Using !important basically tells the user agent to use this rule, no matter what. If there’s a different definition of this specific rule later in the same style sheet, or one with a with more weight, ignore those, and use this one.

You as a visitor to my page, may have your own way you want to view pages you browse. Let’s say you want pages always to have padding of 20px and you create a style sheet. Your definition may look like this
body { color: #000000 !important; padding: 20px !important; }
After applying the default style and your style, the rule would be
body { color: #000000 !important; padding: 20px !important; line-height: 1.33 }
Even though my style,
body { color: #FFCC00; padding: 0; margin: 0; }
is applied after your style, the rules with the !important setting will still be used, overruling my definition, resulting in the next definition as final rule:
body { color: #000000; padding: 20px; margin: 0; line-height: 1.33 }

Another very good use of the !important setting is when you want to make sure that, in case of importing several style sheets, the specific rule is not overwritten by similar rule.

If the !important setting is used on the same selector more than once, the last definition will overrule the earlier. However, if the same selector is set as !important in the style sheets of both the author (me) and the user (you), CSS2 specifies that the user’s definition (yours) will take precedence.

Style sheets may have three different origins:

• The author: These style sheets are defined by the person who writes the document. For instance, in HTML, the author can decide to include the styles sheets in the document, or have them in a separate file, that is linked to the source document.
• The user: The user may have their own styles that they want to use when accessing documents. Someone with bad eye sight may decide to use a larger font, or a different contrast profile. One may want to disable blinking text, or other distracting styles.
• User agent: This is the application that is used to access the document. This could be anything, from a web browser, email client, mobile phone, screen reader to even a braille reader.

  User agents that claim to operate conform the CSS specifications, are required to, at least behave as if they apply a default style sheet before other style sheets for a document are loaded. If you would view a document without style, it needs to have a standard look in every user agent, depending on the language it was written in. In HTML, an unstyled EM element, for instance, would be displayed using an italic font. This element could be styled to look as strike-trough text by the author, but if it isn’t the author should be able to assume it will be displayed using an italic font.

Rest assured that style definitions will overlap, so there has to be a way to know which style of the different sources will be used. This is where the cascade comes in play.

The cascade

The CSS cascade assigns a weight to each style definition. When there are several definitions for the same rule, the one with the greatest weight will take precedence.

Rules from the Author have more weight than rules user styles. User agent rules have the least weight. The weight of imported style sheets depends on their import order. In case the “!important” declaration is used, the precedence of the author style and the user styles is switched.

So, to find the correct style values to display, a user agent needs to do the following:

1. Find all declarations that apply to the element and property in question, for the target media type. Declarations apply if the associated selector matches the element in question.
2. Sort the declarations for the first time, by weight and origin: For normal declarations this means that the default style will be overridden by the user styles, which in turn will be overridden by the author styles. For “!important” declarations this means that the default style is overridden by the author styles, which will be overridden by the user styles. Imported styles are considered to have the same origin as the style sheet that imported it.
3. Sort the declarations for the second time, by specificity of selector: more specific selectors will override more general ones. Pseudo-elements and pseudo-classes are counted as normal elements and classes, respectively.
4. Finally, sort by order specified: if weight, origin and specificity are the same, the last rue to be specified will be used. Rules in imported style sheets are considered to be before any rules in the style sheet itself.

Examples

Let’s say I create an HTML 4 document where I use the following style definition:
body { margin: 0; padding: 0; }
When you would visit that page in your browser, the browser would first apply the default style for body:
body { padding: 8px; line-height: 1.33 }
Since you, as the reader, probably don’t have your own styles specified, it would skip to apply the styles as I have defined them. In this case, the padding of 8px of the default style will be overruled by my zero padding. Since I have no declaration for line-height, the default line-height will be used. This will result in your browser displaying the page with
body { margin: 0; padding: 0; line-height: 1.33 }

Summary

To summarize: The cascade works as follows: The user agent (browser, mobile device, braille reader or such) applies the default style to the document. After that it looks for relevant styles defined by the reader of the document. If they exist, they are applied. After, it checks if there are author styles, and applies those. In this whole process it checks how specific the rule is.

Later I’ll talk about the !important setting and look at some examples of rule specificity.

However, that doesn’t mean that tables have no use. There are still moments when you need to include tabular data on your website.

About 2 years ago I wrote a simple tutorial on styling tables with CSS.

No, don’t build an entire page with tables, but when you do use tables, be sure to style them so they fit your design.

photo credit: onebutan-iphone

What’s the content?

This blog focuses mainly on subjects that have something to do with building web sites. As a secondary subject the Linux operating system, especially the Ubuntu flavor, is touched.

Note: I used to blog about this subject on Rehuel punt kom, but I’m switching focus of that blog more to ME, since it has my name. Gradually I will be rewriting those articles here.

Audience

A few good notes targets the following groups of readers:

• Starting web designers, who look for tricks to get stuff done
• Intermediate web developers who look for information on a specific subject
• Bloggers who need design advise
• Readers who are interested in Ubuntu, especially those who plan to switch from Windows to Linux.

Writing style

I write about MY experiences. Most of these subjects may have already been touched by other publishers, but I believe that my experiences with these subjects can add extra value to the community.

This is why I write loosely. No business writing style, no official help documentation style, just my own voice.

The pitch

“A few good notes” is a collection of my web design and development related experiences in a Linux environment.

Tell me what you think of my pitch.

This post is part of the 31 Day Build a Better Blog Challenge (31DBBB)

photo credit: Barnaby_S

Data on a separate partition

If you only have one hard disk, split it up in at least two separate partitions. Most OSes have software to do this. Make the first partition 10 to 20 GB larger than is minimally required by the operating system, for future use. This is where you install your operating system. Use your second partition to store your data. If something happens to your operating system, and it needs to be reinstalled, you can safely reformat your first partition, without touching the information on the second partition.

Data on a separate disk

Although having the data on a separate partition can be helpful with operating systems that regularly crash (read: Windows), it doesn’t guard your data against hard disk failures. If for some reason your hard drive gets corrupted and or useless, there’s virtually no way to get your data from that disk without risk of losing some, if not all.

With this in mind, having your data on a separate hard disk is a better option. In this case, replacing a defective hard drive where the operating system resides can be done without fear of losing the data.

Backups to external media

Yes, of course, the disk holding your data could also crash. We don’t dare to think of the day that happens. Just be prepared! Backup, backup, backup!

Depending on the amount of information you keep, you will have to decide upon the type of backups you need to make, the media you will use and the frequency.

Types of backups
There are two types of backup used frequently:

• Full backups: With this type you actually make a copy of everything that needs backing up. Sometimes it’s compressed (zipped), sometimes it’s just placed as a real time copy.
• Incremental backups: With this type, you first make a copy of everything you need to backup. From that point on, when you make a backup, the first backup is updated with any data that has been added, deleted or updated since the last backup.

Backup media
The type of media you will use to make backups of your files will depend on the type and amount of information that needs backing up. Architects or print designers may needs Tera Byte external hard drives to store their backups, while a secretary, who only creates documents in Word and Excel, may find a 2 GB USB stick or a DVD sufficient.

A very important fact to remember is that no media has everlasting life. Just to be safe, replace your backup media every year or two.

Backup frequency
This is a very important factor to consider. The more often you plan to make backups the more wear and tear you can expect on your media, which gives your media a shorter life span.

Backup frequency is usually dependent on how the amount of work you produce in a given interval. Content publishers who write new content daily may choose to backup on a weekly basis.

Restoring your data

Before you even start backing up your data, make sure you know how you will be able to restore it. A backup is of no use if you can’t restore it. Before you restore your data, verify that the media you will be using to restore to is clean and without defects.

Whatever choice you make concerning the storage of your data in relation to the operating system, the best defense against data loss is to remember to make regular backups of your data on dependable media sources.

Don’t expect it to be all nice in the beginning, because this is also the first time they will do some creative writing. Hopefully this writing can help them stimulate their creative minds, and help them establish an online presence.

A few good notes was my very first blog. I had no clue what to write about, so it ended up containing a mixture of subjects. After that I started with Rehuel punt kom, where I wrote web development oriented articles. I also added Blogging Notes to the list, where I blogged about my blogging experience.

Recently I decided to rethink my blogging strategy.

My main focus in the future will be Exploring Suriname, where I will again write about great places to visit in Suriname. I visit those places, take some pictures and write a story about the pictures. There will also be general information about Suriname.

Rehuel punt kom will become my personal blog. I might just use that for some other personal projects. I’m still thinking about what to do with all the web development articles in there.

The parts of A few good notes about Suriname are now moved to Exploring Suriname. The rest of the posts are archived old.afewgoodnotes.com. These include some nice poems.

I’m not sure yet what to do with Blogging notes, since I probably won’t have the time to concentrate on posting there. The future will tell.

What to expect

I will write about a number of subjects related to blogging, online presence, online marketing and networking. I want to stress that I will write about my own experience, in my own way. Yes, what I will write about may already be covered numerous times, but I like to give my own take on the subjects. I enjoy writing loosely, not in an official tone. If that needs to change in the future, it will, but for now, I’ll be myself.

As many bloggers, I want to make a living with my blogs. Although I may not monetize (add ways to make money with my blog) for months, it will happen eventually.

I hope to get good feedback from my readers. This is the only way I can grow.

photo credit: Micah Dowty