Hello newcomers! At the start of IT development, it may not be clear which programming language to choose first, but in fact, there is no universal language that will define your career once and for all. Learning a new programming language is like learning another foreign language.
‘What Is CSS: A Beginner’s Guide To Start’ will focus on what CSS is and how to get started learning and working with it. Looking ahead, I want to say that everything is described quite clearly and that’s why the article will help beginners understand this issue. Let’s start from the beginning!
I think you have heard more than once about such a “sweet couple” as HTML and CSS and even perceived them as a whole one. Surprisingly, among people familiar with the basics of HTML, there are not even 10% of those who know what CSS is and know how to use it. HTML and CSS are layout tools. HTML is hypertext markup, and CSS is a tool for creating the appearance of a website.
For example, using CSS, you can change the font color of text, set the background of a page or individual elements, beautifully design lists and tables, and even create interactive elements (animations). Knowledge of this
kind of tool is necessary not only for layout specialists, but also for web designers, content managers, HR and employees of other areas. If you’ve created an HTML site and are actively developing it, you may have one
problem: a design problem. It’s easy to create a new HTML page: just copy the code and paste the new text instead of the old one. It is completely different if you decide to edit the entire site, for example, by changing the
background color, the arrangement of elements or the size of the text. In this case, you will have to edit each page. Of course, a pure HTML site is extremely inconvenient and cumbersome for the web developer. But the solution was found and it is quite simple. Was developed a special programming language that allows you to give a page a certain look without unnecessary HTML-code.
This “design code” could be placed in a separate file, which would be linked to each page of the site. As a result, the owner only had to edit one file to change the design. This language became CSS (“Cascading Style Sheets”). But there is one correction to be made here, this is not a markup language – it is a style sheet language. This means that it allows you to selectively apply styles to elements in HTML documents. For example, to select all paragraph elements on an HTML page and change the text inside them from black to red, you would write this CSS:
p {
color: red;
}
Try pasting these three lines of CSS into a new file in your text editor and then save the file as style.css in your styles folder. But we still need to apply CSS to our HTML document. Otherwise, the CSS styling will not affect how
your browser renders the HTML document. Let’s move on to a cursory look at the anatomy of a CSS rule set. The whole structure consists of some points:
● Selector – The title of the HTML component at the starting of the rule set. It chooses the element(s) to style (in this case, p elements). To style another component, just change the selector.
● Declaration. The only rule, for illustration color: red; demonstrates which of the element’s properties you need to style.
● Properties. There are ways in which you can style a specific HTML element (in this case, color is a property for <p> elements). In CSS, you choose which properties you want to affect in your rule.
● Property value. To the correct of the property, after the colon, we have a property value that picks one of the numerous possible values for that property (there are numerous color values other than red as in our example)
● Each ruleset (except the selector) must be enclosed in curly braces ({}).
● Each declaration must use a colon (:) to separate the property from its values.
● In each ruleset, you must use a semicolon (;) to separate each declaration from the next.
● You’ll be able to select numerous items of different types and apply the same set of rules for all of them. Add different selectors isolated by commas.
● One thing you’ll notice about writing CSS is that a lot of it is about blocks – adjusting their size, color, position, etc. Most HTML elements on a page can be thought of as boxes stacked on top of each other. Not
surprisingly, CSS layout is based primarily on the box model. Each of the blocks that take up space on your page has properties such as: padding, space only around the content (for example, around a paragraph of text); border, a solid line that sits next to the padding; margin, the space around the outside of the element.
I have given just a few basics of working with CSS so that you have an understanding of what you are going to learn. It is recommended that you master CSS after you have learned the basics of the HTML language.
Here’s what to learn about cascading style sheets:
1. Basics of syntax: basic selectors, their properties and values. In words it seems difficult, but in reality it is simple. To know CSS, you need to learn what parameters you can set for different elements on pages.
2. Learn how to position different elements on a page using CSS.
3. Learn what pseudo-classes and combinators are.
4. Explore responsive layout where the page layout adjusts to the user’s screen.
Nobody canceled the fact that the more additional information you know, the better, so I recommend mastering: preprocessors; frameworks, especially Bootstrap – this is a ready-made solution on the basis of which you can
quickly create a layout for a new site; managing transformations, transitions and animations; how to properly structure your code so that it can be maintained.
How to start learning CSS?
● Begin with the simplest tutorial or site for newbies. If you’ve found step- by-step instructions, this would be ideal. It is also very important to remember that without a good theoretical base, you cannot get started.
● After you have mastered all the CSS material, start practicing. The more practice the better. Here you will need a text editor, PSD layouts and, of course, patience and perseverance. You can use any text editor you like. I will highlight the following: Sublime Text, Atom, Visual Studio Code. You can easily find free PSD layouts on Google.
● Free online task books help you quickly learn CSS on your own. They contain various layout tasks of different complexity levels. Practice and learn new tags faster.
● You can also take a course. Under the guidance of experienced mentors, it is faster and easier to learn because there are people to ask questions and get help.
● Don’t give up if something seems difficult to you. Look for information in various sources. It happens that on one site something is written incomprehensibly, but on the other – everything is clear and simple.
● Don’ worry if things don’t work out. The main thing is not to give up what you started, then everything will definitely work out.
What to do next after mastering HTML and CSS?
As you learn markup language and style sheets, I recommend learning JavaScript. It is a programming language that allows you to create various interactive elements on a page, as well as use AJAX technology. With its help, you can refresh parts of pages without reloading, which significantly speeds up interaction with the site. An example of AJAX implementation is endless loading of new information in the news feed. Knowing markup and
JavaScript, you can become a beginner frontend developer and get a high- paying job in a web studio or complete freelance orders.
Conclusion
Thanks for reading the article ‘What Is CSS: A Beginner’s Guide To Start’! I want to remind you once again that the more practice you have, the faster you will learn all the pitfalls and just get your hands on it. Download PSD layouts and try to work. Believe me, everyone has such a moment: “nothing works, I’ll give up everything and do something else,” but don’t give in to this, finish what you started. The world of web development is very wide, and becoming a CSS developer is just the beginning. Good luck and happy learning!