More CSS
Layouts Revisited
Layout by way of css and organization of html via <div>\, <span>, and the many other elements that are readily available to craft and finetune a webpage is becoming more apparent. Since last I read this, the <div> tag’s important in specific is becoming more apparent to control the spaces that elements take. I can’t fully control them yet, but between the available settings to place elements with position:static (by designating a certain width), relative (by using percentages pixels, or em), absolute, and fixed, as well with the z-index: and the float (and the float-width property) couples with the clear: left, right, both, and none, there are enough options to work. Border and alpha are other ways to further stylize and shape webpages.
I envision the ability to create a clean and proper fixed width layout with our immediately available tools, although with float: properties and sizing, a clean looking layout of grids is possible (pp 381-396). The chapter finishes off discussing various methods to have a ready-made and clean looking layouts, mentioning fixed and liquid layouts (and their respective merits and downsides, as the former gives the designer more control, but are likely not the best experience for many of today’s myriad screen sizes, while the latter is more responsive but comes at the cost of looking bad due to a user’s settings), example grids of layout grids, with more pages dedicated to explaining the “960.gs” grid. The css for the grids can be downloaded here.
Paul O’Brien (2020-06-09)