Elements of Style
By Molly E. Holzschlag
There are few things as sweet as a promise kept, and nothing so bitter as one that isn't. In 1996, style sheets promised us incredible opportunities for control over Web document presentation. But that promise has been only partially fulfilled, making our relationship with style sheets bittersweet.
Style sheets are advantageous in that they let you manage, update, and change large sites easily, and elegantly control visual effects. Documents become more streamlined and manageable when designers effectively separate presentation from Web markup.
While style sheets have expanded to include detailed syntax for broad presentation options, support is often limited, buggy, or sometimes completely nonexistent within certain versions of popular Web browsers.
So if you're frustrated with style sheets, you're not alone. Despite advancements in browser support—especially with the impressive support the recent distribution of Netscape 6 provides—working with style sheets remains a challenge to even the most adept Web markup authors.
Bad Rap
Part of the problem is that style sheets have gotten a bad rap. While frustrating to most Web designers and developers, style sheets also suffer from poor marketing. This is pretty typical of complex or emerging technologies, and it's a serious problem because it makes people leery of trying them. XHTML is a good example: Poor marketing equals a misunderstood tool.
Even the most sophisticated developer is hesitant to wade through convoluted W3C documents to unravel which markup technologies actually work.
