The HTML that produces the text we see on our computer screens states what specific parts of that text, such as book titles or set-off quotations, are rather than what they look like. In other words, instead of placing the symbol for italics before and after titles of books or periodicals it uses so-called tags that define the text entity as a book or periodical: <span class="book">Bleak House>/span>. Such tags are also used to format first paragraphs in an essay as well as those in bibliographies and indented text used for long passages of quoted material.
Why do this?
We go to all this trouble (and it is admittedly a lot of work) because the Victorian Web uses a file (or document) that defines what a document on our site looks like. Therefore if we want to change the size or font of the text in our essays, a single change in this HTML style sheet instantly changes the appearance of tens of thousands of documents. As a matter of fact, some years ago we decided to change the main text from a serif font, such as Times or Palatino, to a non-serif one, such as Helvetica or Arial, because it both looked more modern and easier to read. The change took a few minutes.
A document entitled style1.css controls the vast majority of the documents on the Victorian Web. CSS stands for Cascading Style Sheets. Placing “css” after the title of a document identifies it as an HTML style sheet— that is, as a document with a set of rules that defines what a document on our site looks like. (This HTML style sheet is not to be confused with a style sheet or manual of style that defines the rules for writing, such as punctuation, capitalization, diction, bibliography, and so forth.)
Does using style1.css or any other css document, have any downsides? Yes, it does. First of all one has to know which tags to use, and the Victorian Web uses a lot of tags. Second, if one wants a website that looks sophisticated and well-designed, the css style sheet has to define the size and font of text not only the main text but ones used in inset quotations, header notes, and the bc (bread crumb) links that appear immediately beneath the blue header icon at the top of the screen.
Here two ways of making formatting the Victorian Web easier: (1) Create a document in Word, Pages, TextEdit, BBedit or any other text software with tags that you find yourself using frequently, such as <span class="book">BOOK TITLE</span> or <p class="one"> </p>. Then copy and paste the appropriate one into the HTML document you are formatting. (2) Use software, such as TextExpander, that does the work for you. With this software one creates a list of texts paired with abbreviations of your choice. For example, if I type b+k it produces <span class="book">xxxx>/span>. Similarly, if I type & + 3, it produces the complex HTML for three expandable images and the formatting required for captions:
<center>
<a href="xxx.html">
<img src="xxx.jpg" height="180" hspace="5" border="0"/</a>
<a href="xxx.html">
<img src="xxx.jpg" height="180" hspace="5" border="0"/</a>
<a href="xxx.html">
<img src="xxx.jpg" height="180" hspace="5" border="0"/</a>
</center>
<p class="tc">Left: <span class="tcartwork">/span>. Middle: <span class="tcartwork"</span>. Right: <span class="tcartwork"</span>. [Click on images to enlarge them.]>/p>
One can also use TextExpander to correct words you frequently mistype. It's very inexpensive, and I find it saves me hours of work.
Last modified 13 July 2021