CSS Mastery

CSS Mastery training course
Based on the best selling book of the same name, this day-long course will provide the essential skills required to take your CSS to the next level. You will start by learning expert tips to manage and structure your CSS. Next there will be a quick recap on the CSS box model and positioning model, covering such hot topics as margin collapsing and advanced float behaviour. The core of the day will be spent learning the latest CSS layout techniques, before moving on to cover the most common browser bugs and their fixes.
This training course is taught by Clearleft Creative Director, Andy Budd. Andy is the author of the best selling book CSS Mastery, and one of the worlds leading experts in XHTML and CSS. By the end of this course you'll have a full understanding of the CSS positioning model and how to create complicated layouts. You'll know how to create the most sought-after techniques such as flexible, rounded corner boxes, PNG transparency and advanced list manipulation. More importantly, you'll learn how to work around browser inconsistencies to create truly flexible pages.
This course is a perfect for intermediate developers who understand the basics of CSS and have been using it for several months. The course is ideal for 4-8 people and prices start from £1600+VAT. Sessions can either be run on site at your offices, or at our state-of-the-art training centre in Brighton.
Setting the Foundations

1. Meaningful markup
2. Structuring a document
3. Microformats
4. Validation
5. How a CSS rule is structured
6. Doctypes and Quirks Mode

Selectors

1. Basic CSS selectors
2. Pseudo-classes
3. Child and adjacent sibling selector
4. Attribute selectors
5. CSS3 selectors
6. The Cascade and specificity
7. Inheritance

Planning, organising and maintaining your CSS

1. Adding styles to yoour page
2. Managing your styles
3. Commenting your CSS
4. CSS tools

The CSS Box Model

1. The box model
2. Width and height
3. IE's proprietary box model and the box model hack
4. Margin collapsing

The CSS Visual Formatting Model

1. Basic definitions
2. Block vs Inline
3. The display property
4. Relative positioning
5. Absolute positioning
6. Floating and clearing

Image techniques

1. Background positioning
2. Rounded corners
3. Multiple backgrounds, border radius and border image
4. CSS rollovers
5. PNG Opacity
6. CSS Opacity

Form layout

1. Simple form layout
2. Advanced form layout
3. Error feedback
4. Accessibility and form embelishments

CSS Layout

1. 2-column layout
2. 3-column layout
3. Fixed, liquid and elastic
4. CSS3 Multi-column layout

Bugs, hacks and filters

1. Budd's 6 laws of bug fixing
2. Hacks and filters
3. Conditional comments
4. Commmon bugs and fixes