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What is a CSS Editor?

Mary Elizabeth
Mary Elizabeth
Mary Elizabeth
Mary Elizabeth

CSS is an acronym for Cascading Style Sheets, a language used as a formatting tool for HTML (HyperText Markup Language) and other markup languages that has been endorsed by the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C). A CSS document serves as a master plan for the styles and layout used on a webpage or website. Site-wide style decisions are iterated once and applied many times, saving work for the site designer and time in rendering the site. A CSS editor is a tool for creating or editing a CSS document, and it can make the workflow better for creating CSS stylesheets.

A CSS editor may be a web app, a standalone product. Alternatively, it may be a component of a full web design program, included along with an HTML editor, an XHTML (eXtended HTML) editor, and a JavaScript® editor, or possibly even more languages. XML (EXtensible Markup Language), ASP (Active Server Page), PHP (PHP Hypertext Preprocessor), C and C++, Python, PERL (Practical Extraction Report Language), and SQL (Structured Query Language) are often included. A CSS editor may be cross-platform or for one brand of operating system only, but they are easy to find for Mac®, Windows®, and Unix® systems.

CSS editors can attach style sheets in a site's HTML coding when designing a website.
CSS editors can attach style sheets in a site's HTML coding when designing a website.

CSS editors can be fairly bare bones — some developers just use a text-editing program — or include syntax highlighting to help create and check code, a CSS wizard, and validation. Being able to organize sections of code in folders can make maintenance easier, and previews in one or more browsers can assist in achieving a universally workable design. This may or may not be facilitated with a split window that allows viewing of two browsers at once.

On occasion, a lite version can be found as a free download, acting as a demo for a pro version. There are also CSS editors that are better adapted for newcomers and others that are more apt for professionals. Useful templates and/or example stylesheets from W3C can be very helpful. In 2010, CSS was in version 2 and version 3 is being developed, so web designers planning to work in version 3 need to check to make sure that the CSS editor they plan to use supports that version.

Mary Elizabeth
Mary Elizabeth

Mary Elizabeth is passionate about reading, writing, and research, and has a penchant for correcting misinformation on the Internet. In addition to contributing articles to WiseGEEK about art, literature, and music, Mary Elizabeth is a teacher, composer, and author. She has a B.A. from the University of Chicago’s writing program and an M.A. from the University of Vermont, and she has written books, study guides, and teacher materials on language and literature, as well as music composition content for Sibelius Software.

Learn more...
Mary Elizabeth
Mary Elizabeth

Mary Elizabeth is passionate about reading, writing, and research, and has a penchant for correcting misinformation on the Internet. In addition to contributing articles to WiseGEEK about art, literature, and music, Mary Elizabeth is a teacher, composer, and author. She has a B.A. from the University of Chicago’s writing program and an M.A. from the University of Vermont, and she has written books, study guides, and teacher materials on language and literature, as well as music composition content for Sibelius Software.

Learn more...

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    • CSS editors can attach style sheets in a site's HTML coding when designing a website.
      By: Alexstar
      CSS editors can attach style sheets in a site's HTML coding when designing a website.