How to Create a CSS External Style Sheet
External style sheets are created in separate documents with a .css extension. An external style sheet is simply a listing of CSS rules. It cannot contain HTML tags. The <link>
tag, which goes in the head of an HTML page, is used to link to an external style sheet. There is no limit to the number of external style sheets a single HTML page can use. Also, external style sheets can be combined with embedded style sheets. Follow these steps to create an external style sheet.
- Start with an HTML file that contains an embedded style sheet, such as this one. Copy this text and paste into a new HTML file.
<!DOCTYPE HTML> <html> <head> <meta charset="UTF-8"> <title>Embedded Style Sheet</title> <style> h1 { color: #009; font-size: 1em; margin-bottom: .3em; text-align: center; text-decoration: underline; } table { margin: .3em; width: 290px; } th { padding: .2em; } td { background-color: #ffc; border: 1px solid #900; padding-left: .5em; padding-right: .5em; } #trHeader { color: #900; text-decoration: underline; } .centerCell { text-align: center; } </style> </head> <body> <div> <h1>All-time Home Run Record</h1> <table> <tr id="trHeader"> <th>Player</th> <th>Home Runs</th> <th>Team</th> </tr> <tr> <td>Barry Bonds</td> <td class="centerCell">762</td> <td>Giants</td> </tr> <tr> <td>Hank Aaron</td> <td class="centerCell">755</td> <td>Braves</td> </tr> <tr> <td>Babe Ruth</td> <td class="centerCell">714</td> <td>Yankees</td> </tr> <tr> <td>Willie Mays</td> <td class="centerCell">660</td> <td>Giants</td> </tr> </table> </div> </body> </html>
- Create a new file and save it as
StyleSheet.css
in the same directory. (You can give the file any name as long as it has the .css extension). - Move all the CSS rules from the HTML file to the
StyleSheet.css
file. Don't copy thestyle
tags.h1 { text-align: center; font-size: 1em; color: #009; margin-bottom: .3em; text-decoration: underline; } table { margin: .3em; width: 290px; } th { padding: .2em; } td { padding-left: .5em; padding-right: .5em; border: 1px solid #900; background-color: #ffc; } #trHeader { text-decoration: underline; color: #900; } .centerCell { text-align: center; }
- Remove the
style
block from the HTML file. - In the HTML file, add a
link
tag after the closingtitle
tag that points toStyleSheet.css
.
<link> attributes include:<link href="StyleSheet.css" rel="stylesheet">
href
points to the location of the external style sheet rel
must be set to "stylesheet" for linking style sheets type
must be set to "text/css" for linking to cascading style sheets - Open the HTML file in a browser. It should look like this: