Some of the best places to learn CSS are: W3schools and Htmldog. Benefits: Faster pages, better looking, easier coded and updated, you'll find the full list anywhere you will learn it in.
As no-one has answered the question, I will. CSS makes cleaner pages by seperating the code for the layout from the code for the design. It also makes your pages load quicker and gives you far more control. CSS is actually very easy to learn, if you're just starting out you should forget about tables and just learn (x)html with css, it really is quite easy after a while
ALWAYS CSS. The only reason I can think of not using CSS-based (vs tables design) is if you have to have a VEEEERY cross-browser solution with liquid layout. Tables just handle this better...
It is definitely in your best interest to start learning CSS now, it will make your life so much easier as a designer down the road.
thanks guys for the fast responses- the only other question i have is can NVU handle css well? or should i dig out my dreamweaver disk? right now as i am just getting back into web design i actually kinda enjoy NVU as its simple to use and i would otherwise have to relearn dreamweaver all over again as its been years since ive used it- and i cant find my disk which by the way is several years old- thanks in advance
NVU should be fine with CSS. CSS is easy to learn - there are tons of great tutorials online that will walk you through the basics.
Imagine you've created your site without css. On every page you have code saying what the background image should be and the link color, etc. Now imagine you want to change some of the design. Say changing red links to green links. You would have to go to EVERY SINGLE PAGE and manually change the code. If you have a large site this could take several hours. However, if you hac used css, you could have just one css file that every page references, and then you would just have to change that one css file and all of the other pages would change along with it. Go with css. No matter what. It save many a headache down the road.
so basically css is like using a template? well my first site is pretty much designed already should i just leave it be and use css on my next site or redo my first site?
Well, sort of.. except css only says what the properties of an element are. Not the layout or stuff like that. Templates do use css.
Maybe just leave it as it is. It's not worth re-designing sites in CSS, the best thing to do is just tear it down and start again, i'm guessing you wouldn't want to do that. Not learning CSS would be like only having 1st and 2nd gear in a car, ok, you'd be missing out. take a look here http://www.cssbeauty.com Well worth 20 minutes of your time.
As a designer who never bothered to learn CSS... it's bitten me in the butt! Now I've established a clear format for ever page in the site, I want to start implementing CSS into the site - but to go through every page will take a lifetime - I really wished I started out using CSS. In my opinion - even if it takes you a while to understand how it works, and how to use all the attributes to your advantage - in the long run it will help you out a great deal. Learn it if you have the ability - BEFORE you start building some massive site! Sonic
There are two sites where it's easy learn CSS with plenty of working examples to take home www.mandarindesign.com www.alistapart.com
If your using something like Dreamweaver you will pick it up naturally. CSS is web design at this point.
In my opinion, there is no web designing without CSS. You better be learning CSS 2 and XHTML as soon as possible.