2 css questions

[Alexander Ross]

1) I have a .css file for a site I'm working on and it keeps growing and
growing and its getting harder and harder to find things and stay organized.
Other than seperating things out into 2 .css files, are there any strategies
for organizing and keeping straight these big css files?

2) This question is counter-intuitive by its very nature, but humor me for a
second... Can you use variables in a .css file. Here is why I'd want to: On
my site I use (primarily) 3 different colors. These appear as td background
colors, as text colors and link colors, as colors for H tags, etc... Lots of
places! Wouldn't it be nice if at the top of my css file I could have :

var color1: #FFFFFF
var color2: #990000
var color3: #CCCCCC

Then later in my sheet I can just set things to "color1". This way if I want
to change my color scheme, its EASY.

Thanks
--
Alexander Ross
[email]alexross@bleen.net[/email]

[darrel]

> are there any strategies

> for organizing and keeping straight these big css files?

1) Don't have DW write your CSS for you (that can get messy).

2) Understand how CSS cascades. You probably have a lot of redundant classes
and styles in your style sheet.

> 2) This question is counter-intuitive by its very nature, but humor me for

a

> second... Can you use variables in a .css file.

Yes...to an extent. I believe this is a CSS3 feature, which, I don't think,
any browsers fully support, though I think Moz can handle a few things.
Wouldn't it be nice if at the top of my css file I could have :

> var color1: #FFFFFF
> var color2: #990000
> var color3: #CCCCCC
>
> Then later in my sheet I can just set things to "color1". This way if I

want

> to change my color scheme, its EASY.

Oh...THAT kind of variable. Hmm...interesting idea, though, again, with the
cascade, it's not that hard to spec those colors once and just change that
one color.

-Darrel

[P@tty *TWB*]

>... are there any strategies
> for organizing and keeping straight these big css files?

If you have (or can get) TopStyle, its "Style Sweeper" is great for
neatening up style sheets. It automatically groups all the selectors by
type, and then alphabetically, and formats the rules all nice and neat.
Might be a start, at least! :-)

> 2) This question is counter-intuitive by its very nature, but humor me for

a

> second... Can you use variables in a .css file.

To the best of my knowledge, you can't use variables in an *external* style
sheet, but you can definitely use them in a document style sheet
(<style></style>) within an HTML (or XHTML) page.

Hope that might help.

--
P@tty Ayers
[url]http://www.WebDevBiz.com[/url]
Professional Web Business Tools:
Web Design Contract, Estimate Worksheet, and more
--

[markinoregon]

Where is a CSS Style switcher extension?
I don't think I have that one,,,,hmmm,,,

--
markinoregon
Website under construction as allways!
[url]www.markthesteelhead.com[/url]
"Capt. Verde" <steve@capt-verde.net> wrote in message
news:bg3gl6$bc3$1@forums.macromedia.com...

> Why not create a CSS sheet for each color scheme and if and when you want

to change it just call out for the different color scheme CSS sheet, you can
even use a extension to allow users to switch which CSS sheet they want to
load to give a appearance they like.

>
> Always remember, no matter where ya go....there ya are!

[David Powers]

P@tty *TWB* wrote:

>> ... are there any strategies
>> for organizing and keeping straight these big css files?

>
> If you have (or can get) TopStyle, its "Style Sweeper" is great for
> neatening up style sheets. It automatically groups all the selectors
> by type, and then alphabetically, and formats the rules all nice and
> neat. Might be a start, at least! :-)

I agree. TopStyle is excellent for keeping things in order. You can also get
10% off by following the link in my sig.

The best strategy for keeping CSS files manageable, though, is to build
stylesheets that make full use of the cascade. I've seen dozens of
stylesheets where the font-family and size is conscientiously repeated for
just about every element on a page. Setting the defaults in the body style
eliminates the need to do that. Then all you need to do is create styles for
elements you want to override the default. The same for colours. Also make
full use of the shorthand properties, such as border, rather than
border-right, border-left, border-top, border-bottom.

Learning how to use the cascade efficiently takes time (I used to write
repetitive rules myself, and I'm sure many are left in my sites), but it
makes things a lot easier in the end.

--
David Powers
*******************************************
No-nonsense reviews of computer books
[url]http://japan-interface.co.uk/webdesign/books.html[/url]
Save 10% on TopStyle CSS Editor
*******************************************

[Capt. Verde]

Kaosweaver has a great one too...it lets you put some links on a page and associate each one with a certain CSS style sheet that when clicked loads that particular style sheet and change the appearance.

Always remember, no matter where ya go....there ya are!

[Eric A. Meyer]

In article <bg3fli$98e$1@forums.macromedia.com>,
"P@tty *TWB*" <payers@NOSPAMnc.rr.com> wrote:

> > 2) This question is counter-intuitive by its very nature, but humor me for
> > a second... Can you use variables in a .css file.

>
> To the best of my knowledge, you can't use variables in an *external* style
> sheet, but you can definitely use them in a document style sheet
> (<style></style>) within an HTML (or XHTML) page.

How so?

--
Eric A. Meyer
[url]http://www.meyerweb.com/eric/[/url]

[middletree]

I don't usually bottom-post, but I did this time. Please see below:

"Alexander Ross" <alexross@bleen.net> wrote in message
news:bg3dc7$4he$1@forums.macromedia.com...

> 2) This question is counter-intuitive by its very nature, but humor me for

a

> second... Can you use variables in a .css file. Here is why I'd want to:

On

> my site I use (primarily) 3 different colors. These appear as td

background

> colors, as text colors and link colors, as colors for H tags, etc... Lots

of

> places! Wouldn't it be nice if at the top of my css file I could have :
>
> var color1: #FFFFFF
> var color2: #990000
> var color3: #CCCCCC
>
> Then later in my sheet I can just set things to "color1". This way if I

want

> to change my color scheme, its EASY.

This is very possible, at least the way I did it. I'm using ASP. At the top
of all my ASP pages, I have an include which calls a little page called
colors.asp. It contains stuff like:
textcolor1="#123456"
bgcolor1="#000000"

Then, in the external css, I have

..maintitle {
color: <%=textcolor1%>
background-color: <%=bgcolor1%>
}

It's been a big help, and when the boss told me to change the color scheme
of the whole web-based app I am writing,, it was very easy to do, easier
than just using CSS.

It's by far the most helpful, creative thing I have ever come up with by
myself.

[irvin]

"Alexander Ross" <alexross@bleen.net> wrote in message
news:bg3dc7$4he$1@forums.macromedia.com...

> . Can you use variables in a .css file. Here is why I'd want to: On
> my site I use (primarily) 3 different colors. These appear as td

background

> colors, as text colors and link colors, as colors for H tags, etc... Lots

of

> places! Wouldn't it be nice if at the top of my css file I could have :
>
> var color1: #FFFFFF
> var color2: #990000
> var color3: #CCCCCC

Yes, it is possible. At least with Coldfusion (don't know about ASP, PHP,
etc).

I explain the method on another post in this thread.


--
irvin
----------------------------------------
[url]http://www.pixel69.com[/url]

[Gary White]

On Mon, 28 Jul 2003 17:14:42 -0400, "P@tty *TWB*"
<payers@NOSPAMnc.rr.com> wrote:

>At least with CF, by putting the variables right into the style rule.. I'm
>trying to find the CF book where I saw it done, but it seemed pretty
>straightforward. Is there something about that that you know to not be
>do-able?

You can do it with any server side scripting language. I don't know
anything about CF, but in PHP, it might look like this:

<?php
$bcolor="#ff0000";
$fcolor="#ffffff";
?>

<style type="text/css">
<!--
body {
background-color: <?=$bcolor?>;
color: <?=$fcolor?>;
-->
</style>

I suppose ASP could look like this:

<%
bcolor="#ff0000";
fcolor="#ffffff";
%>

<style type="text/css">
<!--
body {
background-color: <%=bcolor%>;
color: <%=fcolor%>;
-->
</style>


Gary

[Al Sparber- PVII]

It can be done with any server technology. Eric was probably thinking about
it being done client-side in the css.

--
Al

> At least with CF, by putting the variables right into the style rule.. I'm
> trying to find the CF book where I saw it done, but it seemed pretty
> straightforward. Is there something about that that you know to not be
> do-able?
>
> --
> P@tty Ayers
> [url]http://www.WebDevBiz.com[/url]
> Professional Web Business Tools:
> Web Design Contract, Estimate Worksheet, and more
> --
>
>