Saving a little time with some starter styles

Posted on 12th June 2008 by James Young | There are 3 comments so far

It’s all too easy to waste a lot of time re-writing css and xhtml for each new project and I’ve certainly done so on a number of occasions but there are definitely times when you can re-use code each time to get you started.

Not that I’m saying that you should give every client a pre-built template, far from it.

What I’ve found, and I’m sure many designers/developers are the same, is that there are always common elements you’re going to use in a project CSS file. Having a solid set of basic rules is not a new idea or something that nobody else has written about and I’d imagine many people already have a few bits of code available that saves them time.

I’ve added a simple page layout in XHTML and CSS which you can view here: a starter template and what I’ve tried to do is compile some base XHTML and CSS for elements such as tables, forms, a 3 column element and some simple formatting for headers, paragraphs and images.

Naturally not all of it will be useful to everyone, indeed some parts may not be useful at all but I’ve tried to show a simple way of putting together your site structure and what I find is an effective way of seperating my styles and content. I’ve tried to keep it as simple as possible as the focus should be on the elements within the page such as the table and the simple form not the layout itself as all projects will be different but you might find it useful to rip apart this template and the stylesheets to use as a simple baseline.

If you do want something to pick at, you’re welcome to download the relevant files and use them as you see fit.

As ever, if there’s anything you don’t like or think can be made better, please feel to make suggestions in the comments.

Hope it helps!