Adobe GOLIVE CS2, User Manual, Page: 301 / 724

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Chapter 12: Formatting text
Formatting text in web pages
Formatting text for the web
You can make text more interesting and easier to read by formatting it, but keep in mind that text can appear different
on other computers, depending on the platform, browser, and browser preferences. You can use the View palette to
view a simulation of how your document would appear on different platforms and with different browsers.
See also
“Guidelines for controlling font sizes” on page 302
“Previewing web pages” on page 31
“To set view options for page layout” on page 159
Methods of formatting text
You can add form, color, and presentation to text in GoLive by using cascading stylesheets (CSS), HTML text
attributes, and sets of HTML text attributes called HTML Styles.
Cascading stylesheets
Cascading stylesheets define text formatting attributes once and instruct web browsers to reuse the definitions
whenever text on a page refers to them. (This process reduces the amount of source code that’s required for the page,
which helps reduce the page size and the amount of time it takes a web browser to display the page.) Stylesheets give
you more design options and control than you get with HTML text attributes. It’s easier to maintain or change your
site’s appearance by using stylesheets—when you change a style in a stylesheet, the change is instantly updated in all
text that refers to the style in one or more pages.
HTML text attributes
HTML text attributes define formatting that affects only the text to which you apply the attributes. You can use the
Type menu, context menu, and the Main toolbar for applying HTML structuring and formatting attributes to text.
The Main toolbar includes paragraph formats, such as headers, font attributes, and numbered and bulleted lists. The
Type menu provides these options and more, including options for creating and applying font sets. The context menu
for selected text provides a quick way to apply all of these items and more.
HTML Styles
HTML Styles define a set of one or more text formatting attributes that affect only the text to which you apply the
style. GoLive HTML Styles are sets of HTML text attributes listed the HTML Styles palette. The palette contains
several predefined HTML styles and lets you save custom HTML styles either based upon attributes in text or created
from scratch in the New Style dialog box. Unlike CSS styles, changing an HTML style does not change the corre­
sponding text attributes that the HTML style was previously applied to.