[pmwiki-users] Suggestions

[marc]

Sandy said...
> Mark Trumpold wrote:
> > Hi All
> > 
> > I am now getting to the stage of my wiki site to NOW learn css and skin
> > producing. 
> > 
> > Any suggestions on how to get started or a good resource
> > 
> > Thanks
> > 
> > Mark
> 
> More or less random ideas.
> 
> Start with crayons and paper thumbnails.

:-)

> www.colourlovers.ca for colours. (Set timer so you don't spend all day 
> there.)

Did you mean:

   http://www.colourlovers.com/

Ah! A site that spells correctly :-) But strange.
 
> http://www.w3schools.com for quick reference of all things HTML and CSS.

I also think that Rachel Andrew's 'The CSS Anthology' is worth a look. 
It won't teach you CSS, but you'll absorb it while creating stuff that 
works. And that's never a bad thing. I like stuff that works.
 
> ColorZilla and WebDeveloper extensions for FireFox. WebDeveloper shows 
> you how things are nesting in CSS -- very good when wondering why a 
> style isn't applying. Inheritance can get nasty. Also nice when 
> fine-tuning the CSS.

WebDeveloper is superb. It has saved me hours, perhaps days of effort. 
But, as you suggest, it's also very useful as an educational tool. 
Ctrl+Shift+F and Ctrl+Shift+Y are probably my most used key commands in 
FF.

ColorZilla is also very useful.

> Tables are not evil.

When used in the right places. Namely, for tables.

> It's much easier to do the overall layout with tables than CSS.

I couldn't disagree more. (Americans probably say: "I could disagree 
more".)

CSS is w-a-y more flexible and easier to configure than using tables, 
However, it does take a reasonable understanding of CSS. It also 
requires a little knowledge of how to circumvent the myriad bugs in IE6 
and friends. What larks!

There's also the practical point that tables for layout are typically 
very unfriendly from an accessibility POV. With accessibility becoming 
an increasingly bigger issue, it's simpler to avoid the problems and do 
things the right way - and CSS is the right way - from the outset.

There are innumerable issues with creating table layouts too, don't 
forget.

> The style="..." HTML attribute is your friend while fine-tuning.

Much better to keep things in CSS files, imo. Though, style= off the 
PmWiki page, is not to be sniffed at.

-- 
Cheers,
Marc