Comments on “ Style Sheet Organization ”

Style Sheet Organization

2008-03-26T14:00:47-04:00

Ha! Yes, I am the high and mighty print stylist. Just don’t view source on my sites :)

Style Sheet Organization

2008-03-22T07:22:29-04:00

Right on, Chad. IE styles are definitely missing. I considered including that, but ended up deciding against it for two reasons:

The post intended to focus on style sheet organization rather than the browser incompatibilities and I felt like adding IE-centric style sheets would blur that distinction.
Like you, if I do things right, I can often get away without using IE-specific styles.

That said, they are usually a necessary evil. When I need them, I tow a pretty hard line about keeping them external themselves and including them with conditional comments. I choose this path because I always know why a rule was included if it’s in an IE file and I can easily remove any “hacks” when/if I decide I don’t want them any more. I’ll usually create an IE7 sheet first and then create an IE6 version if things still aren’t right.

I’ll admit, though, that I’m horrible about print style sheets. Unless specifically requested, all too often I’ll do everything I can to avoid creating them. I’m not proud of that – you’re right that it’s not all that hard – but in the interest of full disclosure, I give you my admission of failure. :-)

Style Sheet Organization

2008-03-22T01:00:30-04:00

I usually keep global and structural together, just keep ‘em separated within the single file.

The two sheets you’re missing, IMHO, are a “fix-ie” style sheet and print styles. If I’ve done well with my global styles, the fix-ie version has less than ten declarations. The fix-ie keeps hacks separate and manageable and is called with a conditional comment.

Far too many sites with great content are killing too many trees. I don’t need the site menu or that monster banner when I’m printing a procedure. I try not to print often, and I always print double-sided pages, and it just ain’t that much more work to add a ‘display: none’ to screen elements that have no business being seen on paper.