Using Cascading Style Sheets to format text

By default, Dreamweaver uses Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) to format text. The styles that you apply to text using the Property inspector or menu commands create CSS rules that are embedded in the head of the current document. CSS styles provide you with greater flexibility and control over the appearance of your page, from the precise positioning of layout to specific fonts and text styles.

You can also use the CSS Styles panel to create and edit CSS rules and properties. The CSS Styles panel is a much more robust editor than the Property inspector, and displays all CSS rules defined for the current document, whether those rules are embedded in the head of the document or in an external style sheet. Macromedia recommends that you use the CSS Styles panel (rather than the Property inspector) as the primary tool for creating and editing your CSS. As a result, your code will be cleaner and easier to maintain.

In addition to styles and style sheets you create, you can use style sheets that come with Dreamweaver to apply styles to your documents. (See Creating a document based on a Dreamweaver design file.)

Related topics

• Understanding Cascading Style Sheets
• About the CSS Styles panel
• Using the CSS Styles panel
• Creating a new CSS rule
• Applying a class style
• Exporting styles to create a CSS style sheet
• Linking to or importing an external CSS style sheet
• Editing a CSS rule
• Editing a CSS style sheet
• Using Design-Time style sheets
• About conflicting CSS rules