1.0. A lower value makes the element more transparent. IE8 and earlier use filter:alpha(opacity=x). The x can take a value from 0 - 100. A lower value makes the element more transparent.

Example 2 - Image Transparency - Hover Effect

Mouse over the images:

The CSS looks like this:

img { opacity:0.4; filter:alpha(opacity=40); /* For IE8 and earlier */ } img:hover { opacity:1.0; filter:alpha(opacity=100); /* For IE8 and earlier */ }
The first CSS block is similar to the code in Example 1. In addition, we have added what should happen when a user hover over one of the images. In this case we want the image to NOT be transparent when the user hover over it. The CSS for this is: opacity=1. IE8 and earlier: filter:alpha(opacity=100). When the mouse pointer moves away from the image, the image will be transparent again.

Example 3 - Text in Transparent Box

This is some text that is placed in the transparent box. This is some text that is placed in the transparent box. This is some text that is placed in the transparent box. This is some text that is placed in the transparent box. This is some text that is placed in the transparent box.

The source code looks like this:

<html> <head> <style type="text/css">

div.background { width:500px; height:250px; background:url(klematis.jpg) repeat; border:2px solid black; } div.transbox { width:400px; height:180px; margin:30px 50px; background-color:#ffffff; border:1px solid black; opacity:0.6; filter:alpha(opacity=60); /* For IE8 and earlier */ } div.transbox p { margin:30px 40px; font-weight:bold; color:#000000; } </style> </head> <body> <div class="background"> <div class="transbox"> <p>This is some text that This is some text that is This is some text that is This is some text that is This is some text that is </p> </div> </div> </body> </html>
First, we create a div element (class="background") with a fixed height and width, a background image, and a border. Then we create a smaller div (class="transbox") inside the first div element. The "transbox" div have a fixed width, a background color, and a border - and it is transparent. Inside the transparent div, we add some text inside a p element.

is placed placed in placed in placed in placed in

in the transparent box. the transparent box. the transparent box. the transparent box. the transparent box.

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CSS Image Sprites

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Image Sprites
An image sprite is a collection of images put into a single image. A web page with many images can take a long time to load and generates multiple server requests.

Using image sprites will reduce the number of server requests and save bandwidth.

Image Sprites - Simple Example

Instead of using three separate images, we use this single image ("img_navsprites.gif"):

With CSS, we can show just the part of the image we need. In the following example the CSS specifies which part of the "img_navsprites.gif" image to show:

Example
img.home { width:46px; height:44px; background:url(img_navsprites.gif) 0 0; }
Try it yourself

Example explained:

<img class="home" src="img_trans.gif" /> - Only defines a small transparent image because the src attribute cannot be empty. The displayed image will be the background image we specify in CSS width:46px;height:44px; - Defines the portion of the image we want to use background:url(img_navsprites.gif) 0 0; - Defines the background image and its position (left 0px, top 0px)

This is the easiest way to use image sprites, now we want to expand it by using links and hover effects.

Image Sprites - Create a Navigation List

We want to use the sprite image ("img_navsprites.gif") to create a navigation list. We will use an HTML list, because it can be a link and also supports a background image:

Example
#navlist{position:relative;} #navlist li{margin:0;padding:0;list-style:none;position:absolute;top:0;} #navlist li, #navlist a{height:44px;display:block;} #home{left:0px;width:46px;} #home{background:url('img_navsprites.gif') 0 0;} #prev{left:63px;width:43px;} #prev{background:url('img_navsprites.gif') -47px 0;} #next{left:129px;width:43px;} #next{background:url('img_navsprites.gif') -91px 0;}
Try it yourself

Example explained:

#navlist{position:relative;} - position is set to relative to allow absolute positioning inside it #navlist li{margin:0;padding:0;list-style:none;position:absolute;top:0;} - margin and padding is set to 0, list-style is removed, and all list items are absolute positioned #navlist li, #navlist a{height:44px;display:block;} - the height of all the images are 44px

Now start to position and style for each specific part:

#home{left:0px;width:46px;} - Positioned all the way to the left, and the width of the image is 46px #home{background:url(img_navsprites.gif) 0 0;} - Defines the background image and its position (left 0px, top 0px) #prev{left:63px;width:43px;} - Positioned 63px to the right (#home width 46px + some extra space between items), and the width is 43px. #prev{background:url('img_navsprites.gif') -47px 0;} - Defines the background image 47px to the right (#home width 46px + 1px line divider) #next{left:129px;width:43px;}- Positioned 129px to the right (start of #prev is 63px + #prev width 43px + extra space), and the width is 43px. #next{background:url('img_navsprites.gif') no-repeat -91px 0;} - Defines the background image 91px to the right (#home width 46px + 1px line divider + #prev width 43px + 1px line divider )

Image Sprites - Hover Effect

Now we want to add a hover effect to our navigation list. Our new image ("img_navsprites_hover.gif") contains three navigation images and three images to use for hover effects:

Because this is one single image, and not six separate files, there will be no loading delay when a user hovers over the image. We only add three lines of code to add the hover effect:

Example
#home a:hover{background: url('img_navsprites_hover.gif') 0 -45px;} #prev a:hover{background: url('img_navsprites_hover.gif') -47px -45px;} #next a:hover{background: url('img_navsprites_hover.gif') -91px -45px;}
Try it yourself

Example explained:

Since the list item contains a link, we can use the :hover pseudo-class #home a:hover{background: transparent url(img_navsprites_hover.gif) 0 -45px;} - For all three hover images we specify the same background position, only 45px further down

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CSS Media Types

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Next Chapter
Media Types allow you to specify how documents will be presented in different media. The document can be displayed differently on the screen, on the paper, with an aural browser, etc.

Media Types
Some CSS properties are only designed for a certain media. For example the "voice-family" property is designed for aural user agents. Some other properties can be used for different media types. For example, the "font-size" property can be used for both screen and print media, but perhaps with different values. A document usually needs a larger font-size on a screen than on paper, and sans-serif fonts are easier to read on the screen, while serif fonts are easier to read on paper.

The @media Rule

The @media rule allows different style rules for different media in the same style sheet. The style in the example below tells the browser to display a 14 pixels Verdana font on the screen. But if the page is printed, it will be in a 10 pixels Times font. Notice that the font-weight is set to bold, both on screen and on paper:

<html> <head> <style> @media screen { p.test {font-family:verdana,sans-serif;font-size:14px;} } @media print { p.test {font-family:times,serif;font-size:10px;} } @media screen,print { p.test {font-weight:bold;} } </style> </head> <body> .... </body> </html>
See it yourself ! If you are using Mozilla/Firefox or IE5+ and print this page, you will see that the paragraph under "Media Types" will be displayed in another font, and have a smaller font size than the rest of the text.

Different Media Types

Note: The media type names are not case-sensitive. Media Type all aural braille Description Used for all media type devices Used for speech and sound synthesizers Used for braille tactile feedback devices

embossed handheld print projection screen tty tv

Used for paged braille printers Used for small or handheld devices Used for printers Used for projected presentations, like slides Used for computer screens Used for media using a fixed-pitch character grid, like teletypes and terminals Used for television-type devices

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CSS Attribute Selectors

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Style HTML Elements With Specific Attributes

It is possible to style HTML elements that have specific attributes, not just class and id. Note: IE7 and IE8 support attribute selectors only if a !DOCTYPE is specified. Attribute selection isNOT supported in IE6 and lower.

Attribute Selector
The example below styles all elements with a title attribute:

Example
[title] { color:blue; }
Try it yourself

Attribute and Value Selector

The example below styles all elements with title="W3Schools":

Example
[title=W3Schools] { border:5px solid green; }
Try it yourself

Attribute and Value Selector - Multiple Values

The example below styles all elements with a title attribute that contains a specified value. This works even if the attribute has space separated values:

Example

[title~=hello] { color:blue; }
Try it yourself

The example below styles all elements with a lang attribute that contains a specified value. This works even if the attribute has hyphen ( - ) separated values:

Example
[lang|=en] { color:blue; }
Try it yourself

Styling Forms
The attribute selectors are particularly useful for styling forms without class or ID:

Example
input[type="text"] { width:150px; display:block; margin-bottom:10px; background-color:yellow; } input[type="button"] { width:120px; margin-left:35px; display:block; }
Try it yourself

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You Have Learned CSS, Now What?

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CSS Summary
This tutorial has taught you how to create style sheets to control the style and layout of multiple web sites at once. You have learned how to use CSS to add backgrounds, format text, add and format borders, and specify padding and margins of elements. You have also learned how to position an element, control the visibility and size of an element, set the shape of an element, place an element behind another, and to add special effects to some selectors, like links. For more information on CSS, please take a look at our CSS examples and our CSS reference.

Now You Know CSS, What's Next?

The next step is to learn JavaScript.

JavaScript JavaScript can make your web site more dynamic. A static web site is nice when you just want to show flat content, but a dynamic web site can react to events and allow user interaction. JavaScript is the most popular scripting language on the internet and it works with all major browsers. If you want to learn more about JavaScript, please visit our JavaScript tutorial.

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CSS Examples
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CSS Backgrounds Set the background color of a page Set the background color of different elements Set an image as the background of a page Bad background image How to repeat a background image only horizontally How to position a background image A fixed background image (this image will not scroll with the rest of the page) All the background properties in one declaration Advanced background example

Background properties explained

CSS Text Set the text color of different elements Align the text Remove the line under links Decorate the text Control the letters in a text Indent text Specify the space between characters Specify the space between lines Set the text direction of an element Increase the white space between words Disable text wrapping inside an element Vertical alignment of an image inside text Text properties explained

CSS Fonts Set the font of a text Set the size of the font Set the size of the font in px Set the size of the font in em Set the size of the font in percent and em Set the style of the font Set the variant of the font Set the boldness of the font All the font properties in one declaration Font properties explained

CSS Links Add different colors to visited/unvisited links Use of text-decoration on links Specify a background color for links Add other styles to hyperlinks Advanced - Create link boxes Link properties explained

CSS Lists All the different list item markers in lists Set an image as the list-item marker Set an image as the list-item marker - Crossbrowser solution All list properties in one declaration List properties explained

CSS Tables Specify a black border for table, th, and td elements Use of border-collapse Specify the width and height of a table Set the horizontal alignment of content (text-align)

Set the vertical alignment of content (vertical-align) Specify the padding for th and td elements Specify the color of the table borders Set the position of the table caption Create a fancy table Table properties explained

CSS Box Model Specify an element with a total width of 250px Specify an element with a total width of 250px - Crossbrowser solution Box model explained

CSS Border Set Set Set Set Set Set Set Set Set Set Set Set Set Set Set the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the width width width width width style style style style style color color color color color of of of of of the the the the the four borders top border bottom border left border right border

of of of of of of of of of of

the the the the the the the the the the

four borders top border bottom border left border right border four borders top border bottom border left border right border

All the border properties in one declaration Set different borders on each side All the top border properties in one declaration All the bottom border properties in one declaration All the left border properties in one declaration All the right border properties in one declaration Border properties explained

CSS Outline Draw a line around an element (outline) Set the style of an outline Set the color of an outline Set the width of an outline Outline properties explained

CSS Margin Specify margins for an element The margin shorthand property Set the top margin of a text using a cm value

Set the bottom margin of a text using a percent value Set the left margin of a text using a cm value Margin properties explained

CSS Padding Set the left padding of an element Set the right padding of an element Set the top padding of an element Set the bottom padding of an element All the padding properties in one declaration Padding properties explained

CSS Grouping and Nesting Group selectors Nested (descendant) selectors Grouping and nesting explained

CSS Dimension Set Set Set Set Set Set Set Set Set Set the the the the the the the the the the height of an image using a pixel value height of an image using percent width of an element using a pixel value width of an element using percent maximum height of an element maximum width of an element using a pixel value maximum width of an element using percent minimum height of an element minimum width of an element using a pixel value minimum width of an element using percent

Dimension properties explained

CSS Display How How How How How to to to to to hide an element (visibility:hidden) not display an element (display:none) display an element as an inline element display an element as a block element make a table element collapse

Display properties explained

CSS Positioning Position an element relative to the browser window Position an element relative to its normal position Position an element with an absolute value Overlapping elements Set the shape of an element How to create a scroll bar when an element's content is too big to fit How to set the browser to automatically handle overflow Set the top edge of an image using a pixel value Set the bottom edge of an image using a pixel value

Set the left edge of an image using a pixel value Set the right edge of an image using a pixel value Change the cursor Positioning properties explained

CSS Floating A simple use of the float property An image with border and margins that floats to the right in a paragraph An image with a caption that floats to the right Let the first letter of a paragraph float to the left Create an image gallery with the float property Turn of float - with the clear property Creating a horizontal menu Creating a homepage without tables Float properties explained

CSS Aligning Elements Center aligning with margin Left/Right aligning with position Left/Right aligning with position - Crossbrowser solution Left/Right aligning with float Left/Right aligning with float - Crossbrowser solution Align properties explained

CSS Generated Content Insert the URL in parenthesis after each link with the content property Numbering sections and sub-sections with "Section 1", "1.1", "1.2", etc. Specify the quotation marks with the quotes property

CSS Pseudo-classes Add different colors to a hyperlink Add other styles to hyperlinks Use of :focus :first-child - match the first p element :first-child - match the first i element in all p elements :first-child - Match all i elements in all first child p elements Use of :lang Pseudo-classes explained

CSS Pseudo-elements Make the first letter special in a text Make the first line special in a text Make the first letter and first line special Use :before to insert some content before an element Use :after to insert some content after an element Pseudo-elements explained

CSS Navigation Bars Fully styled vertical navigation bar Fully styled horizontal navigation bar Navigation bars explained

CSS Image Gallery Image gallery Image gallery explained

CSS Image Opacity Creating transparent images - mouseover effect Creating a transparent box with text on a background image Image opacity explained

CSS Image Sprites An image sprite An image sprite - a navigation list An image sprite with hover effect Image sprites explained

CSS Attribute Selectors Select Select Select Select elements elements elements elements with with with with a title attribute title=a specific value title=a specific value (even if the attribute has space-separated values) title=a specific value (even if the attribute has hyphen-separated values)

Attribute selectors explained

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1. <html> <head> <style type="text/css"> table,th,td { border:1px solid black; } </style>

</head> <body> <table> <tr> <th>Firstname</th> <th>Lastname</th> </tr> <tr> <td>Peter</td> <td>Griffin</td> </tr> <tr> <td>Lois</td> <td>Griffin</td> </tr> </table> 2. <!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1transitional.dtd"> <html> <head> <style type="text/css"> table { border-collapse:collapse; } table, td, th { border:1px solid black; } </style> </head>

<body> <table> <tr> <th>Firstname</th> <th>Lastname</th> </tr> <tr> <td>Peter</td> <td>Griffin</td> </tr> <tr> <td>Lois</td> <td>Griffin</td> </tr> </table> <p><b>Note:</b> If a !DOCTYPE is not specified, the border-collapse property can produce unexpected results in IE8 and earlier versions.</p> </body> </html> 3. <html> <head> <style type="text/css"> table,td,th { border:1px solid black; } table { width:100%; } th { height:50px; } </style>

</head> <body> <table> <tr> <th>Firstname</th> <th>Lastname</th> <th>Savings</th> </tr> <tr> <td>Peter</td> <td>Griffin</td> <td>$100</td> </tr> <tr> <td>Lois</td> <td>Griffin</td> <td>$150</td> </tr> <tr> <td>Joe</td> <td>Swanson</td> <td>$300</td> </tr> <tr> <td>Cleveland</td> <td>Brown</td> <td>$250</td> </tr> </table> </body> </html> 4. <html> <head> <style type="text/css"> table,td,th

{ border:1px solid black; } td { text-align:right; } </style> </head> <body> <table> <tr> <th>Firstname</th> <th>Lastname</th> <th>Savings</th> </tr> <tr> <td>Peter</td> <td>Griffin</td> <td>$100</td> </tr> <tr> <td>Lois</td> <td>Griffin</td> <td>$150</td> </tr> <tr> <td>Joe</td> <td>Swanson</td> <td>$300</td> </tr> <tr> <td>Cleveland</td> <td>Brown</td> <td>$250</td>

</tr> </table> </body> </html> 5. <html> <head> <style type="text/css"> table, td, th { border:1px solid black; } td { height:50px; vertical-align:bottom; } </style> </head> <body> <table> <tr> <th>Firstname</th> <th>Lastname</th> <th>Savings</th> </tr> <tr> <td>Peter</td> <td>Griffin</td> <td>$100</td> </tr> <tr> <td>Lois</td> <td>Griffin</td> <td>$150</td> </tr>

<tr> <td>Joe</td> <td>Swanson</td> <td>$300</td> </tr> <tr> <td>Cleveland</td> <td>Brown</td> <td>$250</td> </tr> </table> </body> </html> 6. <html> <head> <style type="text/css"> table, td, th { border:1px solid black; } td { padding:15px; } </style> </head> <body> <table> <tr> <th>Firstname</th> <th>Lastname</th> <th>Savings</th> </tr> <tr> <td>Peter</td>

<td>Griffin</td> <td>$100</td> </tr> <tr> <td>Lois</td> <td>Griffin</td> <td>$150</td> </tr> <tr> <td>Joe</td> <td>Swanson</td> <td>$300</td> </tr> <tr> <td>Cleveland</td> <td>Brown</td> <td>$250</td> </tr> </table> </body> </html> 7. <html> <head> <style type="text/css"> table, td, th { border:1px solid green; } th { background-color:green; color:white; } </style> </head>

<body> <table> <tr> <th>Firstname</th> <th>Lastname</th> <th>Savings</th> </tr> <tr> <td>Peter</td> <td>Griffin</td> <td>$100</td> </tr> <tr> <td>Lois</td> <td>Griffin</td> <td>$150</td> </tr> <tr> <td>Joe</td> <td>Swanson</td> <td>$300</td> </tr> <tr> <td>Cleveland</td> <td>Brown</td> <td>$250</td> </tr> </table> </body> </html> 8. <!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1transitional.dtd"> <html> <head>

<style type="text/css"> caption {caption-side:bottom;} </style> </head> <body> <table border="1"> <caption>Table 1.1 Customers</caption> <tr> <th>Company</th> <th>Contact</th> <th>Country</th> </tr> <tr> <td>Alfreds Futterkiste</td> <td>Maria Anders</td> <td>Germany</td> </tr> <tr> <td>Berglunds snabbkp</td> <td>Christina Berglund</td> <td>Sweden</td> </tr> <tr> <td>Centro comercial Moctezuma</td> <td>Francisco Chang</td> <td>Mexico</td> </tr> <tr> <td>Ernst Handel</td> <td>Roland Mendel</td> <td>Austria</td> </tr> <tr> <td>Island Trading</td>

<td>Helen Bennett</td> <td>UK</td> </tr> <tr> <td>Magazzini Alimentari Riuniti</td> <td>Giovanni Rovelli</td> <td>Italy</td> </tr> <tr> <td>North/South</td> <td>Simon Crowther</td> <td>UK</td> </tr> </table> <p><b>Note:</b> IE8 supports the caption-side property if a !DOCTYPE is specified.</p> </body> </html> 9. <html> <head> <style type="text/css"> #customers { font-family:"Trebuchet MS", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; width:100%; border-collapse:collapse; } #customers td, #customers th { font-size:1em; border:1px solid #98bf21; padding:3px 7px 2px 7px; } #customers th {

font-size:1.1em; text-align:left; padding-top:5px; padding-bottom:4px; background-color:#A7C942; color:#ffffff; } #customers tr.alt td { color:#000000; background-color:#EAF2D3; } </style> </head> <body> <table id="customers"> <tr> <th>Company</th> <th>Contact</th> <th>Country</th> </tr> <tr> <td>Alfreds Futterkiste</td> <td>Maria Anders</td> <td>Germany</td> </tr> <tr class="alt"> <td>Berglunds snabbkp</td> <td>Christina Berglund</td> <td>Sweden</td> </tr> <tr> <td>Centro comercial Moctezuma</td> <td>Francisco Chang</td> <td>Mexico</td>

</tr> <tr class="alt"> <td>Ernst Handel</td> <td>Roland Mendel</td> <td>Austria</td> </tr> <tr> <td>Island Trading</td> <td>Helen Bennett</td> <td>UK</td> </tr> <tr class="alt"> <td>Kniglich Essen</td> <td>Philip Cramer</td> <td>Germany</td> </tr> <tr> <td>Laughing Bacchus Winecellars</td> <td>Yoshi Tannamuri</td> <td>Canada</td> </tr> <tr class="alt"> <td>Magazzini Alimentari Riuniti</td> <td>Giovanni Rovelli</td> <td>Italy</td> </tr> <tr> <td>North/South</td> <td>Simon Crowther</td> <td>UK</td> </tr> <tr class="alt"> <td>Paris spcialits</td> <td>Marie Bertrand</td> <td>France</td> </tr>

</table> </body> </html>

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Fixed header and footer (part of fixed positioning)

Code
<!-- IE in quirks mode --> <!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0//EN"> <title>Fixed header and footer</title> <style type="text/css"> body{ margin:0; padding:header-<length> 0 footer-<length> 0; } div#header{ position:absolute; top:0; left:0; width:100%; height:header-<length>; } div#footer{ position:absolute; bottom:0; left:0; width:100%; height:footer-<length>; } @media screen{ body>div#header{ position:fixed; } body>div#footer{ position:fixed; } } * html body{ overflow:hidden; } * html div#content{ height:100%; overflow:auto; } </style> <div id="header"> header </div> <div id="footer"> footer </div> <div id="content"> content </div>

Related examples
o the simple way to do this is as follows: HTML: <!-- background for expandable header --> <div id="headerbg"> <h1>YOUR TEXT</h1> </div> <!-- CENTER CONTENT --> <div id="container"> <div class="left"> <p>This is content that goes on the left!</p> </div> <div class="right"> <p>Here is my right column!</p> </div> </div> <!--CLEAR FOOTER TO PREVENT BUNCHING--> <div class="clear"></div> <div id="footer"><p>HEY HERE IS MY FULL WIDTH FOOTER</p></div>

Simple right? And here is the CSS:

/*Simple CSS reset for items we will use JUST for this example. Please use full reset when designing! Reseting the margin and padding is important for the body tag so the header and footer will hug the whole screen.*/ h1, p, body, html { margin:0; padding:0;} /*Just visual styles*/ body { background:#000; font:12px verdana, sans-serif; color:#000; } /*Our full length header. We align the text center so it shows up in the middle. If you prefer you could right or left align it.*/ #headerbg { background:#cccc66;

text-align:center; padding:20px; } /*Center Content*/ #container { position:relative; margin:0 auto; width:800px; } /*Full width footer*/ #footer { background:#cccc66; padding:10px; text-align:center; } /*These are just styles used for the example for the content.*/ .left { float:left; width:500px; background:#ccff66; } .right { float:left; width:200px; clear:right; background:#66ff33; } .left p, .right p { padding:10px; } /*If you are going to use floats then you will NEED to clear the footer so it doesn't bunch the content up*/ .clear {clear:both;}

SEE EXAMPLE
But wait, theres more. Often I have several things going on in my header, like a logo, and some links. Ive actually used this on the redesigned CSSgirl, and right now you all are going to get a sneak peek of the homepage of the design in static format so I can illustrate this. Its basically the same as the above example except two critical things:

1. In our HTML the header is going to be an empty div. You will need also to define a height for your background. 2. We will use a negative top margin to pull the centered content on top of the full width header. This is a really easy way to use patterned/repeated background patterns in your header that expand the entire width of the site. So, here is how those things will change: /*Our full length header. */ #headerbg { background:#cccc66; height:90px; } /*Center Content*/ #container { position:relative; margin:0 auto; width:800px; margin-top:-90px; }

Styling Tables with CSS

main > css > css boxes > css table styling
Note that some of the examples in this lecture are using table formatting that does not normally carry over into print or that may be specific to only certain browsers. This means that certain examples will not appear correctly in many instances. This does not affect document readability.

Styling Tables
You can use either style sheets or attributes to style documents. Both have benefits and drawbacks. Style sheets have more flexibility and are in accord with new standards, but they are also not backwardly compatible. Many table attributes have been deprecated in favor of style sheets, and many only work in certain browsers, however, they are backwardly compatible. A common recommedation is to use both. Style sheets will override the attributes values on newer browsers that understand them.

Borders
HTML provides the

border attribute to put borders around table elements. It is an all or nothing frame attribute to rules attribute to draw lines between cells and other

deal that takes the size of the border as its value. Internet Explorer adds the draw frames around the table and the

distinct table elements. These take keywords to specify which lines are to be drawn. CSS also provides border properties in the form of the sub-properties.

border property. There are also three

border-width
This allows you to specify the width of the border. Normally the width is specfied in the number of pixels.

border-style
This allows you to specify the style of the border. This takes a keyword, such as or

solid,

dashed. Check the W3C documentation for the complete list.

border-color
This allows you to specify a color for the border. As with all other color properties in style sheets, it is preferred that you use a hexadecimal value to set the color. When you set border properties, they apply to the element selected, not for everything in the table. Therefore, you can define styles for cells, rows, and the entire table separately. The simplest way to set the border is to just set it for all four sides. For instance, if you wanted to set the border around the table to a two pixel, solid red line, you could code: <table style="border: 2px solid #ff0000;">

The "px" in the above statement says that the measure is in pixels. The line is a solid line and is pure red. The values need to occur in that order and all need to be present for the command to work. If you just want to set one value, then use the subproperties.

If you wanted borders around everything, then what you need to do it as a document level style rule, instead of inline (unless you want to repeat it for every single cell): table, th, td { border: 2px solid #ff0000; }

If you want to specify properties for only some of the sides, there are a few ways to do it. One is to specify or

border-left, border-right, border-top,

border-bottom. These work the same way as the border attribute. border-

Another method is to specify the values using the sub-properties.

width, border-style, and border-color all take up to four values each, one
for each side of a table or cell. The values are listed out in a space separated list as follows: style="border-width: 2px 4px 6px 4px;"

The above statement sets the top border to 2 pixels, the left and right border to four pixels each, and the bottom border to six pixels. Now, as stated before, you can have up to four values. What happens if you don't have all four. This can get rathe confusing, but it works like this.

border-width: width1;
Sets all four sides to the size specified.

border-width: width1 width2;

Sets the top and bottom border to width1 and the left and right borders to width2.

border-width: width1 width2 width3;

Sets the top border to width1, sets the left and right borders to width2, and sets the bottom border towidth3.

border-width: width1 width2 width3 width4;

Sets the top border to width1, sets the right border to width2, sets the bottom border to width3, and sets the left border to width 4. There are also properties for the individual sides by sub-property. For instance, you could specify the four widths with individual properties using the following.

o o o o

border-top-width border-right-width border-bottom-width border-left-width

Size
There are corresponding

height and width style properties that

match the attributes of the same name. They can take an absolute value in pixels, a relative value, normally based on em-units (a typographic measure), or a percentage value. If using a percentage, beware that some browsers treat is as a percent of the table or available space after margins and others as a percent of the page. The recommended method for setting width is to specify an absolute width for some columns and have others that have no size defined and expand to fill in the extra space. For instance, you could set an absolute value for a menu bar and then let the content fill the rest of the screen. Browsers will also ignore your size specifications at times to fit things on the screen. When you specify a width, you specify a maximum width. This will only be overridden if the contents of the cell or table are too wide to fit in that space. For instance, while text will wrap to fit available space, if you set a cell width to 400 pixels and then try to put an image that is 600 pixels wide in it, then the cell will expand to fit the image. You only need to specify a width once in a given column. All the cells in a column are the same width unless you are spanning columns. It is generally not recommended you specify a height, but when you do, it sets the minimum height for that element. You only need to set height once in a row.

Spacing and Padding

Cell spacing is the space between cells in a table. Cell padding is the extra space inside a cell between the contents and the border of the cell. You can set these values with the

cellspacing andcellpadding attributes, which take a

value representing the size in pixels, or you can use style sheets. The style sheet equivalents of

cellspacing and cellpadding are border-spacing an

dpadding. The

padding property can take one to four values to specify the

padding, or the space within the cells. If you use more than value, then the same rules apply as with specifying individual border sides above. You can also specify an individual side by

padding-side. For instance, paddingleft, orpadding-bottom.

specifying

The

border-spacing property is a little more limited in its use. It

can only be applied to the table as a whole and is an all or nothing affair. In other words, you have to have the same amount of spacing between every element in the table. This is not particularly versatile, but then again, if you are using a browser that understands theborder-spacing property in the first place, then you are using a browser that understands how to use CSS for positioning. In other words, you are in an environment where you shouldn't be using tables for fancy page layout, but rather CSS. In any event, IE does not yet support the

border-

spacing property, while Netscape 7 and Opera 7 do. So you still

need to use the old HTML method for the majority of the market. Note that on newer browsers, there is an automatic margin of 2 pixes inserted between each cell. This can cause problems if you are working with borders, and each semester students tear a few hairs out trying to figure out how to get rid of the gaps between their table cells. There are two fixes for this. The old fix and the new fix. The old fix. Use HTML attributes to crunch out the margin. Using both attributes covers your bases, since older browser default to a border but no margin, and newer browsers default to a margin but no borders. <table border="0" cellspacing="0">

The new fix. Use CSS to specify that the table has no space between the cells. table { border-spacing: 0px; } [or] table { border-collapse: collapse; }

The

border-collapse property takes one of three values: collapse -- Put no space between adjacent cell borders. separate -- Put some space between adjacent cell borders. In
this mode you can then useborder-spacing to specify how much space.

o o

inherit -- Inherit this property.

This property will work for other elements as well, but is really only useful for tables. It is better supported than

border-spacing, and

appears to work in all three major browsers. If both

border-

spacing and border-collapse, then bordercollapse overrides border-spacing when it is assigned a

value of "collapse".

Color
The

background-color property is well-supported and is bgcolor attribute in tables. Both can be a little background-color property can

preferred to the

quirkish in Netscape 4.x. The

take a color name or color value, but, since CSS only officially recognizes 16 color names, it is a good idea to use the hexadecimal color values.

Empty Cells
CSS also provides a means by which to control what to do with empty table cells in terms of formatting. This is useful if you have table cells with

visibility set to "hidden", since browsers will treat such

hidden content as no content. It also means you don't have to use the

&nbsp; trick to make sure there is something in cells. empty-cells and takes a value of "show", "hide",

The property is

or "inherit". The supports and defaults, of course, get complicated:

o o o

Netscape 7 -- supports property, default is show. Opera 7 -- supports property, default is hide. IE (all) and older browsers -- does not support property, default is hide. You need to use the&nbsp; trick.

A table without the style rule applied. In other words, the default.

The first cell in the table to the left should have no border around it, while the table to the right should have a border around the first cell. If this is not what is displaying, then your browser does not yet support the

empty-cellsproperty. Netscape 7 and Opera 7 both support

this, IE 6 does not yet do so.

Aligning Tables and Table Contents

Alignment is tricky business in tables. For starters, the same attribute that aligns the table itself aligns the contents of the table in different contexts. You can also align things in both dimensions.

Aligning the table

By using the

align attribute in the <table> tag, you can align the

table on the page. If the value is set to center, then the table will be centered. However, if it is set to left or right, then the table will be floated to the left or the right and other content will flow around it. The easiest way to center a table with style sheets is a two step process. First, put the table in a division and use the

text-

align property to center (text-align: center;) the contents

of the division. Then set the margins of the table to cover your bases for almost all newer browsers. To mimick moving the table to the left or right, you want to use the

auto. This will

float property on the table itself. For instance, to float it to the

right, you could do the following. <table style="float: right;">

Aligning the contents

Contents can be aligned by applying attributes or properties to individual cells or to the entire row or table division (i.e., header, body, footer). To align cell contents horizontally you can use the of

alignattribute or the text-align property. Both take a value

left, right, center, or justify. Justification is not well-

supported on the Web. The default alignment for content cells is left aligned. The default alignment for header cells is centered. You can also align cell contents vertically with the the

valign attribute or

vertical-align property. The vertical-align property align property, but it is getting there.

is not as well supported as the

Both of the vertical alignment elements can take any of the following values.

top
Aligns contents with the top of the cell.

middle
Aligns contents with the middle of the cell. In other words, it centers it vertically.

bottom
Aligns contents with the bottom of the cell.

baseline
For right now, this can be treated the same as bottom, though it is slightly different. The default vertical alignment on a cell of any kind is

middle.

Sample alignments
Attributes This cells is entirely default values. This cell is aligned to the left using attributes. Style Rules This cell is entirely default values. This cell is aligned to the left using style sheets. Code Samples

<td align="left">
<td style="text-align: left;">

This cell is aligned to the right using attributes.

This cell is aligned to the right <td align="right"> using style sheets. <td style="text-align:

right;">

The contents of this cell are centered using attributes. The contents of this cell are justified using attributes. This value does not always work for attributes. The contents of this cell are vertically aligned to the top using attributes.

The contents of this cell are centered using style sheets.

<td align="center">
<td style="text-align: center;">

The contents of this cell are <td align="justify"> justified using style sheets. Newer <td style="text-align: browser should know how to justify;"> process this value for style sheets, but it does not render well with short lines. The contents of this cell are vertically aligned to the top using style sheets.

<td valign="top">
<td style="verticalalign: top;">

The contents of this cell are vertically aligned to the bottom using attributes. The contents of this cell are vertically aligned to the bottom using style sheets.

<td valign="bottom">
<td style="verticalalign: bottom;">

Attributes The contents of this cell are vertically aligned to the middle using attributes.

Style Rules

Code Samples

<td valign="middle">
The contents of this cell are vertically aligned to the middle using style sheets.

<td style="verticalalign: middle;">

The contents of this cell are vertically aligned to the baseline using attributes. The contents of this cell are vertically aligned to the baseline using style sheets.

<td valign="baseline">
<td style="verticalalign: baseline;">

Variables
Variables allow you to specify widely used values in a single place, and then re-use them throughout the style sheet, making global changes as easy as changing one line of code.

// LESS

/* Compiled CSS */

@color: #4D926F; #header { color: #4D926F; #header { } color: @color; h2 { color: #4D926F; } h2 { } color: @color;
}

Mixins
Mixins allow you to embed all the properties of a class into another class by simply including the class name as one of its properties. Its just like variables, but for whole classes. Mixins can also behave like functions, and take arguments, as seen in the example bellow.

// LESS

/* Compiled CSS */

.rounded-corners (@radius: 5px) { #header {

border-radius: @radius; -webkit-border-radius: @radius; -moz-border-radius: @radius;

} }

border-radius: 5px; -webkit-border-radius: 5px; -moz-border-radius: 5px; #footer { border-radius: 10px; -webkit-border-radius: 10px; -moz-border-radius: 10px;
}

#header { .rounded-corners;
}

#footer { .rounded-corners(10px);
}

Nested Rules
Rather than constructing long selector names to specify inheritance, in Less you can simply nest selectors inside other selectors. This makes inheritance clear and style sheets shorter.

// LESS #header { h1 { font-size: 26px; font-weight: bold; } p { font-size: 12px; a { text-decoration: none; &:hover { border-width: 1px }
} } }

/* Compiled CSS */ #header h1 { font-size: 26px; font-weight: bold;

}

#header p { font-size: 12px;

}

#header p a { text-decoration: none;

}

#header p a:hover { border-width: 1px;

}

Functions & Operations

Are some elements in your style sheet proportional to other elements? Operations let you add, subtract, divide and multiply property values and colors, giving you the power to create complex relationships between properties. Functions map one-to-one with JavaScript code, allowing you to manipulate values however you want.

// LESS

/* Compiled CSS */

@the-border: 1px; @base-color: #111; @red: #842210; #header { color: @base-color * 3; border-left: @the-border; border-right: @the-border * 2;
}

#header { color: #333; border-left: 1px; border-right: 2px;

}

#footer { color: #114411; border-color: #7d2717;

}

#footer { color: @base-color + #003300; border-color: desaturate(@red, 10%);

}

Client-side usage
Link your .less stylesheets with the rel set to stylesheet/less: <link rel="stylesheet/less" type="text/css" href="styles.less"> Then download less.js from the top of the page, and include it in the <head> element of your page, like so: <script src="less.js" type="text/javascript"></script> Make sure you include your stylesheets before the script.

Server-side usage
Installation
The easiest way to install LESS on the server, is via npm, the node package manager, as so: $ npm install less This will get you the latest stable version. If you want the bleeding edge, try:

$ npm install less@latest

Use
Once installed, you can invoke the compiler from node, as such: var less = require('less');

less.render('.class { width: 1 + 1 }', function (e, css) { console.log(css); }); which will output .class { width: 2;
}

you can also manually invoke the parser and compiler: var parser = new(less.Parser);

parser.parse('.class { width: 1 + 1 }', function (err, tree) { if (err) { return console.error(err) } console.log(tree.toCSS()); });

Configuration
You may pass some options to the compiler:

var parser = new(less.Parser)({ paths: ['.', './lib'], // Specify search paths for @import directives filename: 'style.less' // Specify a filename, for better error messages });

parser.parse('.class { width: 1 + 1 }', function (e, tree) { tree.toCSS({ compress: true }); // Minify CSS output });

Command-line usage
Less comes with a binary, which lets you invoke the compiler from the command-line, as such: $ lessc styles.less This will output the compiled CSS to stdout, you may then redirect it to a file of your choice: $ lessc styles.less > styles.css To output minified CSS, simply pass the -x option.

The Language
As an extension to CSS, LESS is not only backwards compatible with CSS, but the extra features it adds useexisting CSS syntax. This makes learning LESS a breeze, and if in doubt, lets you fall back to CSS.

Variables
These are pretty self-explanatory:

@nice-blue: #5B83AD; @light-blue: @nice-blue + #111;

#header { color: @light-blue; }

Outputs:
#header { color: #6c94be; }

It is also possible to define variables with a variable name:

@fnord: "I am fnord."; @var: 'fnord'; content: @@var;

Which compiles to:

content: "I am fnord.";

Note that variables in LESS are actually constants in that they can only be defined once.

Mixins
In LESS, it is possible to include a bunch of properties from one ruleset into another ruleset. So say we have the following class:
.bordered { border-top: dotted 1px black; border-bottom: solid 2px black;
}

And we want to use these properties inside other rulesets. Well, we just have to drop in the name of the class in any ruleset we want to include its properties, like so:
#menu a {

color: #111; .bordered;

}

.post a { color: red; .bordered;

}

The properties of the .bordered class will now appear in both #menu a and .post a:
#menu a { color: #111; border-top: dotted 1px black; border-bottom: solid 2px black;
}

.post a { color: red; border-top: dotted 1px black; border-bottom: solid 2px black;
}

Any CSS class, id or element ruleset can be mixed-in that way.

Parametric Mixins
LESS has a special type of ruleset which can be mixed in like classes, but accepts parameters. Heres the canonical example:
.border-radius (@radius) { border-radius: @radius; -moz-border-radius: @radius; -webkit-border-radius: @radius;

And heres how we can mix it into various rulesets:

#header { .border-radius(4px);
}

.button { .border-radius(6px);
}

Parametric mixins can also have default values for their parameters:
.border-radius (@radius: 5px) { border-radius: @radius; -moz-border-radius: @radius; -webkit-border-radius: @radius;
}

We can invoke it like this now:

#header { .border-radius;
}

And it will include a 5px border-radius. You can also use parametric mixins which dont take parameters. This is useful if you want to hide the ruleset from the CSS output, but want to include its properties in other rulesets:
.wrap () { text-wrap: wrap; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: -moz-pre-wrap; word-wrap: break-word;

pre { .wrap }

Which would output:

pre { text-wrap: wrap; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: -moz-pre-wrap; word-wrap: break-word;
}

The @arguments variable

@arguments has a special meaning inside mixins, it contains all the arguments passed, when the mixin was called. This is useful if you dont want to deal with individual parameters:
.box-shadow (@x: 0, @y: 0, @blur: 1px, @color: #000) { box-shadow: @arguments; -moz-box-shadow: @arguments; -webkit-box-shadow: @arguments;
}

.box-shadow(2px, 5px);

Which results in:

box-shadow: 2px 5px 1px #000; -moz-box-shadow: 2px 5px 1px #000; -webkit-box-shadow: 2px 5px 1px #000;

Nested rules

LESS gives you the ability to use nesting instead of, or in combination with cascading. Lets say we have the following CSS:
#header { color: black; } #header .navigation { font-size: 12px;
}

#header .logo { width: 300px;

}

#header .logo:hover { text-decoration: none;

}

In LESS, we can also write it this way:

#header { color: black;

.navigation { font-size: 12px; } .logo { width: 300px; &:hover { text-decoration: none }

} }

Or this way:
#header .navigation .logo { color: black; { font-size: 12px } { width: 300px;

&:hover
} }

{ text-decoration: none }

The resulting code is more concise, and mimics the structure of your DOM tree. Notice the & combinatorits used when you want a nested selector to be concatinated to its parent selector, instead of acting as a descendent. This is especially important for pseudoclasses like :hover and :focus. For example:
.bordered { &.float { float: left; } .top { margin: 5px;
} }

Will output
.bordered.float { float: left;
}

.bordered .top { margin: 5px;

}

Operations
Any number, color or variable can be operated on. Here are a couple of examples:

@base: 5%; @filler: @base * 2; @other: @base + @filler;

color: #888 / 4; background-color: @base-color + #111; height: 100% / 2 + @filler;

The output is pretty much what you expectLESS understands the difference between colors and units. If a unit is used in an operation, like in:
@var: 1px + 5;

LESS will use that unit for the final output6px in this case. Brackets are also authorized in operations:
width: (@var + 5) * 2;

And are required in compound values:

border: (@width * 2) solid black;

Color functions
LESS provides a variety of functions which transform colors. Colors are first converted to the HSL color-space, and then manipulated at the channel level:
lighten(@color, 10%); *lighter* than @color darken(@color, 10%); than @color // return a color which is 10% // return a color which is 10% *darker*

saturate(@color, 10%); than @color

// return a color 10% *more* saturated

desaturate(@color, 10%); than @color

// return a color 10% *less* saturated

fadein(@color, 10%); transparent than @color fadeout(@color, 10%); transparent than @color

// return a color 10% *less* // return a color 10% *more*

spin(@color, 10); // return a color with a 10 degree larger in hue than @color
spin(@color, -10);

// return a color with a 10 degree

smaller hue than @color

Using them is pretty straightforward:

@base: #f04615;

.class { color: saturate(@base, 5%); background-color: lighten(spin(@base, 8), 25%);

}

You can also extract color information:

hue(@color); // returns the `hue` channel of @color

saturation(@color); // returns the `saturation` channel of @color

lightness(@color);

// returns the 'lightness' channel of @color

This is useful if you want to create a new color based on another colors channel, for example:
@new: hsl(hue(@old), 45%, 90%);

@new will have @olds hue, and its own saturation and lightness.

Namespaces
Sometimes, you may want to group your variables or mixins, for organizational purposes, or just to offer some encapsulation. You can do this pretty intuitively in LESSsay you want to bundle some mixins and variables under #bundle, for later re-use, or for distributing:
#bundle { .button () { display: block; border: 1px solid black; background-color: grey; &:hover { background-color: white } } .tab { ... } .citation { ... }
}

Now if we want to mixin the .button class in our #header a, we can do:
#header a { color: orange; #bundle > .button;
}

Scope
Scope in LESS is very similar to that of programming languages. Variables and mixins are first looked up locally, and if they arent found, the compiler will look in the parent scope, and so on.
@var: red;

#page {

@var: white; #header { color: @var; // white

} }

#footer { color: @var; // red

}

Comments
CSS-style comments are preserved by LESS:
/* Hello, I'm a CSS-style comment */ .class { color: black }

Single-line comments are also valid in LESS, but they are silent, they dont show up in the compiled CSS output:
// Hi, I'm a silent comment, I won't show up in your CSS .class { color: white }

Importing
You can import .less files, and all the variables and mixins in them will be made available to the main file. The .less extension is optional, so both of these are valid:
@import "lib.less"; @import "lib";

If you want to import a CSS file, and dont want LESS to process it, just use the .css extension:

@import "lib.css";

The directive will just be left as is, and end up in the CSS output.

String interpolation
Variables can be embeded inside strings in a similar way to ruby or PHP, with the @{name} construct:
@base-url: "http://assets.fnord.com"; background-image: url("@{base-url}/images/bg.png");

Escaping
Sometimes you might need to output a CSS value which is either not valid CSS syntax, or uses propriatery syntax which LESS doesnt recognize. To output such value, we place it inside a string prefixed with ~, for example:
.class { filter: ~"progid:DXImageTransform.Microsoft.AlphaImageLoader(src='image.p ng')";
}

This is called an escaped value, which will result in:

.class { filter: progid:DXImageTransform.Microsoft.AlphaImageLoader(src='image.png ');
}

JavaScript evaluation

JavaScript expressions can be evaluated as values inside .less files. This is done by wrapping the expression with back-ticks:
@var: `"hello".toUpperCase() + '!'`;

Becomes:
@var: "HELLO!";

Note that you may also use interpolation and escaping as with strings:
@str: "hello"; @var: ~`"@{str}".toUpperCase() + '!'`;

Becomes:
@var: HELLO!;

It is also possible to access the JavaScript environment:

@height: `document.body.clientHeight`;

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