Style & Structure?

Does the seperation of style and sturcture really help?

[NonEuclidean]

Does, e.g. keeping xhtml strict - thus keeping all styles to css, really help browsers, spiders, bots, & search engines? I've heard & read too much arguing yes, no, maybe so, consistant display is all that matters, bend over backwards for IE, don't worry about IE & style away w/ css 2.1, and so on.

I'm pretty green, but I've got xhtml & css down pretty well: the main thing, besides the core question, is that I started learning css w/v 2.1 and the only times I know I need to tweak my code are from occational e-mails from IE users saying "x looks strange," and I'm tired of needing to check everything aginst IE.

Sorry for essentially two questions, but they are very connected for me right now.

Advice?

[thee]

The learning curve is pretty steep when learning how to properly use CSS stylesheets especially regarding the IE compatibility issues. However, I would recommend its use for the reasons you invoked.

The biggest advantages of css being its easy maintainability and wider possibilities to achieve a decent design.

Another -often neglicted- aspect of css is that once it's loaded in a browser it's cached so page loads and reloads are much faster and smoother (no blank screen).

[TechnoGeek]

Hi, NonEuclidean.
The main reason to use CSS is, in my opinion, your convenience and not that of the browsers, spiders, etc. You want to separate content from style so that: 1) you have to code less, and 2) you can make changes more easily. Once this is said, it is good to know that by using CSS you do not get into problems in any aspect, and that you may get some side benefits. There are many things that are convenient to the webmaster but prejudicial because of this or that. This is not the case with CSS, so you can use them if you like and be happy that you will not make you any damage.
Hope this helps.

[NonEuclidean]

Thank you for the advice, this helps very much!

[mack]

Using true CSS can be helpfull from an seo point of view. It allows you to really focus on your true content within your document and call the design , style and ofther "fluff" within an external style sheet.

Mack.