Working with CSS

CSS, which stands for cascading style sheet, is a Web technology that enables you to organize and streamline the formatting of your site by using styles. A style is a format that you can easily apply to elements on your page. A style sheet is a collection of styles you can attach to a page so that the styles become available.

The beauty of CSS is that you can create one style sheet and attach it to as many Web pages as you like. This enables you to keep your formatting consistent across your entire site—or across multiple sites.

Even though Office Live is designed so that you don’t have to work with style sheets or HTML to produce professional-looking Web sites, having the ability to work with CSS enables you to use styles to format your pages so that you can easily change the whole thing later by simply applying an updated style sheet. Suppose, for example, that you have a 15-page site that uses Arial as the font, a color scheme with purple and orange, and a certain kind of header style and table style. You can create CSS styles for each of those elements—and they are all saved in your CSS style sheet. A few months from now, you might want to redesign your site to showcase some great new features. Instead of going through each page one by one; selecting the text; and changing the font, color, and style, you can attach a revised style sheet to the page. The entire site will be changed to reflect the new styles.

Think "Packaging"

If you find that you are really good at creating sites with Office Live Small Business, you might want to package what you’ve done and provide it to other users as they begin working with their own sites. Your clients can then use the site you created as the basis for their own work (which adds the extra benefit of consistency if you are all part of an association or franchise organization).

When the advanced design features are enabled on your Office Live Small Business site, a new option for Web packaging becomes available in the Design Site list in the Page Manager. Click Design Site and choose Package Solution, and the program will walk you through the steps for preparing your site to share with others.

Similarly, if you want to install a packaged site (also called a "solution") from another vendor or partner, you can click Design Site and select Install Solution.

Your Business Online: Q&A Interview

Jay Harper, District Manager and VP of Operations (GMI)

The GMI Group: www.thegmigroup.com

When Do the Bells and Whistles Pay Off?

Adding special features and new functionality to your Web site is a bit like exploring a huge desert buffet. Sure, you can have all you want, but should you? Moderation might be the key word, depending on the needs and expectations of your audience. As you explore the tested-and-tried adages of the Web design pundits, you will find a common refrain—less is more. If you use that advice to temper your enthusiasm for easy-to-add Web gadgets (perhaps adding two and then waiting a month to get feedback and see whether users are actually trying them) and ease into Web gadgetry cautiously, you can be reasoned and practical about your site changes while keeping your audience firmly in mind.

The most important aspect of adding bells and whistles to your site is really the task of keeping your customer at the center of your thought. Do your customers need to see an animated logo? Sure, you want to put the photos of the great new building on your site, but will your customers really want to sit through a slide show of the building from all angles? (If the photos help show customers how reliable and successful you are, it might be a whistle you want to add.)

What you don’t want to do is add so many gadgets and modules to your site that customers have a hard time finding what they need. For all the great design, terrific photos, and engaging copy on your pages, if users don’t find what they are looking for, they will click away and look for a site that delivers what they want. You might have what users want, but if it’s buried at the bottom of a page that showcases an unnecessary video at the top, they might not know it.

The moral? Before you add all the high-energy, attention-getting (and fun!) modules to your site, think carefully about what your site visitors really need and want to see. What will help them know what they need to know about you in order to purchase your product or service? Do everything you can to help them make that decision with a clear mind and heart—and give them an easy way to contact you with any questions that they have—and you’re halfway home to creating an engaging and functional site that can really help you bring in the business.