CSS Training Room Set-up

This page details the software, hardware and training room set-up required for running on-site CSS (Cascading Style Sheet) training at your own premises.

These requirements state our preferred set-up for CSS training. Because training needs and resources obviously differ from company to company, we have a number of fallbacks and workarounds for situations in which some of these requirements cannot be fully met.

If you have problems meeting any of our CSS training room requirements, please contact us at the earliest possible opportunity to discuss alternative arrangements. In most circumstances, we would expect clients to confirm an agreed set-up at least 2 weeks before the running of a course.

The Training Room

The room need not be a dedicated training suite or computer laboratory, but it should normally have these features:

• Protection from nearby sources of audio-visual distraction (walls and doors usually suffice).
• One workstation or PC per delegate.
• Sufficient table-top workspace to accomodate a workstation and two A4 folders per student.
• Data projector with VGA connection and a minimum resolution of 800x600 pixels.
• Screen or whiteboard for projecting slides.
• Whiteboard and/or flip chart with 3 or more different coloured pens for tutor illustrations.
• Sufficient power sources for delegates’ and tutor’s equipment
• Nearby refreshments for mid-morning and afternoon breaks.
• World Wide Web access from delegate and tutor workstations.
• Internet access for the tutor (Secure Shell - SSH).

Software For Microsoft Windows-based Courses

Apart from the operating system (any Win32 version will do), all of the Windows software required to edit and test CSS can be freely downloaded from the web. In many cases, the best tools for the job are released under open source licences.

• Web access is not an absolute requirement, but it makes the course much more interesting, so please ensure that Windows networking (including proxy servers) is properly configured if you intend to allow it.

• A good text editor with syntax highlighting, ideally CSS-aware.

  We reccommend HTML-Kit for those who do not already have a favourite

  • http://www.chami.com/html-kit/download/

  Note: The ability to hand code HTML and CSS is an absolute requirement for good quality web site design. Some GUI tools like Dreamweaver can be configured for hand editing and standards compliance, but most cannot. Many, like MS Frontpage, actually discourage best practice

• 3 different types of web browser for testing delegate’s CSS :

  1. A popular browser

     Usually Microsoft Internet Explorer version 5.5 or above and preferrably version 6 or above.

  2. A standards compliant browser

     Preferrably Mozilla Firefox version 0.9 or above.

     If necessay, the following are decent standards compliant substitutes:

     • Mozilla Suite 1.7 or above.
     • Opera 7.51 or above

  3. A text browser

     • Lynx

Software For Open Systems Courses (Mac, Unix, Linux, BSD etc)

Apart from proprietary Unix operating systems, all of software required to edit and test CSS can be freely downloaded from the web, mostly under open source licences.

• Web access is not an absolute requirement, but it makes the course much more interesting, so please ensure that your OS networking (including proxies) is properly configured if you intend to allow it.

• A good text editor with syntax highlighting, ideally HTML and CSS-aware.

  Emacs and Vim are powerful, feature-rich and worth learning, but cannot be mastered in just a few weeks. Here are some less intimidating tools with HTML and CSS support:

  • Bluefish
  • EditPadPro
  • Glimmer

• 3 different types of web browser for testing delegate’s CSS :

  1. A popular browser

     Ideally Microsoft Internet Explorer version 5.5 or above, under emulation, via terminal server, or a standalone Windows PC. N.B. This may be difficult for Linux/Unix users to arrange and is not, thefore an absolute requirement.

  2. A standards compliant browser

     Preferrably Mozilla Firefox version 0.9 or above.

     If necessay, the following are decent standards compliant substitutes:

     • Mozilla Suite 1.7 or above
     • Opera 7.51 or above

  3. A text browser

     • The Internet Software Consortium’s Lynx
     • A faster browser with table layout capabilities Elinks