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CSS Design Process?

Sent by Zoe M. Gillenwater on 29 September 2004 12:12


Jeff Chastain wrote:

>I am fairly new to CSS and have unfortunately picked a rather large 
>application to learn on.  The end goal is for this application to be 
>completely skinnable, so I am trying to do as much of the layout and design 
>using CSS as possible.  The problem I am running into is that my stylesheet 
>has gotten to be almost 1000 lines long and I am nowhere near complete.  It is 
>already getting difficult to navigate and I am running into inheritance issues.
>  
>

I can't tell without seeting your style sheet and pages, but there may 
be ways to streamline your CSS.  Use descendant selectors as much as 
possible and use classes only as a last resort.  You can also group 
related selectors and use shorthand properties.  Also, to help you 
navigate, divide your styles into sections like Global Elements, Lists, 
Tables, Images, etc.  Or, divide your style sheet into multiple sheets 
if you prefer.

You may already be doing of all of this -- this is just some general 
advice I can offer without seeing your page.

>So, is there a recommended design process for styling a large application?  
>How does one map out all of the styles and inheritance?
>
>Before writing an application, I am using to doing wireframe designs and 
>modeling out the entire application before I really start coding.  Is there 
>any suggested process for 'modeling' the CSS?
>  
>

I don't have any specific process for a large application, though others 
might.  The main thing I would emphasize would be to build the site 
semantically first and not worry too much about style, then go back and 
add the CSS.  With a good structure in place it is much easier to create 
streamlined CSS.

Good luck,

Zoe

-- 
Zoe M. Gillenwater
Design Specialist
Highway Safety Research Center
http://www.hsrc.unc.edu

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