Forum Moderators: not2easy
Thanks
If the ASP output is HTML code, containing HTML tags, you absolutely can use CSS to style it. CSS's only requirements are (a) a way to get the CSS to the browser for parsing (beit inline with the content, internal between <style></style> tags in the <head> of the document, or external brought in via a <link> tag in the <head> of the document) and (b) HTML tags to "hook" the CSS onto. A helpful addition to this is the ability to add certain attributes to the HTML, called IDs and CLASSes, which are invaluable for targeting styles to particular elements, but even if your ASP code doesn't allow for this, you can still style the generic elements in the output HTML.
Please feel free to post any particular questions regarding how to do this. If you do, be sure to include some information about the OUTPUT HTML. That HTML code is the key to getting CSS involved.
cEM
There are no need for class names except on the few structures that are going to have a different style to the rest of the page (e.g. navigation and footer would likely have a smaller text size).
This makes the CSS very easy, and the HTML coding for the page very light too.
If you are using multiple nested divs and spans, and many class names and IDs then you are likely doing it in a very inefficient way.
ZA
the departments update their portions of the site in Word (sigh)
What does!IMPORTANT (http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-CSS2/cascade.html) do for you when used with CSS?
they insist on using Word
This is a major bummer. When you export or save Word content into a web format, it carries a bunch of garbage MSO tags with it. Unfortunately, because of the way specificity calculations [w3.org] work, those inline MSO styles may override your internal or external CSS.
!important [w3.org] won't be any help, since it's purpose is to establish precedence between competing user and author styles. This isn't a battle between users and authors, but one between content-creators and a knowledgable webmaster. :(
The main problem is that Word adds that MSo code (usually a classname) which then conflicts with, and often overrides your site wide, less specific, CSS. So one option might be to program the ASP (I don't work with ASP but I've heard it is very similar to PHP. I know PHP would be able to do this.) to strip out MS's classes and inline code, in order to let your external styles take the fore.
For example, say they write the following in Word, then upload it to the site as a web page....
I love Microsoft.
Cut and pasted into another web application, it simply shows up as text with out the italics. Saved as a web page in Word, the resulting html looks like this...
<p class=MsoNormal>I love <i>Microsoft</i>. </p>
...which is fine except for the class=MsoNormal, which gets this styling in the head...
p.MsoNormal
{mso-style-parent:"";
margin:0in;
margin-bottom:.0001pt;
mso-pagination:widow-orphan;
font-size:12.0pt;
font-family:"Times New Roman";
mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman";}
If your stylesheet has a <p> style declaration with any of the above properties in it, it will be overrode by the above style block because the class name gives the MS style a specificity 10 times higher than your plain type selector. However, if your ASP could sweep through the code looking for class names with MSO in them, and then delete those class names before including the file, it would put your P type selector back into play.
The trick is figuring out how to make the ASP do that. A good place to start (if you need the help) might be the NET and ASP Forum [webmasterworld.com].
cEM
if your ASP could sweep through the code looking for class names with MSO in them, and then delete those class names before including the file,
wouldn't it be easier to strip out the <style> rules from the head of the document
Yes. But then the code would still be full of junked-up, useless MSO class tags, and that just makes me feel sad. ;)
But in practice, yes. Yours would be a much simpler solution.
cEM
