Frequently Asked Questions
What is CSS?
CSS stands for Cascading Style Sheets. By attaching a CSS file to an HTML web page, we have more control over how the page looks in specific browsers. We try to create pages so that they can be viewed in most every web browser in use, but that takes a lot of work.
Our designs do look best in Mozilla Firefox, and we try to take advantage of some features only available in Firefox, such as alpha transparency. The transparent box containing this text is a good example. Firefox seems to be the web browser that gets closest to established web standards.
Another reason to use CSS in web design is that changes in style can be made across a site design very quickly. And since all the styles are saved in a separate file, the html code of a page is less cluttered and easier to read.
Why can't all browsers be supported?
Well, the short answer is, there are just too many of them. The longer answer is that most of the world uses some verson of Microsoft Internet Explorer, and most of what's left is Mozilla Firefox, Netscape Navigator and Opera. Not only does each browser handle html and css slightly differently, each one also specific bugs and misinterpretations of standards.
We use a variety of css tricks to make web pages that look as close as possible, with the same functionality, for pretty much every browser. The pages are tested in Internet Explorer (version 5.0, 5.5, 6, beta 7), Firefox (version 1.5), Netscape (version 8), and Opera (version 6 & 8). I also make my pages as legible as possible when no CSS is applied, to make it compatible with earlier browsers that don't understand CSS.
What do I need to do before I can have my website running?
Every website requires at the very minimum a web host. A web host is a company that provides the physical computer the website will live on, as well as the connection to the internet for that computer. We suggest using a unix or linux web host, rather than a windows host; unix/linux computers tend to crash a lot less than windows computers, and they support many more forms of scripting. One web host we reccomend in particular is HostMonster.com. They provide a large amount of disk space and bandwidth, as well as many other features that many other hosts charge extra for, all at a very low price - $3.95 per month, which includes a domain name!
You will probably want a domain name in addition to your web host. A domain name is what your visitors will type into their browser to get to your website; for example, www.greenvilleonline.com is the domain name for the Greenville News website. Most web hosts offer a domain name with a web hosting package either for free or at a discounted price. You can also use services such as www.GoDaddy.com to check on availability of domain names and to buy them.
Once you've got a host and a domain name, you really won't need anything else except a good idea of what you want to put on your website. Some of the things you will want to think about are pictures, a general color scheme, and at least some of the wording you want to use. We will help you flesh out your ideas and give you a website to be proud of.
