246996016-HTML5-Step-by-Step

98 Chapter 6
2. In Notepad, in the area, add these rules:
a:link {color: blue}
a:visited {color: green}
a:hover {color: lime}
a:active {color: red}
3. Save the file, and then refresh the Internet Explorer display.
4. Position the mouse pointer over each hyperlink.
Notice that hyperlink text is lime green when you position the mouse pointer over
it. Diagnosing Foliage Problems is red because it is the active link.
5. Click the hyperlink Glossary of Terms.
Notice that the hyperlink text color changes to red immediately before the Glossary
page loads. The Glossary page loads in its own separate window.
6. Close the Glossary page window.
Notice that the Glossary of Terms hyperlink is still red because it is still active. It was
made active when you clicked it in step 5, and will remain so until you click something
else.
7. Click the hyperlink HTML Version, and then click Back.
Notice that HTML Version is now red (active), but Glossary of Terms is green
(visited).
CLEAN UP Close the Notepad and Internet Explorer windows.
Creating and Linking to External Style Sheets
Embedded style sheets work well for single-page Web sites, but to really take advantage
of what cascading style sheets can do, you need to create an external style sheet. A
single external style sheet can be linked to multiple documents, ensuring complete
consistency even in a large site. An external style sheet also makes it easy to change the
formatting of your site after the pages have been constructed. Rather than having to edit
each page individually, you can simply change the style sheet.
An external style sheet is a plain text file, just like an HTML file. The only difference is that
you assign it a .css rather than an .htm extension. It contains anything you would place
within the tag if you were creating the style sheet internally. You do not need the
and tags themselves.