Adobe 38028779 User Guide - Page 244

Using HTML styles to format text An HTML style is defined by one or more HTML tags (such as b, i, font, and center) that apply formatting to text. The HTML 4.0 specification released by the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) in early 1998 discourages the use of HTML formatting tags in favor of CSS style sheets. In practice, however, HTML formatting tags-while offering more limited control over appearance than CSS style sheets and taking longer to load-are supported by a wider range of browsers than CSS style sheets, and are likely to remain part of the Web developer's arsenal for as long as 3.0 and earlier browsers make up a measurable proportion of Web traffic. For specific information on formatting with HTML tags, see one of the following topics: • "Setting and changing fonts and styles" on page 239 • "Changing the text color" on page 240 • "Aligning text" on page 241 HTML tags that define the structure of the document rather than its appearance-for example, headings, paragraphs, and lists-are still very much part of the HTML specification. In fact, if you are planning to use CSS style sheets to define the font characteristics for your page, it's important to use standard heading tags, because they help to preserve the structure of your page in browsers that do not support CSS style sheets. (To see an example of how this works, try viewing Dreamweaver Help in a 3.0 browser.) See "Using paragraphs and headings" on page 240. Using HTML styles Use HTML styles to save text and paragraph formatting that you want to use elsewhere in your documents. Once you have created an HTML style based on one or more HTML tags, you can reapply that formatting to any text in any document using the HTML Styles panel. Context menu Auto Apply Delete Style New Style 244 Chapter 10