CSS to use or not?

[kathleen]

[Tom Fosson]

[Guest]

[quote="Tom Fosson]Hi Kat,

I'm sure you're aware of the labor saving benefits of using SSI (Server Side Include) files - how you can change something common to many pages (even thousands) such as a navigation menu by just changing one single file.

[/quote]

I'm embarrased to admit it but the only thing I know about SSI is the tibits and passing comments that I've seen from others here. I don't know much of anything about it, and have not used it.

Tom, thanks so much for the links, I will be sure to check them out. If you have any on SSI that you could pass on, I'd appreciate that as well.

Are there any downsides or reasons NOT to use CSS or SSI? (all these letters are starting to make me dizzy )

Kathleen

[Tom Fosson]

[Tom Fosson]

Oh yes, I forgot to mention one 'downside' in using SSI - at least, many consider it a 'downside'. That's the inability of a browser to view the SSI file from your hard disk without installing an Apache Server.

Most web designers are under the mistaken impression that without the Apache Server installed under Windows, one would have to upload the SSI file to the server and view it from there.

That assumption is, however, just plain wrong!

All you need is a small, insignificant little utility that rides almost unnoticably inside your System Tray (if you choose to let it load at startup the way I do.) It's called "SHTML Viewer" and is available as 'freeware' from . It will convert your SSI to a temporary htm file and display it in your browser without having to be online or have Apache Server installed.

It's gotta be the greatest invention since sliced bread! At least, it saves me a lot of frustrations.

I hope you get some use out of that little tip!

Cheers,
Tom

[kidino]

[kathleen]

WOW thanks Tom and Kidino! Your explinations really helped to clear up all those "letters" I kept seeing but not really understanding. Looks as if I have quite a bit of homework to do to try and learn about these things.

Moving upward and onward, first basic website design, then affiliate marketing, now CSS and SSI, soon I'll be a real pro!!

Kathleen

[kidino]

[Sandra]

Yes, for all the reasons these guys said!

It just makes page creation so much easier. You don't have to keep editing text tags. You don't have to worry that text is uniform across the page(s), b/c with CSS you KNOW it is.

You can also specify a certain font, style and size for your H1, H2, etc. tags, so when you want a certain look, just use one of those tags.

[kathleen]

One More question, ok there will probably be more than one before I'm done here, but one more for now-- Is there any reason you can't use these two things together? SSI and CSS I mean.

I've found a great easy to follow tutorial here: and think I have a decent handle on CSS and also think I know enough about SSI to give it a try, and I couldn't see a reason you couldn't do both but I thought I'd check here first and make sure before I went to all the work.

Kathleen

[Tom Fosson]