Using the stylesheet

The HSE Web standard is based on a set of fixed page elements that can be used in combination to render your page. By using the web standard, your page is more likely to:

• be accessible by design
• represent the corporate brand
• comply with the latest web standards

There are no guarantees, and the content that you put on your page will affect all of the above.

Style Menu

The styles available represent a minimal set of typographical elements for effective communication. By using a small number of styles we can guarantee the quality and consistency of the whole website with much greater confidence. This means that the individual author may be required to sacrifice some creativity.

There is nevertheless an array of elements at your disposal:

• Boxes
• Forms
• Headings
• Highlights
• Images
• Links
• Lists
  • Normal lists
  • Definition lists
• Portal
• Tabular Data
• Text
• Advanced Features

Within each category, a small number of alternatives is provided.

Finding the right style

The style gallery page gives an example of the styles appropriate for each page layout. Most styles are appropriate for most pages, with some exceptions (e.g. tabular data, which is only used in the one column layout).

• 1 column styles
• 2 column styles
• 3 column styles

Creating new styles

We believe that styleguide gives authors sufficient control over presentation to express all ideas. If the style you require is not immediately apparent then the first stage is to look again at the content you want to put on the page. Can it be expressed in a different way? Can it be fitted into an existing style?

If the answer to the above questions is "no" and "no", then you may have a case to create a new style. Please bear in mind the following when considering a new style request:

• Don't ask us for a new style if you think that "it would look better like this". It is the job of the corporate brand to decide what looks best, and the considerations of the brand override the opinions of individual authors.
• Introducing a new style is costly and time-consuming. It will delay the production of your pages because of the extra effort required to develop and test any new look, and to properly document the new style in this styleguide. It will effectively add 2 weeks to the rollout of your page(s).

Authoring agent corruption

When using a WYSIWYG a editor, such as Dreamweaver or Frontpage, it is often the case that the rendering of the page inside the editor is corrupted. Whilst we take every step to ensure that the editors get as close as possible to the page as rendered in a browser, some corruption can still occur on the current templates.

We advise that you check the look of your page by previewing it in the browser

• in Dreamweaver, press F12