CategoryLayouts

May 25, 2018 — Today we have a real choice in terms of the layout methods we use in CSS to develop our sites, which means we often need to make a choice as to which approach to take. Whether you’re fairly new to CSS or an experienced developer from elsewhere in the stack who wants to make sure your understanding of layout today is up to date, this guide covers everything you need to know about CSS Layout today. In this article, Rachel Andrew will run through the various layout methods that you have available to you by explaining the basics of how they are used and what they are used for. Read more…

April 16, 2018 — In some ways, we are all still so new to CSS Grid Layout. A lot of folks keep asking about best practices that are available out there. In this article, Rachel Andrew is going to try and cover some of the things that either could be described as best practices, and some things that you probably don’t need to worry about. She will ran a survey and share the results as well as her personal thoughts. Read more…

April 9, 2018 — CSS Grid is important, really important. With it, we can now be as creative with layout on the web as we can in print, without compromising accessibility, responsiveness, or usability. If you’re at all serious about web design or development, you need to be serious about learning and using CSS Grid, too. In this article, Andrew Clarke will show you how to use one aspect, grid-template areas, an easy way of arranging elements. Read more…

March 29, 2018 — CSS Logical Properties and Values aren’t quite ready to be used yet, however learning about them can help you to understand CSS Layout, and the interaction with Writing Modes. In this article, Rachel Andrew  is going to explain how CSS is changing to support writing modes, and in doing so, she’ll clear up some of the things that might confuse you about Flexbox and Grid. Read more…

February 22, 2018 — Ever wondered how achieve styling of empty grid cells without adding redundant empty elements? Well, CSS Generated Content can help you do just that. In this article, Rachel Andrew is going to take a look at how to use CSS Generated Content to achieve styling of empty cells without adding redundant empty elements and show some use cases where this technique makes sense. Read more…

February 5, 2018 — Do You Need A Media Query? The first rule of using media queries is to ask yourself if you really need to use a Media Query at all. In this article, Rachel Andrew will take a look at the use of media queries for responsive design today, how they work alongside Flexbox and Grid Layout, and also have a look at what is coming in the future. Read more…

January 16, 2018 — Sometimes, you might wonder why something ends up the size that it is. Or, you might want to do something different to the default behavior. To do so, you need to know something of how the underlying algorithms figure out how to distribute space. When starting to use Flexbox and Grid, it can be frustrating to find that we sometimes don’t get the layout we expect. Often this is due to the way sizing is calculated in these new layout methods. In this article, Rachel Andrew will try to explain exactly how big that box is, and how it got to be that size! Read more…

December 11, 2017 — This article is about the Block Formatting Context (BFC). Today, Rachel Andrew will explain the existing ways to create a Block Formatting Context, why it is important in CSS layout, and show you a new method of creating one. She’ll explain what a BFC is through examples which are likely to be familiar to you, and then show you a new value of display, that really only makes sense once you understand what a BFC is and why you might need one. Read more…

November 16, 2017 — How do you come up with your list of supported browsers? Why would you force a bunch of JavaScript onto those devices? The question of browser support has to be addressed when using any new CSS. In this article, Rachel Andrew will explore approaches to dealing with browser support today. What are the practical things we can do to allow us to use new CSS now and still give a great experience to the browsers that don’t support it? Read more…

June 16, 2017 — Our industry thrives on constant, aggressive development, and new technologies emerge on a regular basis that change the way we do things in fundamental ways. Much of what we know of the possibilities, limitations and best practices surrounding web layouts is effectively rendered obsolete by the CSS Grid Layout module. In this article, Morten Rand-Hendriksen will bring you some concepts into practical use. What you’ll get is a starting point for exploring what new layout opportunities and challenges CSS grid brings, what old problems it solves and how to start using the module in production websites today. Read more…