Styling the Document - Page 2

Basically, we have two main tasks ahead of us:

• To make the page look like it did when it relied on HTML-based presentation

• To push the icons to a new level of visual effect by applying some creative CSS to them

Getting Back to Square One

Before we get down 'n' dirty with the links, let's quickly reproduce the original basic design look in CSS. Because we have the HTML file to guide us, we can just rewrite the styles to match what we had before (see Figure 4.3).

<style type="text/css">
body {background: #CEC; color: black;}
td#navbuttons {background: #ACA; padding: 0;
  border: 2px solid #797;}
td#main {background: #FFD; color: black;
  border: 2px solid #797;}
</style>

Figure 4.3
The first step in re-creating the basic design.a

The space between the two cells is now 4 pixels thick, thanks to the fact that there are two adjacent borders and each is 2px thick. We need to reduce one of them to zero or both to be 1 pixel wide. Let's try the latter:

td#navbuttons {background: #ACA; padding: 0;
  border: 2px solid #797; border-width: 2px 1px 2px 2px;}
td#main {background: #FFD; color: black;
  border: 2px solid #797; border-width: 2px 2px 2px 1px;}

---

Alternate Border Effects

We also could have created the borders around the cells by setting a background color for the table itself and then setting a value (such as 2) for the cellspacing attribute. Although this approach works in some cases, it also tends to rob the designer of flexibility because it enforces a single padding on all cells instead of allowing different amounts of padding on different cells. That's why we're avoiding it here.

---

We should also set the vertical and horizontal alignment of the content within the cells. We know that both the icons and the text should be aligned to the top of their table cells, and the icons ought to be center aligned within their cells (see Figure 4.4). Thus:

body {background: #CEC; color: black;}
table#inform td {vertical-align: top;}
td#navbuttons {background: #ACA; padding: 0;
  border: 2px solid #797; border-width: 2px 1px 2px 2px;
  text-align: center;}

Figure 4.4
Everything's back (more or less) to where we started.

The only thing left to do would be to reproduce the effect of the attribute cellpadding="5" in the original file. We could do that with padding, but we're going to put it off until later when we have a better idea of how the layout might be affected by padding on the cells.

Upgrading the Title

Before we get to the links, we need to make the title fit in with the rest of the design. The design department, you might recall, suggested that we eliminate the space between the text and the table (see Figure 4.5). They probably meant that we should set the bottom margin to zero, but let's take them literally at their word:

body {background: #CEC; color: black;}
h1 {margin-bottom: -0.25em;}
table#inform td {vertical-align: top;}

Figure 4.5
Get rid of the space between text and table? You got it!

It still doesn't fit in too well, so let's change the color to match the medium-green borders and also switch it to be a sans-serif font. While we're in the area, we'll also boldface it and make sure it's twice the normal text size.

body {background: #CEC; color: black;}
h1 {margin-bottom: -0.25em;
  font: bold 200% Arial, sans-serif; color: #797;}
table#inform td {vertical-align: top;}

There's one more thing that would make this work even better, and that's a thicker top border on the table. Let's make it easy and just add the border to the table itself instead of messing with the table cells (see Figure 4.6).

h1 {margin-bottom: -0.25em;
  font: bold 200% Arial, sans-serif; color: #797;}
table#inform td {vertical-align: top; border-top: 3px solid #797;}

Now it looks like the title is rising from the border itself or maybe was carved out of the same stuff. Whatever visual metaphor it invokes, it's an interesting effect. We'll keep it and see what the client thinks.

Figure 4.6
Making the title part of the organic whole.

Eric Meyer on CSS: Mastering the Language of Web Design
Eric Meyer on CSS: Mastering the Language of Web Design
The Icons - Page 3