After close examination on rather to use HTML5, or just use HTML 4.01 and XHTML 1.1, I had decided to go with the later. True, I would have loved to use HTML5 and help advance it’s place in the Web Development World. But because I am new to Web Development, and too, received many suggestions from those whom are experienced in WordPress and in Design of it’s themes that I should stick to just plain HTML 4.01 and XHTML 1.1. And so, this is my over all plan.
With that being said, I would still like to use CSS3. This for many reasons, one that sticks out most is, I don’t need to use many extra images. Example, I have created a beautiful Search Form just using plain CSS3.
Now, my question is, although I have scraped the HTML5 idea, for now that is, and decided to use HTML 4.01 and XHTML 1.1, is it OK to still use CSS3 without HTML5? And I know that some Older IE Browsers don’t support CSS3, but should I be concerned?
As far as dealing with Earlier Versions of IE ( IE8, IE7, IE6), is this a huge issue, and are their ways to handle such issues. And what would you suggest is the proper approach to dealing with again IE issues? Are their any external Fix’s when it come to CSS3 and IE issues?
The transition will happen seamlessly and without force. You’ll naturally start using CSS3 (as I have) based on tutorials and common examples, so don’t worry about it. HTML5 is something else however, I’ve not had a chance to use it yet, but I am excited about doing so.
There are many external fixes coming to IE, try using PIE, it was recommended to be in this forum and I’ve not regretted it yet. If you are to use PIE http://css3pie.com/ set all the PIE properties to position:relative and it should work. In fact only modern browsers support CSS3, but considering it’s only presentation it should not matter too much. I hope this helps you and good luck with your future works.
I would recommend to use HTML5 because it has great features. Tags in HTML5 are improved and expanded just google HTML5 view main features and you will get hang of it.
Yes HTML5 is cool… The canvas element provides all sorts of options to provide a richer environment for reporting information or even creating animations and games but… I’m still a bit concerned about all of those laggards still using web browsers that don’t support HTML5. Anybody using less than IE9 (all Internet Explorer on WinXP) won’t get a lot of the goodness of HTML5. I’m using it (HTML5) for a few reporting pages on an engineering web application but mostly still using XHTML for for other sites (for now).
CSS3 is another story… I’m a fan of CSS3 but I also am weary of less capable browsers (IE6/7/8). I’ll either use conditional comments to load a special IE stylesheet for backwards compatibility or I’ll use IE Shim to provide CSS3-like compatibility for IE browsers.
CSS3 has nothing to do with html5 at all. They are entirely different things and should not be lumped together. Html5 is a mark up language and CSS is a stylesheet language. CSS3 does not need html5 to work as it will work very well in html4 in browsers that support it.
I haven’t seen anything that I actually need in html5 yet so won’t be using it for a few years yet.
Don’t forget that HTML5 is still in development and changing daily. At the moment, it’s like a severely premature infant—that can only survive with the help of a life support system (consisting of CSS hacks and a ton of JavaScript). Browsers don’t even yet recognize its most basic elements (like <nav> and <footer>), or its document structure etc. So really, the rush to use it seems misguided to me.
Modern browsers now have begun to implement some aspects of CSS3, but it also is still in development; and although it is being developed in modules (some of which are closer to completion than others), none of these is yet completed, so far as I know. But certainly, using something like border-radius is pretty reliable these days, and I just let older browsers (IE8 and under) live with square corners. (Remember that a modern browser like Chrome is always just a click away from people who are still using old versions of IE, so if they don’t choose to use something better, I’m not going to run after them with a silver platter.)
Good point. It is unfortunate that HTML5/CSS3 are treated as a whole rather than separate entities. It seems to me that if you search (google, yahoo, bing, etc…) for information on HTML5 or CSS3 a great deal of results link to pages that treat them as a single package.
I too use CSS3 but am staying away from HTML5 except when dealing with specialized web apps or mobile device websites that can use the additional functionality.