Introduction to CSS and XHTML - Pass Christian University

Introduction to CSS and XHTML Learn how to create state-of-the-art Web sites using modern CSS and XHTML techniques. Take your existing HTML skills to the next level and start building sites like the pros. If you want to survive and excel in the fast-paced world of Web publishing, you're going to need to keep up with ever-evolving standards. The new standard for Web developers is to use CSS and XHTML.

CSS and XHTML not only make it easier for you to build and manage large Web sites, these powerful languages can also give you more precise control over the appearance of every page you build. Almost every Web development tool--including Dreamweaver, Microsoft Expressions Web, and Visual Web Developer--offer support for, and occasionally require the use of, CSS and XHTML.

This course will provide you with the foundation you'll need to master two critical and fast-growing new Web languages. If you're a Web developer, why not begin your transition to CSS and XHTML today?

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Syllabus:

All courses run for six weeks, with a two-week grace period at the end. Two lessons are released each week for the six-week duration of the course. You do not have to be present when the lesson is released, but you must complete each lesson within two weeks of its release.

A new section of each course starts on the second or third Wednesday of each month. If enrolling in a series of two or more courses, please be sure to space the start date for each course at least two months apart.

Week One

Wednesday - Lesson 01

In this first lesson, you'll discover why traditional HTML is headed for the history books, and why CSS and XHTML are the wave of the future. You'll learn how to painlessly transition your existing HTML skills to XHTML. And you'll create tools and templates to help you spend less time typing and correcting errors, and more time creating.

Friday - Lesson 02

Today, you'll grow to appreciate the beauty and practicality of using CSS to style your entire Web site. You'll discover how CSS lets you create design elements that give your site a consistent look and feel, and a unique identity. And if you ever decide to change something, you won't have to go digging through all the pages you've already created—you just change the CSS style in your style sheet. Then all existing pages and future pages will use the style automatically.

Week Two

Wednesday - Lesson 03

After reading today's lesson, you'll understand how XHTML focuses on the structure of your document while CSS focuses on its style. You'll learn specific tags and techniques for defining and styling headings, paragraphs, lists, special characters, and more. You'll come away knowing how to use CSS to specify fonts, colors, and alignments for all of your textual design elements.

Friday - Lesson 04

Nothing jazzes up a Web site like a few good pictures! Today, you'll discover all there is to know about putting pictures in Web pages. You'll learn to use pictures as hyperlinks, background textures, and patterns. You'll even replace the bland little dots in bulleted lists with your own custom bullets.

Week Three

Wednesday - Lesson 05

In this lesson, you'll learn how to use XHTML to create tables and CSS to style them. First, you'll create a table that shows thumbnail images of your favorite pictures. Then you'll discover how to let users click a thumbnail to see a larger version of the picture and, if they like, download it to their own computers.

Friday - Lesson 06

Hyperlinks are the key to successful Web publishing. Today, you'll learn to create hyperlinks the XHTML way and how to use CSS to style them. You'll find out how to convert any text or picture to a link to other pages or to a section within your own page. You'll also create Contact Me links that let people send you an e-mail with a simple mouse click.

Week Four

Wednesday - Lesson 07

In this lesson, we'll go deep into the CSS box model to take a close look at the fine art of creating and styling borders. We'll discuss placing boxed elements on your page and precisely controlling the margins and space inside and outside those boxes. These are must-know skills for any serious Web developer!

Friday - Lesson 08

Page headers and footers help give your site a consistent look and feel and a unique identity. In traditional HTML, developers used tables to create these elements. But they could never predict how a page would look in different Web browsers nor be confident that search engines would index their pages correctly. Today, you'll take your first step toward using CSS Page Layout techniques to create headers and footers that show on every page in your site.

Week Five

Wednesday - Lesson 09

You've probably noticed that many Web sites divide their content into two or three columns. The left or right column (or both) can act as a sidebar for navigation links, ads, or other content. In this lesson, you'll master modern CSS Page Layout methods for creating modern multicolumn page layouts without the use of tables.

Friday - Lesson 10

Today, we'll untangle the mysteries of CSS static, relative, absolute, and fixed positioning. You'll discover how to use these tools and techniques to gain precise control over the placement of elements on your page. You'll also discover some of the secrets behind what's really going on behind the scenes when a Web browser displays your page.

Week Six

Wednesday - Lesson 11

In this lesson, you'll discover the modern XHTML way to add audio and video to your Web pages. You'll find out how to enable users to download media files and also how you can embed those files in your pages like they do on You Tube and Google Video. We'll go over the exact tags you need to embed MIDI, Wave, MP3, MPEG, QuickTime, WMV, and Flash content in the Web pages you create.

Friday - Lesson 12

In this final lesson, we'll cover how to use online services to rapidly debug, fix, and format the pages you create. You'll learn how to validate your pages against modern CSS and XHTML standards—enabling you to display the coveted W3C-approved CSS and XHTML logos on them. After today, you'll know how to create a fully standards-compliant Web site that's ready for publication.

This course includes a knowledgeable and caring instructor who will guide you through your lessons, facilitate discussions, and answer your questions. The instructor for this course will be Alan Simpson.

With over 100 published books to his name, award-winning author Alan Simpson is widely regarded as a PC and Internet guru. His books have been published throughout the world in over a dozen languages. As a seasoned veteran of the computer industry, Alan's books and online courses cover virtually all aspects of the computer industry, including Web development, operating systems, word processing, spreadsheets, databases, programming, networking, and security.

Requirements:

A text editor (like Windows Notepad); basic computer skills; familiarity with files, folders, text editing, and copying and pasting; Internet access, e-mail, the Microsoft Internet Explorer or Mozilla Firefox Web browser, and the Adobe Flash and PDF plug-ins (two free and simple downloads you obtain at http://www.adobe.com/downloads by clicking Get Adobe Flash Player and Get Adobe Reader). Completion of our online Creating Web Pages course (or equivalent experience with HTML and Web publishing) is recommended.

Student Reviews:

"Alan is a wonderful teacher. His responses were always prompt and encouraging. I also liked the material he used to develop the course. I am a web designer and thought he picked out just the right things to teach considering this material could be confusing. Alan is a great find, I would highly recommend him."

"All questions that I submitted were answered in a very timely manner. The supplementary material at the end of each lesson was very helpful to me. Links that I probably would not have found on my own - Thanks."

"Best class I have taken. Alan really explains the concept so well that I actually GET IT! I think Alan Simpson is an excellent instructor, and would recommend him to anyone. I look forward to taking more of his classes."

"Both the course and instructor were exceptional. Thorough, easy to understand, prompt responses, good discussion."

"I appreciate how much effort the instructor put into responding to questions. He made an online course feel like there was human presence, and that he cared about how much you were getting out of the class. I have really enjoyed this course, and I learned a lot."

"Thank you for taking the time to make it understandable. This has helped me so that I do not need to depend on others to create and manage my website."

"This was an EXCELLENT class. I really was able to relate to the instructor's teaching style which made learning CSS/XHTML interesting and fun. I plan to continue my studies. Thank you very much!"

"This was an extremely informative course taught in a easy to learn manner. The instructor is excellent."

"This was a very well prepared and informational class. The instructor was great with his responses to the discussion area. He responded almost immediately."