Template or CSS style sheet

Which is the better way to start a website from scratch?
1. To make a comprehensive Template with lots of CSS rules and then base all the other pages on the template OR
2. Make individual pages and apply external CSS styles to each page?
I'm really confused about how to structure my website. I've looked at a lot of tutorials on how to build all these separate elements but I'm having a hard time visualizing an overall structure.

Adding to Nancy's comments and with the knowledge that you are a newbie, I would suggest that you start with a single page first, called index.html.
Start with the markup (HTML) first as per
1. ensure that you start with the proper document structure
<!doctype html>
<html>
<head>
<meta charset="utf-8">
<title>My Title</title>
<meta name="description" content="">
<meta name="author" content="">
<link rel="stylesheet" href="css/style.css">
</head>
<body>
</body>
</html>
2. Enter the content into the BODY element
<div class="header">
    <h1>Company Name</h1>
<div class="nav">
      <ul>
      <li><a href="#">Blog</a></li>
      <li><a href="#">About</a></li>
      <li><a href="#">Archives</a></li>
      <li><a href="#">Contact</a></li>
      <li><a href="#">Subscribe via. RSS</a></li>
    </ul>
</div>
</div>
<div class="article">
<h2>Article</h2>
<p>Eu fugiat nulla pariatur. Velit esse cillum dolore ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat. Duis aute irure dolor qui officia deserunt sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt. Ut labore et dolore magna aliqua.</p>
</div>
<div class="aside">
<h3>Did you know?</h3>
<p>Eu fugiat nulla pariatur. Velit esse cillum dolore ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat. </p>
<div class="footer">
<h4>© Comapny name</h4>
</div>
3. View in your favourite browser and you will see that it looks horrible. It needs some styling.
4. Create a file in a css subdirectory called style.css
5. In style.css start with browser reset rules as per http://meyerweb.com/eric/tools/css/reset/. This will help to ensure that you don't have browser problems down the track.
6. Enter a few style rules into the CSS file
body {
    width: 1000px;
    margin: auto;
.header {
    height: 120px;
    background: #063;
.header h1 {
    color: silver;
.nav {
    background: darkgray;
    height: 35px;
.nav ul li {
    position: relative;
    text-align: left;
    width: 10em;
    float: left;
.nav ul a {
    display: block;
    background-color: darkgray;
    padding: 0.5em 0.75em;
    color: white;
    text-decoration: none;
I did not finish the CSS, leaving it up to your imagination.
The above is the workflow that I would suggest for all newbies. At each stage, check in the browser to see the effect of the addition/change/deletion.

Similar Messages

Template with CSS style sheet attached, not updating in pages

It shows when I look at it in a browser but its not updating in page view. Also not updating image links of style sheets.
I am a developer for a long time. I know dreamweaver and how to do this. Its a bug I think. But need need to know what I can do to get this fixed.

webgirlfl wrote:
It shows when I look at it in a browser but its not updating in page view.
Do you mean it's not showing in Design View?
This could be caused by errors in your code. DW's Design View is very unforgiving of even small errors that the browsers handle with ease.
Check your template page against these validators and clean out any errors...
HTML: http://validator.w3.org/
CSS: http://jigsaw.w3.org/css-validator/
Is the css that the template is attached to embedded within the template's <head>, an external .css file or inline css?
Is any of the non-updating css in editable regions?

How to bring Sample CSS Style Sheets into a Template?

I am creating a site from scratch using CS4 Template. Can I incorporate more than one DW Sample CSS Style Sheet? And how do I bring them into the Template site?
Thanks, g

Thank you. I added the 3 sample css style sheets I want to use into my site. Now I am trying to bring a different sample css into different sections of the layout. Example:
Sidebar 1: green/yellow
Sidebar 2: red/yellow
Middle: blue/yellow
I seem to only be able to have one for the whole page. Is this true?
What I am doing is clicking on the div tag: <div.sidebar#sidebar1>, then "Edit CSS" and then scroll down in the Class window to "attach style sheet" and there at the bottom is a link to the sample css style sheets. I click on the one I want and it changes the css for the whole page not just the sidebar 1. Is there a way I can get a different css sample style sheet for each sidebar in a 3 column layout, and a different sample css for the middle?
thank you very much

Using custom CSS style sheet

I'm trying to use a custom CSS style sheet and can't get it to work. I've created my stylesheet and uploaded it so it shows under Shared Components >> Cascading Style Sheets.
Viewing the source for my pages currently shows a reference to what I guess is the default style sheet -
<link rel="stylesheet" href="/i/css/apex_3_1.css" type="text/css" />But no reference to the one I uploaded. So I guess I need to add a new reference pointing to my sheet.
So questions would be -
- How and where do I add this reference?
- Is this the correct way to do things if I want to use my own styles?

Antilles,
Go to your Shared Components > Temples > Select the page template you wish to apply your CSS to and in the "Header" area you will see references to the APEX CSS, something like,
<link rel="stylesheet" href="#IMAGE_PREFIX#themes/theme_17/theme_3_1.css" type="text/css" />Now, just add your CSS reference after any APEX CSS references.
Hope this helps.
-Chris

Unexpected error when linking CSS style-sheet

I have been working on this site for over a month now. I have
a linked external CSS style sheet and everything has been working
seamlessly between Dreamweaver and the web. Today, I tried to
create a template and then disliked it, so I deleted it. After
doing that, my CSS rules were no longer displaying properly EVEN
THOUGH my formatting and everything has remained the same.
I have a feeling there is something cached behind the scenes
that is messing this all up. Community assistance is greatly
appreciated. This is not the first time I've been unable link a CSS
stylesheet.

upload the page and post a link, please.
Murray --- ICQ 71997575
Adobe Community Expert
(If you *MUST* email me, don't LAUGH when you do so!)
==================
http://www.dreamweavermx-templates.com
- Template Triage!
http://www.projectseven.com/go
- DW FAQs, Tutorials & Resources
http://www.dwfaq.com - DW FAQs,
Tutorials & Resources
http://www.macromedia.com/support/search/
- Macromedia (MM) Technotes
==================
"rausch_g" <[email protected]> wrote in
message
news:f7im8a$7u4$[email protected]..
> This is not a display issue with the toolbar. There is
clearly a
> stylesheet
> attached in the header; however, in Dreamweaver when I
look in the
> "properties"
> panel while in CODE VIEW, it says there are no styles
and no attached
> style
> sheet. When I try to attach my style sheet, it says, "An
unexpected error
> occured while trying to read style-sheet information."
There are no
> errors on
> my style sheet, so I am unsure how to fix this.
>

Trouble attaching css style sheet in DW MX

Trouble attaching css style sheet in DW MX (NOT DW MX 4)
I am currently using Dreamweaver MX , and for some reason, in
design view, the style sheet does not attach (a least I can't see
the change). My divs, and images are all stuck to the upper left
corner, as though it were not attached.
A friend told me it was because I have MX and Not MX 4 , does
this matter?

<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01
Transitional//EN"
http://www.w3.org/TR/html4/loose.dtd">
<html>
<head>
<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html;
charset=iso-8859-1">

<title>Schedules</title>



<link href="styles.css" rel="stylesheet"
type="text/css">
<script language="JavaScript" type="text/JavaScript">

</script>
</head>
<body
onLoad="MM_preloadImages('images/leaguehistory2.gif','images/eventscalendar2.gif','images /community2.gif','images/allovflteam2.gif','images/sponsorship2.gif','images/contacts2.gif ','images/forms2.gif','images/links2.gif','images/join2.gif','images/photogallery2.gif')">
<div id="container2">
<div id="top_nav">
<div id="ovfl_nav">
<form name="ovfl" class="left_topnav">
<img src="images/ovfl.gif" width="51" height="14">
<select
style="font-size:10px;color:#000000;font-family:arial,
helvetica;background-color:#ffffff;" name="menu"
onChange="window.open(document.ovfl.menu.options[document.ovfl.menu.selectedIndex].value) ;">
<option value=''>OVFL SITES</option>
<option value="
http://www.ovflfootball.org">OVFL
Football Site</option>
</select>
</form>
</div>
<div id="afc_nav">
<form name="afc" class="topnav">
<img src="images/afc.gif" width="44" height="14">
<select name="menu"
style="font-size:10px;color:#000000;font-family:arial,
helvetica;background-color:#ffffff;"
onChange="window.open(document.afc.menu.options[document.afc.menu.selectedIndex].value);" >
<option value=''>AFC TEAMS</option>
<option value="
http://www.columbusblackhawks.com">Blackhawks</option>
<option value="
http://www.eteamz.active.com/WVCrash/index.cfm">Crash</option>
<option value="
http://">Flames</option>
<option value="
http://www.cincinnatigamblers.com/HOME.html">Gamblers</option>
<option value="
http://www.wkpunishers.org">Punishers</option>
<option value="
http://www.circlecitysoldiers.com">Soldiers</option>
<option value="
http://theohiostorm.tripod.com/id4.html">Storm</option>
<option value="
http://www.derbycitythunder.com">Thunder</option>
<option value="
http://eteamz.active.com/MarionWolfpack">Wolfpack</option>
<option value="
http://hardincountywolverines.com">Wolverines</option>
</select>
</form>
</div>
<div id="nfc_nav">
<form name="nfc" class="topnav">
<img src="images/nfc.gif" width="45" height="14">
<select name="menu"
style="font-size:10px;color:#000000;font-family:arial,
helvetica;background-color:#ffffff;"
onChange="window.open(document.nfc.menu.options[document.nfc.menu.selectedIndex].value);" >

Safari 5.0.3 not loading CSS style sheets 1st time through

When I go to my ecommerce site's https payment screen, the page HTML loads OK but the formatting is missing (so the screen is really messed up). If I hit the page re-load function the page re-loads with all the formatting corrected. It behaves the same with both the Mac and Widows versions of Safari 5.0.3. The problem did not occur on earlier versions of Safari (i.e., the Mac I use for testing the site worked perfectly on the now problematic page until I upgraded to the latest version of Safari).
The problematic page works fine with all the other browsers that I have tried (IE7, IE8, Firefox, Chrome)
My guess is that it has something to do with some @import url("css style sheet") directives that are imbedded at the beginning of the master style sheet for the page.
This problem will stop all Safari 5.0.3 users from navigating our site so it is quite serious.
Any help on this issues would be greatly appreciated.

Further investigation has revealed that the following error message is being generated within Safari during the first time the that the page is loading,
"Refused to load from document base URL. URL found within request."
The <base> directive in the HTML, in this instance, is referring to a different URL than the one that the page is running from. The page with the problem is running on a remote server and back referencing to the home server for the <base> reference. This fails when the page first loads but seems to be accepted if a page-reload is done. It also works on all other browsers that have been tested.
Is this related to a security setting in the browser?

When I try to attach my css style sheet Dreamweaver gives me an error saying that my .css file appears to be an .html file and will not attach. How do I fix this so I can attach my style sheet?

I have built a css style sheet in Dreamweaver. When I try to attach it to my html website, it prompts me that my "css file appears to be an .html file and cannot attach". I've tried removing the /* */ as suggested by other forums, but this has not resolved the issue. I was using css style sheets with no problem 2 days ago. Now I get that error message. How do I fix this so I can attach my style sheet?

What does the code of the CSS file look like?
An external CSS file needs to be written in CSS only (no html tags like <html>, <body>, <head>, etc ).
It also must have a .css file extension, if yours has a .html extension it won't work.

CSS Style Sheet Link Recursive Error?

I am trying to link a css style sheet to a new root file. When I try to link the css sheet I get an error - A recursive style import was found while trying to add Check Magazine.css. Please resolve this error by editing the file in an external text editor and try again.
What does this mean? I looked up recursive style everywhere and there is no explanation. I don't know how to fix. The answer I found on these forums mentioned an @import statement error but I dont even have any @import statemensts in my style sheet this style sheet is part of the Getting Started tutorial on this website.
@charset "utf-8";
#container{
width: 968px;
background: #FFFFFF;
margin: 0 auto;
padding-left: 10px;
padding-right: 10px;
overflow: hidden;
This is my code, can you help?

This is my index.html code, I am so lost as to what to do to get rid of this stupid error. My style sheet is not linked so of course it is useless and I have to code on both documents since the code doesnt show up automatically on the Style sheet when I add something to the index page
<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd">
<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">
<head>
<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8" />
<title>Check Magazine</title>
<style type="text/css">

</style>
</head>
<body>
<div id="container">
<div id="banner"></div>
<div id="main_image"></div>
<div id="left_column">Content for id "left_column" Goes Here</div>
<div id="column_container">
<div id="right_column">Content for id "right_column" Goes Here</div>
<div id="center_column">Content for id "center_column" Goes Here</div>
</div>
</div>
</body>
</html>

Automatically attaching CSS style sheets to new documents

I wanted to alert everyone to a great new Community article published by Adobe Community Expert David Powers. The article details how to attach CSS style sheets automatically when you create new documents.
Here's the article:
http://kb2.adobe.com/community/publishing/505/cpsid_50564.html
This handy option is easy to miss, especially if you don't use the New Document Dialog box to create documents, so big thanks to David for highlighting this.
Furthermore, the appearance of such an article is a great example of how Community content can interact and live symbiotically with Adobe Help. We've linked directly to David's piece from our documentation, and this is indeed a great thing because David is able to go into much more detail about the process of automatically attaching style sheets than we are able to do in Help:
Create a blank page
Create a page with a CSS layout
If you're interested in publishing Community articles of your own, you can download the Community Publishing AIR application and get right to work!

Jon Michael Varese wrote:
We've linked directly to David's piece from our documentation, and this is indeed a great thing because David is able to go into much more detail about the process of automatically attaching style sheets than we are able to do in Help:
Can I ask why?
David's excellent standard should be the minimum standard for Help files.
The quality of software manufacturers' Help (not just Adobe) has deteriorated greatly over the past decade - to the point where it's now my last resort for learning.
Software manufacturers seem to tacitly rely on 3rd party book authors (such as David's brilliant material), bloggers and online tutorials to explain their products these days.
I'm happy not to have a printed book with my software any more because they were always out-of-date and hard to update. However the quality of PDF and online Help docs is so poor and sparse for my use that I prefer to get my answers by Googling, visiting forums or buying the occasional book.

CSS Style sheet not working in DW4

I am new to Dreamweaver CS4 and have been following the tutorials for Beginners on Adobe TV.
I have used a Standard Layout, 2 columns, Header, Footer, Sidebar.
I have created and saved the CSS Style Sheet as suggested in a folder with the CSS panel.
I have made changes to the web page with CSS and can see the changes in Design View on my screen.
However, when I view my trial site in a browser, none of the Style changes are visible. Looking at the XHTML code,
the path to the CSS Style Sheet appears to be correct. What am I doing wrong?

Close your meta tag.
<meta name="description" content="blah, blah, blah...>
Nancy O.
Alt-Web Design & Publishing
Web | Graphics | Print | Media Specialists
http://alt-web.com/
http://twitter.com/altweb

Css style sheet not linking

I am fairly new to dreamweaver and css. I have created an
html page and I created an external css style sheet for it. When I
preview it in my browser, it works, but when I FTP it and check the
site on the server, the html page doesn't "refer" to the css page
that I created. I checked my remote view of the server, the style
sheet is there and the source for the web page says that it should
be refering to it.
Here's the link to my page. It's a school project. I only
have the first page created for it so even tho there are rollovers,
there are no pages linked them, so just ignore that.
http://alliterationstudio.com/silverspark/index.htm
if you go to the main page on my site
http://alliterationstudio.com
you will see that I have a couple of other projects up there too.
If you go look at the arts and crafts page you will see that it has
a style sheet that links just fine to it, and I created it in the
same way. I'm at a loss here, since I'm really new to this web
design stuff.
BTW, I'm using Dreamweaver MX 2004 right now. I'll upgrade as
soon as I get my new computer, but either way, I don't think that
using an earlier version of the software is what is creating the
problem, right?
Thanks for the help,
Staci Stubbs

On 07 Apr 2007 in macromedia.dreamweaver, stacistubbs wrote:
> Here's the link to my page. It's a school project. I
only have the
> first page created for it so even tho there are
rollovers, there are
> no pages linked them, so just ignore that.
>
>
http://alliterationstudio.com/silverspark/index.htm
http://alliterationstudio.com/silverspark/silversparkstyle.css
returns a
403 (Forbidden) error. An imaginary stylesheet whose name I
entered
returned a 404 (File not found). In the other project which
had an
external stylesheet, there was no problem. So - it sounds
like a
permission issue on silversparkstyle.css. I'm not sure if
MX04 has a
file permissions 'thing' built in; if not, you'll either have
to get an
FTP client which does file permissions (FileZilla for Windows
http://filezilla.sourceforge.net/
does), or use a terminal app (SSH, like
putty, in preference to Telnet) to log in and change the
permissions.
Joe Makowiec
http://makowiec.net/
Email:
http://makowiec.net/contact.php

Problem linking css style sheet

I am trying to link a css style sheet to a new root file. When I try to link the css sheet I get an error - A recursive style import was found while trying to add CFTtemp.css. Please resolve this error by editing the file in an external text editor and try again.
What does this mean? I looked up recursive style everywhere and there is no explanation. I don't know how to fix. This css sheet works in other sites.
screen shot attached

Perhaps some CSS statement in the stylesheet is trying to import your stylehseet! Thus the recursive warning. Look for "@import" statements and see if its trying to import the stylesheet. Then either comment them out (/*your old CSS*/) or remove it. Save. And see if that solves it. But not being able to see your whole stylesheet, this is only a guess.

How can i load a specific CSS style sheet for Safari?

Okay, So I have some structure issues when viewing my website on Safari compared to Firefox. Is there a way to put a code in the <head> tag to load a specific CSS style sheet for Safari like you can do with IE?
Thanks.

I took a screenshot of your page from Firefox (shown below). I assume you're seeing the same problem in Safari. If you increase text size one click, the keyboard image drops below the #contact division.
1) Height is a restiction in all browsers except IE. Avoid using height values on containers with text in them. If needed to show a background image, use the min-height property.
2) Fix your code errors. Some browsers are very sensitive to errors.
3) Your #content lacks cohesion. You need 3 columns, each with a width in pixels. Or simply use a 3-column table.
Nancy O.
Alt-Web Design & Publishing
Web | Graphics | Print | Media Specialists
http://alt-web.com/
http://twitter.com/altweb
http://alt-web.blogspot.com

How to attach a CSS style sheet ?

Hi,
How to attach a CSS Style sheet to a portal page ?
Thanks for your help,
Jean-Christophe

For a standard Portal page you should use the Portal styles and associate them to a page. These effectively generate a CSS style sheet anyway if you view the HTML source of a rendered page in your browser.
Using the correct PDK APIs you effectively reference the CSS tags in your Java or PL/SQL code.
If your portlet need to open a page in a new window you can no longer reference the Portal page style as the CSS style sheet does not get attached.
In this situation, code your HTML as normal and reference your CSS style sheets as normal.
If you create you CSS sheet you can store it in a page as a file and access using the direct access URL like I showed you in a previous response regarding the storing of images.
Cheers,
John

Template or CSS style sheet

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