Style sheets are useful for formatting HTML documents easily and consistently. They can be used within an HTML web page (internally) or in an external CSS file that can be called upon with one line of code. Style sheets are usually in the HEAD of the document or in the BODY of the document where it is to be processed. If you are familiar with Javascript, then the placement of style sheets should make sense to you.

The main advantage to using style sheets is the ease of editing web pages. You can find and edit formatting attributes quickly and easily. If the style sheets are internal, then these items must be found and replaced on each page. There are programs that can perform the search and replace task for you. If the style sheets are external, you can edit the file saved as filename.css and the changes will be made automatically to each page. This saves alot of time.

Style sheets are supported by the Internet Explorer and Netscape versions 3 and later. Style sheets should replace old HTML tags and attributes that will no longer be supported. See depreciated tags and attributes and W3C recommendations for consistent source code. To use a specific font throughout the web page, use this code:

in the HEAD of the HTML document. Remove the periods inserted to display source code on the web page.

If you use Firefox web browser, you can validate your source code using the Web Developer add-on.