LibraryDeveloper PortalCSS

Altova tools include a powerful CSS editor and graphical CSS designer. Find out more about CSS technology and how Altova tools help you work with and apply CSS styles by following the links below.

A specification maintained by the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C), CSS (Cascading Stylesheets) is a stylesheet language for specifying how elements in structured documents should be displayed on HTML/XHTML documents and Web pages. Using mark up tags, a CSS stylesheet tells a Web browser how to display the content of each page. CSS provides several advantages, including precise visual styling capabilities, cross-browser compatibility, the ability to make changes that affect multiple elements in a single step, and much more. Since CSS allows Web designers to separate content from style information, it greatly simplifies Web development and maintenance.

Web designers often use CSS in addition to XSLT for styling their HTML and XHTML Web pages. To complement XMLSpy's award-winning XSLT editor, XMLSpy includes a full-featured CSS editor.

XMLSpy makes CSS editing easy with features such as syntax coloring, context-sensitive entry helper windows and drop-down menus, as well as screen tips. CSS editing also benefits from all the advanced features of the XMLSpy text view, such as code completion, line numbering, source folding, book marking, and more.

As you’re working, advanced project management features help you organize and manage your CSS files alongside related documents and perform batch operations, and a multi-tabbed find-in-files window lets you perform advanced find and replace functions across files, folders, and even entire projects.

The XMLSpy CSS editor is a true productivity enhancer for developers creating XML-based Web sites, because you can complete your CSS editing tasks in the same environment where you develop XSLT transformations, using the same user-friendly, intelligent entry helpers and options.

A common requirement today is the presentation of information from XML and database sources on eye-catching Web pages as well as in other formats, such as PDF reports. Since online and print media have dissimilar design processes and utilize different technologies, publishing single source data in multiple formats is a challenge. For instance, while a Web designer would likely use CSS to style HTML content, CSS styles don't translate to a PDF format.

Altova StyleVision removes this obstacle by allowing you to create one design to present XML and database data in multiple media using advanced CSS styles. Style rules can be defined in external, imported CSS stylesheets, in global stylesheets, and locally on individual elements. To create your design, you simply drag elements from XML and database sources onto the design pane and use the StyleVision entry helpers to specify layout and style properties. StyleVision then autogenerates stylesheets and output in HTML, RTF, PDF, Word 2007 (OOXML), and Authentic electronic forms based on your single design. All of your output formats will have the same appearance, though some CSS styles, such as those for combo-boxes and other HTML-specific components may not, by nature, be applicable to paged media output. When such styles are used, a comment is displayed to indicate that a style may render a bit differently in your RTF and PDF output files, and a reasonable print rendering of the element will be used.

With StyleVision, applying precise CSS rules is a simple point and click process that lets you publish mission critical data in multiple formats quickly and easily.

The tools for working with CSS described above are available individually or as part of the Altova MissionKit. Get up to 8 software tools for the price of 2 with the Altova® MissionKit™ 2008! The MissionKit bundles Altova's intelligent application development and data management tools to meet the needs of software architects and XML developers.

Download a free trial of the Altova® MissionKit™ 2008 today.