Style Sheets (.CSS files)

Style sheets are forms which define how HTML elements display on a web page. You can recognize style sheet files as their names end with the .css extension (".css" stands for Cascading Style Sheet.). It is very important that style sheet links not be removed from course documents, and that style sheet files not be removed from the manage files area of your course.

Style sheet files in Manage files

A style sheet link (highlighted) in the HTML code of a course document

These types of files are referred to as external style sheets because they operate from outside of a web page rather than internally, as do HTML tags. In other words, the web page links to the style sheet file, so much less information is required to be put into the page with HTML tags.

Style sheets indicate to browsers how different HTML elements, such as text color, headers and links, should appear on a web page and thus how the page will look on the screen. For example, style sheets can designate that the web page’s background will be white, the text color will be blue, and the text font used will be Verdana, size 2. Style sheets are useful because you can use the same style-sheet file for many different web documents.

Style sheets were initiated by the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C), which also sets the standards for HTML. External style sheets enable you to change the appearance and layout of all the pages in your web, just by editing a single .CSS document.

At CCCOnline, we use a variety of style sheets to provide consistency to the look of our pages and courses. If you are developing a new course, you will need to work with your Instructional Designer to be certain your documents utilize the proper style sheets.