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CSS in editing views

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by apotheon

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Is there some way we can get the editing views for things like blogs (and blog comments) to be configurable so that they default to either code view or WYSIWYG view according to user preference? Evey time I go to edit something (for instance) it flashes the code view for just a split second, then changes automatically to WYSIWYG view, and when that happens it [b]eats all my inline CSS formatting[/b]. Then, of course, I have to re-insert things like [b]style="text-align: justify"[/b] into tags (like div tags, in particular), which leads to no end of frustration.

I'd also like some ability to set some CSS defaults for my entire blog, so it doesn't all have to be done inline and individually for each separate post. I really love my text-align: justify, but sometimes it's an awful lot of work to maintain it.

8 replies

by Jay Garmon

I'm being honest here. We're going to do a massive site redesign after the first of the year, and the goal (at least on paper) is to rebuild the whole site as skinnable CSS. We should be able to incorporate these requests into that redesign, but we're months away from that. I don't want to tell you no, but I also don't want you to think it's going to happen soon.

by apotheon

That helps. It's nice to know what's going on, at least.

Heh.

I loves me CSS (except for the arbitrary micro-managing limitations in the standards specification, of course).

by jaqui

I'll add some links to my tr links section.
I found a couple of css sites where they have interesting little things like framed layouts, using css only.
javascript-like interaction with css, not using javascript.
then the Development team has the ready refference for some of the less common ways to work with css.

done, both have css in tags

by charliespencer

I've got a small site (dozen pages or so) I run for a fantasy league. I currently use a WYSIWYG editor to created and edit the pages, but one of my goals is to learn enough HTML over the winter to create it from scratch. I can't get my head around the concept behind CSS. What exactly is the purpose? As near as I can tell, it's a template for items common to each page.

by jaqui

the basic styles. ( appearance template fits perfectly )
colour settings, font settings, layout....

html is supposed to be layout and display and content.
xhtml ( current standard for websites ) is layout.
uses css for display settings
content is separate file.

xml is the most powerfull markup language as it is the least specific. the xml spec is only what is required for well formed documents.

everything else is user defined as needed.
xml also uses css for appearance control.
Cascading Style Sheets.

by apotheon

XHTML and content are only separate files if you design it that way (such as with server-side scripting or by way of technologies like AJAX). That's the best way to do it, but most low-end professional and amateur sites use XHTML in a file with content for any static site design, with CSS for presentation.

Layout is properly done about half-and-half between the XHTML and CSS, with XHTML being used to specify distinct blocks and inline elements, and CSS being used to tell those blocks and inline elements how to "behave" in terms of layout. Tables are basically entirely deprecated in terms of "best practices", for instance, in favor of CSS element positioning.

by apotheon

CSS allows formatting control, dynamic appearance of content, and the almost complete removal of any need for reliance on Javascript (and avoiding Javascript is generally a Very Good Thing).

It also contributes to very good code practice, increasing orthogonality and ease of maintenance of web site code. For one thing, it adheres to the DRY principle (Don't Repeat Yourself) of good software design, in that it allows you to keep formatting and presentation information in a central location separate from the markup.

I could go on, but that's the gist.

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