Comments on: My Worst CSS Mistakes

By: Pat Fattore

Pat Fattore — Fri, 04 Feb 2011 21:21:23 +0000

My neighbor and I were just debating this specific subject, he’s usually in search of to prove me incorrect. Your view on this is nice and exactly how I actually feel. I simply now mailed him this website to show him your own view. After wanting over your web site I guide marked and will probably be coming back to learn your new posts!

By: karl bowers

karl bowers — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 18:24:23 +0000

Ah man, this article has brought back some memories of my early CSS adventures lol! Nice article :-)

By: Nic Luciano

Nic Luciano — Fri, 17 Apr 2009 22:02:21 +0000

Agree on all points, though… I didn’t know about the nested tags with *, I try to actually using it as a selector anyway.

I especially agree with you on one line declarations. Very rarely (never) do I find people who agree, most people think it’s easier to look at it on multiple lines. It might be easier to find a property a second faster (which can even be fixed with alphabetical order)… but 1 line declarations in combination with tabs is a great way to mimic a DOM tree in CSS, and makes it exponentially easier to work with.

By: Mauricio Jordan

Mauricio Jordan — Tue, 14 Apr 2009 13:30:11 +0000

As a “classic” example of beginners in CSS mistakes you can check my newly updated page(s) from the archaic HTMl+tables to XHTMl+Css
at:
http://www.geocities.com/mauroj2/index.html

I am still finding the “weird” behavior of my pages,especially on IE 6 and above, notice the misplace side menu!
my main page CSS can be seen here:
http://www.geocities.com/mauroj2/newstyle.css

any pointers to improve the structure of the page?
I am still learning the curve of proper CSS
Thanks to all.

By: Phillip Quinlan

Phillip Quinlan — Wed, 11 Mar 2009 10:21:00 +0000

Yea, I actaully think that if you have single line declarations it would be a pain to scroll all the way to the right – not to mention all the way left again!
I’d much rather only being able to scroll up and down, not up/down/left/right :P

Much like that rule of never have horizontal scrollies on web pages :)

But yea, personal preference – just voicing my opinion that’s all :D

Ah, the days of having a 25.5″ screen would solve our problems won’t they! A few more years and people will be saying: “Man, you only have a 25.5″ screen? Keep up with the times and get a 30″ like everyone else!”

By: Michiel van der Blonk

Michiel van der Blonk — Fri, 05 Dec 2008 13:37:21 +0000

I don’t agree at all with people in favor of multi-line. I believe most of you cannot be CSS experts, if it’s too hard for you to read a single line of CSS with several properties. These properties belong to one selector, and there is no particular order, unless your specifying properties multiple times (which you shouldn’t). If you’re appalled by multi-line I bet you’re a programmer.

There is a huge difference with code (javascript, C, PHP) where the order of execution is extremely important.

Folding? Nonsense, another programmer’s attitude. CSS consists of a non-indented list of selectors. There’s no hierarchy, so what’s to fold?

I recommend using a good editor though. TopStyle rules, it’s a CSS editor, not a code editor.

In short, CSS is not a programming language, so stop treating it like one. (BTW: I am a programmer, not a designer).

By: Stu Greenham

Stu Greenham — Wed, 05 Nov 2008 12:41:53 +0000

Nice post!

Although I personally think ‘Multi-Line CSS Declarations’ is okay because although the stylehseet can become major long its much easier to find the bit you want to change :)

Stu
http://selfconclusion.co.uk

By: Amy

Amy — Thu, 16 Oct 2008 03:17:21 +0000

yep I am also a multi-liner! UNLESS there is only one property… but I think of it this way, with one liners you have to scan up and down and then sideways. Multi-lines you just have to scan up and down :P I use nusphere which allows code folding, so a lot of the time I will fold large portions of my css if I am not working on it. Problem solved!

Looking back on some of my very first projects, I think my biggest mistake was using absolute positioning… FOR EVERYTHING… and of course I had no idea what position relative was so everything was positioned to the browser window LOL… I had no idea what float was either so that really limited what I could do. Thank gosh for books :P

By: Maga

Maga — Sun, 12 Oct 2008 09:28:20 +0000

I prefer multiline CSS declarations, I think they are much more readable and easier to understand than multiscreen CSS declarations in one line.

And what do you think about setting the margin and padding properties within the “*” selector? I find it very useful.

By: tom hermans

tom hermans — Fri, 10 Oct 2008 07:15:30 +0000

I try to keep short css-code in one line, if it’s more than a few selectors I write ‘em line per line.
Also, use tabs, e.g. 1 tab for ul, 2 tabs for ul li, 3 for ul li a, so the inheritance is more obvious when editing the css-code. This is a practice I only just adopted, seems to work better, but time will tell.