[...beginning a new help doc relevant to the most recent addition of documents, and of the revising of the general doc styles...]
[...former help doc: docserver help (2024 Apr 28) [help.htm]...]
[...copying from "help.htm", which means a lot of revising needed, especially the links...]
Documents marked with HTM (hypertext markup) often have additional text marked as HTM comments. In that way, the alternate view in an HTM docviewer can be more focused with its topic while retaining additional information.
Consider viewing with an a plaintext docviewer, such as either Notepad or TextEdit (might need to change its preferences), or either Ed [gnu.org] or Emacs [gnu.org] plaintext editors. That typically also allows editing the saved document, so consider editing a copy of that saved doc.
There is no dependence upon scripting nor programming, neither from within the documents nor from the docserver.
Therefore, there is no reliance upon database software and their formats, neither on the docserver nor with the HTML doc viewer on the computer of the person requesting the documents. Notably, personal information is neither gathered nor required.
A document is intended as independent of its HTML, though with a little bit of fluff. The default properties of the HTML marks are acceptable, therefore a document remains independent of CSS.
Personal customization for viewing these HTML documents is possible by means of a personal stylesheet, especially by matching the domain name within the id attribute of the <html> mark (Customizing a personal stylesheet).
Basic details about using common buttonboard navigation of a document are also provided (Traditional navigation).
Ultimately, the person viewing an HTML document makes the final decision for its alternate view with a personal stylesheet.
Before the turn of the century, personalizing was enabled with Simplicity, Flexibility, and Accessibility by the means of a personal Cascading Style Sheet (CSS) document (w3.org: 2.4 CSS design principles).
Ever since then, the everyday person has been customizing an HTML doc viewer for comfortably reading any HTML document requested (misnomered as "visited") from computers connected throughout the world, t.i. the World Wide Web.
That is because a person might have different comforts, abilities, or desires throughout the day, and an author of a document can never anticipate all possibilities for a single stranger, yet alone for everyone. Truly, it is the responsibility of the person viewing the document to make adjustments for personal comfort, as that person is in the best position to know the personal discomforts of that moment in that environment.
Curiously, using a personal stylesheet is considered by computer companies as "challenging". For example, one microcomputer software company has labeled it as an "accessibility" option within its HTML doc viewer, while another non-personal computer company has labeled it as "advanced". Other computer programmers require the person reads the computer source code of their HTML doc viewers in order to discover how to activate a personal stylesheet, if possible at all.
Nonetheless, the content of these documents are intended to be independent from their stylesheets. In that way, the <link> mark declaring the stylesheet can be removed and the document should still be comfortably readable. Or change the path in the <link> mark to a custom stylesheet, or add more stylesheets. Note that is different than using a personal stylesheet in regard to overruling rules, as they become stylesheets of the document itself.
The note stylesheet is documented with intent and use (Note stylesheet: introduction). There is also a means for specifying CSS rules for documents from only this domain so they can coexist with the CSS rules intended for documents from other domains, all within the same personal stylesheet (There can be only one).
The visual characteristics that have been changed and the intent for changing them have been consolidated into a single stylesheet for the most recent documents (Note stylesheet).
Sometimes a document has changes that are specific to only the document itself. The guidance and CSS rules will be either in the <style> region at the top of the document, or at the very bottom within an <iframe> region as an internal document.
There are very few classes for selectors of CSS rules within the stylesheets for these files. The id attribute is always intended for use as a fragment link, though sometimes the location is also enhanced. Overall, that should simplify specificity for selectors of CSS rules.
Even though a personal stylesheet usually affects the visual characteristics of documents from all docservers, it is possible to affect documents from only one docserver without creating multiple personal stylesheets. Alternatively, the HTML documents from this docserver can be just as easily excluded with the :not() CSS selector.
The id attribute for the <html> mark in documents from this docserver is declared for convenient use within personal stylesheets (Note guideline: aid personalized reading). It has the domain name for this docserver "L8L.info", the path to the document, and then the document name without the superfluous ".html" suffix.
<html lang=en=L8L.info--sharing>
Note that it is within the document, therefore CSS rules matching it will work regardless of wherever the document is saved or renamed.
Match just the domain name in order to affect all documents from this docserver.
Recall ^= in an attribute selector for a CSS rule matches only the beginning of the attribute value, without needing to match the whole attribute value.
/* Unstick the document title
from the top. */
[id^="/l8l.info/"]
>body
>h1:first-child
{position: static !important}
/* Replace the border around documents
with wide margins instead. */
[id^="/l8l.info/"]
>body
{border-style:none !important
;margin-left:1em !important
;margin-right:1em !important}
/* Increase the line height of paragraphs. */
[id^="/l8l.info/"]
>body
>p
{line-height:1.5}
Include a directory name for matching documents in that directory (and its subdirectories).
/* Count the number of entries
within any document of the "/a-directory/".
("count-of-entries" is a made up name,
so rename it if desired.) */
[id^="/domain.tld/a-directory/"]
>body
{counter-reset:count-of-entries}
/* Each paragraph or <dl>
is probably an entry. */
[id^="/domain.tld/a-directory/"]
>body
>p
,[id^="/domain.tld/a-directory/"]
>body
>dl
{counter-increment:count-of-entries}
/* Might as well use the ::before pseudo-region
from the last horizontal rule <hr>
(which is after all the content)
for showing the results in the top right corner
below the document title. */
[id^="/domain.tld/a-directory/"]
>body
>hr:last-of-type::before
{background-color:black
;color:white
;content:counter(count-of-entries) " entries"
;position:fixed
;top:1.5em
;right:0}
Match the whole value to match a specific document.
/* For the main index of "/a-directory/"
assume each data-added region is an entry
and stack all of them into two columns. */
/* The 1st, 3rd, 5th,... */
[id="/domain.tld/a-directory/index"]
>body
>[data-added]:nth-child(2n+1)
{float:left
;clear:left
;width:19.5em
;padding:1em .5em 1em 0
;border-top:#999 solid .125em
;border-right:#999 solid .5em
;margin:0 -.25em 0 0 !important}
/* The 2nd, 4th, 6th,... */
[id="/domain.tld/a-directory/index"]
>body
>[data-added]:nth-child(2n)
{float:right
;clear:right
;width:19.5em
;padding:1em 0
;border-top:#999 solid .125em
;border-left:#999 solid .5em
;margin:0 0 0 -.25em !important}
/* Keep the relational links at the bottom
by clearing the line breaks before them. */
br
{clear:both}
/* Complete the look by making the
left and right edges the same color. */
[id="/domain.tld/a-directory/index"]
>body
{border-color:#999 !important}
Using $= for matching only the ending of the attribute value makes it possible to match by both the domain and the document name regardless of intermediary directories.
/* A dotted left border for documents,
except for indices. */
[id^="/domain.tld/"]
>body
{border-left-style:dotted !important}
[id^="/domain.tld/"][id$="/index"]
>body
{border-left-style:solid !important}
Use the :not() selector for excluding some or all documents from a specific domain from being affected by a specific rule.
/* A rule for all domains
other than "domain.tld". */
:not([id^="/domain.tld/"])
>body
>p
{
/* whatever properties desired
for paragraphs in the body region */
}
A personal stylesheet gives a person the opportunity to establish a more comfortable personal experience. A capable HTML doc viewer will apply a personal stylesheet to each HTML document viewed within it.
CSS is used for changing the default characteristics of marked regions in an HTML document, f.e. background color of text marked as a paragraph <p>. A basic stylesheet might be named "personal-styles.css", and might be as simple as a single rule and no other text.
p
{background-color: white !important}
Simply use a text editing program to create a plain text file. Typically, a plain text file is saved with a filename having the ".txt" suffix. For a personal stylesheet, it might help to add ".css" to the filename rather than ".txt" for the sake of some HTML doc viewers.
Any text embraced between /* and */ within a CSS stylesheet is personal commentary, a convenience for recording motivation and intent. Commentary will be ignored by the HTML doc viewer because it only uses the CSS rules.
There are only three sources of CSS (w3.org: 6.4 The cascade): the stylesheet of the HTML doc viewer, the document (misnomered as "author"), and a personal stylesheet (misnomered as "user").
An HTML doc viewer provides from its own stylesheet its default values of properties for each HTML mark. For example, a common HTML doc viewer default is a white background color with a black text color for the body region.
body
{background-color: white
;color: black
;margin: 1.5in}
For a specific mark, a property for it in a personal stylesheet overrules the same property for it in a HTML viewer stylesheet. For example, a similar rule for the same <body> mark declared in a personal stylesheet, but with properties of different colors.
body
{background-color: black
;color: beige}
For a specific mark, a property for it in any CSS rule of the document overrules the same property for it in either a personal stylesheet or HTML viewer stylesheet. For example, a similar rule might be in a style region [ marked as <style> ] of the document or in a separate stylesheet [ a file referenced by a <link> mark ] .
body
{background-color: white
;color: gray}
The only way for a personal stylesheet to overrule a property value from CSS rules of a document is to add "!important" [ space around the exclamation mark ! is optional ] to the value. For example, declare each value of the color properties for the <body> mark to be important.
body
{background-color: black !important
;color: beige !important}
As such, what really matters is whether the value of a property for a specific mark declared in a personal stylesheet is more important than what the document declares for it.
While the document can also use "!important", its use in a personal stylesheet will overrule its use in the CSS rules of the document. To reiterate, the person viewing the document makes the final decision by means of the personal stylesheet.