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General discussion

Beginner Web Coder w/ Basic Text Site. Should I learn CSS?

Oct 30, 2007 11:41AM PDT

Hi there!

I have a basic text-based website which I use as basically an online journal.

I used the most basic html to make the site, and it is fine.

I would like to organize it some more though.

Do you guys/girls think I should invest the time to learn CSS?
Does it really help a lot with organizing content?

It would take me a good while to learn I imagine so I would just like to get the opinion of some experienced web coders to see if it is worth my investment.

Should I just stick to html?
Should I learn xhtml instead?
How about xml?

If you would like to view my site (grade school simplicity) it is :
http://members.shaw.ca/davidjuliowang

I spend most of my time thinking.
I guess you could call me a philosopher.
I'm using the webpage kind of like an online coles notes to help remind me of my personal code of beliefs.
If other people find stuff I say interesting, that makes me very happy.
I like to know I'm appreciated.

The website is very important to me and I am willing to invest a lot of time into making it very functional.

So, where do you guys/girls think I should direct my efforts?

Thanks, with great sincerity and humility, for your time and consideration.

David.

Discussion is locked

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CSS is needed for every Web Designer
Nov 21, 2007 9:39AM PST
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Yes, and then some
Nov 21, 2007 12:46PM PST

David,

In all honesty I recommend that you DO learn CSS. If you plan to use more advanced organizational concepts, and want your page to be X(HTML) valid I recommend that you user CSS.

Also, in regards to XHTML:
I recommend that you learn this too. As the web continues to develop XHTML is pretty much leading the way. While XHTML is more or so for PHP, etc. it is still very powerful, and can give you some static control for what you want to do.

Ultimately, it all depends on what you're doing. I think that CSS is essential to any web designer / engineer / coder to know. As long as you know and understand what you're doing as far as HTML and XHTML go you're good.

Hope this helps!!

-Richard Escobedo
http://richard-escobedo.com

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Absolutely CSS
Nov 22, 2007 2:21AM PST

You should also be using an HTML strict doctype (not XHTML unless you're actually trying to serve XML as HTML), use CSS positioning for the layout instead of tables (tables are for tabular data) - and always make sure you validate.