WD2000: What Are Cascading Style Sheets? (235479)

SUMMARY

Cascading style sheets allow Web site authors more control over the appearance and presentation of their Web pages. They extend the ability to precisely specify the location and appearance of elements on a page and create special effects. "Cascading" derives its name from the way a style cascades from the general to the specific. Cascading style sheets contain specific code that the browser interprets and applies to the Web page and Web page elements.

MORE INFORMATION

There are three types of cascading style sheets:

External style sheets
Embedded style sheets
Inline style sheets

External Style Sheets

You can use an external style sheet when you want to apply the same style consistently throughout your Web site. Typically, an external style sheet uses the .css file extension (for example, Mystyle.css). You can edit the .css file in any text editor, such as WordPad or Notepad.

Embedded Style Sheets

You can use an embedded style sheet when you want to define styles only for the open page in Microsoft Word.

Inline Style Sheets

You can use inline style sheet properties when you want to define styles for individual elements of a page.

NOTE: To use the full functionality of cascading style sheets, you need a browser that can support them, such as Microsoft Internet Explorer 4.0 or later. Some browsers only support certain aspects of cascading style sheets. Your results may differ, depending on the browser you are using.

REFERENCES

For more information about cascading style sheets, please see the following article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

235481 WD2000: How to Create Cascading Style Sheets in Word 2000

Microsoft Technical Support does not resolve problems produced by editing the HTML that Word generates. Any HTML code samples are provided as a convenience for authors who want to extend the capabilities of Word. For more information about writing HTML, please see the following Microsoft Web site:

http://www.microsoft.com/workshop/default.htm

For more specific instructions, see the following Web site:

http://msdn.microsoft.com/workshop/c-frame.htm#/workshop/author/default.asp