Home : Assignments : CSS Standards

I first started designing Web pages when I was in high school. My junior year, my teacher had us go through an entire book of HTML exercises. I learned how to do layouts with tables, and how to cheat in order to get the page to look the way I wanted it to look. I wasn’t even aware that CSS existed until my senior year of high school when I happened to attend a presentation about it for an FBLA activity. I had no idea how to implement it or why it was even necessary. CSS seemed unimportant and terribly confusing.

Thankfully, I’ve been converted to using CSS for all of my design on my Web pages since starting school at Brigham Young University-Idaho and being exposed to what CSS truly is. The standards set forth by CSS 2.1 have made my pages more accessible, and have also enabled me to do more than I was able to do through straight HTML. There are so many properties to explore in CSS 2.1 and the upcoming CSS 3.0 that it’s quite exciting. I want to be able to stay at the forefront of CSS.

However, I was not aware of the depth of the issues supporting CSS has on Web browsers. I knew that there was a difference between the way that Mozilla Firefox rendered sites and the way that Internet Explorer did, but I didn’t quite understand that was due to the fact that not all browsers support the current standards. Using CSS means that the web designer is automatically excluding those who have older browsers. While that seems as though it is an unlikely scenario for those who are tech-savvy, I happen to know that a lot of people hate change with their computers. So long as the computer works, they’re pleased to keep the status quo. Which means that they cannot see the visually pleasing layouts rendered by CSS. Or, if they can, they see it in ways that the designer didn’t intend for it to be displayed because of the difference between how one browser displays a rule and how another does. According to WestCiv’s Web site, there are quite a lot of browsers that don’t support even the “basic” coding of CSS, which means that fonts appear unusual and the divs are in the wrong spots.  Which can make it extremely and confusing for the average Web user, to put it simply. That’s why a text-only version of a website is probably a good option if one is catering more towards those who have older browsers. Technology can be a handicap, depending on what level one has with it.

It’s great that Microsoft is now becoming one of the leading companies incorporating the newest CSS standards. I never thought that Internet Explorer would be able to pass the Acid2 test. While it is shocking, it’s also a step in the right direction. Since Microsoft plays such an important part in the market (as there are a lot of people who use Windows and have no idea that there are different browsers available), the fact that they’re striving to be at the forefront of incorporating new technology will encourage other browsers to do the same. It is a capitalist market, after all, and if there is a group willing to go above and beyond, the other groups will have to catch up in order to keep a fairly good share of the market. Which means that web designers need to stay at the forefront of CSS design and implementation. There are all sorts of new ideas being developed for CSS3 to create more pleasing as well as more functional Web sites. And, as a future developer, it’s important for me to be able to use these new functions that are supported by a widest variety of browsers possible.

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