在某blog看到一篇关于css的文章，觉得还挺有用的，大致译了一下，译文和原文如下，如果有译得不正确的地方或是对类似问题有其他更好地解决办法的，请不吝赐教！
译文：
1.css 字体简写规则
当使用css定义字体时你可能会这样做：
font-size: 1em;
line-height: 1.5em;
font-weight: bold;
font-style: italic;
font-variant: small-caps;
font-family: verdana,serif;
事实上你可以简写这些属性：
font: 1em/1.5em bold italic small-caps verdana,serif
现在好多了吧，不过有一点要注意：使用这一简写方式你至少要指定font-size和font-family属性，其他的属性（如font-weight, font-style,font-varient）如未指定将自动使用默认值。
2.同时使用两个class
通常我们只为属性指定一个class,但这并不等于你只能指定一个，实际上，你想指定多少就可以指定多少，例如：
...
通过同时使用两个class（使用空格而不是逗号分割）,这个段落将同时应用两个class中制定的规则。如果两者中有任何规则重叠，那么后一个将获得实际的优先应用。
3.css中边框（border)的默认值
当编写一条边框的规则时，你通常会指定颜色、宽度以及样式（任何顺序均可）。例如：border: 3px solid #000（3像素宽的黑色实线边框），其实这个例子中唯一需要指定的值只是样式。假如你指定样式为实线（solid),那么其余的值将使用默认值：默认的宽度为中等（相当于3到4像素）；默认的颜色为边框里的文字颜色。如果这正是你想要的效果，你完全可以不在css里指定。
4.!important会被IE忽略
在css中，通常最后指定的规则会获得优先权。然而对除了IE以外的浏览器来说，任何后面标有!important的语句将获得绝对的优先权，例如：
margin-top: 3.5em !important; margin-top: 2em
除IE以外所有浏览器中的顶部边界都是3.5em，而IE为2em，有时候这一点很有用，尤其在使用相对边界值时（就像这个例子），可以显示出IE与其他浏览器的细微差别。
（很多人可能还注意到了css的子选择器也是会被IE忽略的）
5.图片替换的技巧
使用标准的html而不是图片来显示文字通常更为明智，除了加快下载还可以获得更好的可用性。但是如果你决心使用访问者的机器中可能没有的字体时，你只能选择图片。
举例来说，你想在每一页的顶部使用“Buy widgets”的标题，但你同时又希望这是能被搜索引擎发现的，为了美观你使用了少见的字体那么你就得用图片来显示了：
这样当然没错，但是有证据显示搜索引擎对真实文本的重视远超过alt文本（因为已经有太多网站使用alt文本充当关键字），因此，我们得用另一种方法：
Buy widgets
，那你的漂亮字体怎么办呢？下面的css可以帮上忙：
h1
{
background: url(/UpFiles/200509/20050922223059750.gif) no-repeat;
}
h1 span
{
position: absolute;
left:-2000px;
}
现在你既用上了漂亮的图片又很好的隐藏了真实文本——借助css，文本被定位于屏幕左侧-2000像素处。
6.css盒模型hack的另一选择
css盒模型hack被用来解决IE6之前的浏览器显示问题，IE6.0之前的版本会把某元素的边框值和填充值包含在宽度之内（而不是加在宽度值上）。例如，你可能会使用以下css来指定某个容器的尺寸：
#box
{
width: 100px;
border: 5px;
padding: 20px;
}
然后在html中应用：
...
盒的总宽度在几乎所有浏览器中为150像素（100像素宽度 两条5像素的边框 两个20像素的填充），唯独在IE6之前版本的浏览器中仍然为100像素（边框值和填充值包含在宽度值中），盒模型的hack正是为了解决这一问题，但是也会带来麻烦。更简单的办法如下：
css:
#box
{
width: 150px;
}
#box div {
border: 5px;
padding: 20px;
}
html:
这样一来在任何浏览器中盒的总宽度都将是150像素。
7.将块元素居中
假设你的网站使用了固定宽度的布局，所有的内容置于屏幕中央，可以使用以下的css：
#content
{
width: 700px;
margin: 0 auto;
}
你可以把html的body之内任何项目置于
中，该项目将自动获得相等的左右边界值从而保证了居中显示。不过，这在IE6之前版本的浏览器中仍然有问题，将不会居中，因此必须修改如下：
body
{
text-align: center;
}
#content
{
text-align: left;
width: 700px;
margin: 0 auto;
}
对body的设定将导致主体内容居中，但是连所有的文字也居中了，这恐怕不是你想要的效果，为此#content 的div还要指定一个值：text-align: left
8.使用css实现垂直居中
垂直居中对表格来说是小菜一碟，只需指定单元格为vertical-align: middle即可，但这在css布局中不管用。假设你将一个导航菜单的高度设为2em，然后在css中指定垂直对齐的规则，文字还是会被排到盒的顶部，根本没有什么区别。
要解决这一问题，只需将盒的行高设为与盒的高度相同即可，以这个例子来说，盒高2em,那么只需在css中再加入一条：line-height: 2em 就可实现垂直居中了！
9. 容器内的css定位
css的最大优点之一就是可以将对象定位在文档的任何位置，同样的也可以将对象在某容器内进行定位。只需要为该容器添加一条css规则：
#container
{
position: relative;
}
则容器内的任何元素的定位都是相对于该容器的。假定你使用以下html结构：
如果想将navigation定位在容器内离左边界30像素，离顶部5像素，可以使用以下css语句：
#navigation
{
position: absolute;
left: 30px;
top: 5px;
}
10.延伸至屏幕底部的背景色
css的缺点之一是缺乏垂直方向的控制，从而导致了一个表格布局不会遇到的问题。假设你在页面的左侧设定了一列用于放置网站的导航。页面为白色背景，但你希望导航所在的列为蓝色背景，使用以下css即可：
#navigation
{
background: blue;
width: 150px;
}
问题在于导航项不会一直延伸到页面的底部，自然它的背景色也不会延伸到底部。于是左列的蓝色背景在页面上被半路截断，浪费了你的一番设计。怎么办呢？很不幸我们现在只能用欺骗的办法，即将body的背景指定为与左列同颜色同宽度的图片，css如下：
body
{
background: url(blue-image.gif) 0 0 repeat-y;
}
背景图应为宽150像素的蓝色图片。这一办法的缺点是没法使用em来指定左列的宽度，当用户改变文字的大小导致内容的宽度扩张时，背景色的宽度不会随之改变。
到写这篇文章为止这是对这类问题的唯一解决办法，因此你只能为左列使用像素值来获得能够自动延伸的不同的背景色。
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原文：
Ten CSS tricks you may not know
By Trenton Moss (trenton)1. CSS font shorthand rule
When styling fonts with CSS you may be doing this:
font-size: 1em;
line-height: 1.5em;
font-weight: bold;
font-style: italic;
font-variant: small-caps;
font-family: verdana,serif;
There's no need though as you can use this CSS shorthand property:
font: 1em/1.5em bold italic small-caps verdana,serif
Much better! Just a couple of words of warning: This CSS shorthand version will only work if you're specifying both the font-size and the font-family. Also, if you don't specify the font-weight, font-style, or font-varient then these values will automatically default to a value of normal, so do bear this in mind too.
2. Two classes together
Usually attributes are assigned just one class, but this doesn't mean that that's all you're allowed. In reality, you can assign as many classes as you like! For example:
...
Using these two classes together (separated by a space, not with a comma) means that the paragraph calls up the rules assigned to both text and side. If any rules overlap between the two classes then the class which is below the other in the CSS document will take precedence.
3. CSS border default value
When writing a border rule you'll usually specify the colour, width and style (in any order). For example, border: 3px solid #000 will give you a black solid border, 3px thick. However the only required value here is the border style.
If you were to write just border: solid then the defaults for that border will be used. But what defaults? Well, the default width for a border is medium (equivalent to about 3 to 4px) and the default colour is that of the text colour within that border. If either of these are what you want for the border then you can leave them out of the CSS rule!
4. !important ignored by IE
Normally in CSS whichever rule is specified last takes precedence. However if you use !important after a command then this CSS command will take precedence regardless of what appears after it. This is true for all browsers except IE. An example of this would be:
margin-top: 3.5em !important; margin-top: 2em
So, the top margin will be set to 3.5em for all browsers except IE, which will have a top margin of 2em. This can sometimes come in useful, especially when using relative margins (such as in this example) as these can display slightly differently between IE and other browsers.
(Many of you may also be aware of the CSS child selector, the contents of which IE ignores.)
5. Image replacement technique
It's always advisable to use regular HTML markup to display text, as opposed to an image. Doing so allows for a faster download speed and has accessibility benefits. However, if you've absolutely got your heart set on using a certain font and your site visitors are unlikely to have that font on their computers, then really you've got no choice but to use an image.
Say for example, you wanted the top heading of each page to be ‘Buy widgets’, as you're a widget seller and you'd like to be found for this phrase in the search engines. You're pretty set on it being an obscure font so you need to use an image:
This is OK but there's strong evidence to suggest that search engines don't assign as much importance to alt text as they do real text (because so many webmasters use the alt text to cram in keywords). So, an alternative would be:
Buy widgets
Now, this obviously won't use your obscure font. To fix this problem place these commands in your CSS document:
h1
{
background: url(/UpFiles/200509/20050922223059750.gif) no-repeat;
}
h1 span
{
position: absolute;
left:-2000px;
}
The image, with your fancy font, will now display and the regular text will be safely out of the way, positioned 2000px to the left of the screen thanks to our CSS rule.
6. CSS box model hack alternative
The box model hack is used to fix a rendering problem in pre-IE 6 browsers, where by the border and padding are included in the width of an element, as opposed to added on. For example, when specifying the dimensions of a container you might use the following CSS rule:
#box
{
width: 100px;
border: 5px;
padding: 20px;
}
This CSS rule would be applied to:
...
This means that the total width of the box is 150px (100px width two 5px borders two 20px paddings) in all browsers except pre-IE 6 versions. In these browsers the total width would be just 100px, with the padding and border widths being incorporated into this width. The box model hack can be used to fix this, but this can get really messy.
A simple alternative is to use this CSS:
#box
{
width: 150px;
}
#box div {
border: 5px;
padding: 20px;
}
And the new HTML would be:
Perfect! Now the box width will always be 150px, regardless of the browser!
7. Centre aligning a block element
Say you wanted to have a fixed width layout website, and the content floated in the middle of the screen. You can use the following CSS command:
#content
{
width: 700px;
margin: 0 auto;
}
You would then enclose
around every item in the body of the HTML document and it'll be given an automatic margin on both its left and right, ensuring that it's always placed in the centre of the screen. Simple... well not quite - we've still got the pre-IE 6 versions to worry about, as these browsers won't centre align the element with this CSS command. You'll have to change the CSS rules:
body
{
text-align: center;
}
#content
{
text-align: left;
width: 700px;
margin: 0 auto;
}
This will then centre align the main content, but it'll also centre align the text! To offset the second, probably undesired, effect we inserted text-align: left into the content div.
8. Vertically aligning with CSS
Vertically aligning with tables was a doddle. To make cell content line up in the middle of a cell you would use vertical-align: middle. This doesn't really work with a CSS layout. Say you have a navigation menu item whose height is assigned 2em and you insert this vertical align command into the CSS rule. It basically won't make a difference and the text will be pushed to the top of the box.
Hmmm... not the desired effect. The solution? Specify the line height to be the same as the height of the box itself in the CSS. In this instance, the box is 2em high, so we would insert line-height: 2em into the CSS rule and the text now floats in the middle of the box - perfect!
9. CSS positioning within a container
One of the best things about CSS is that you can position an object absolutely anywhere you want in the document. It's also possible (and often desirable) to position objects within a container. It's simple to do too. Simply assign the following CSS rule to the container:
#container
{
position: relative;
}
Now any element within this container will be positioned relative to it. Say you had this HTML structure:
To position the navigation exactly 30px from the left and 5px from the top of the container box, you could use these CSS commands:
#navigation
{
position: absolute;
left: 30px;
top: 5px;
}
Perfect! In this particular example, you could of course also use margin: 5px 0 0 30px, but there are some cases where it's preferable to use positioning.
10. Background colour running to the screen bottom
One of the disadvantages of CSS is its inability to be controlled vertically, causing one particular problem which a table layout doesn't suffer from. Say you have a column running down the left side of the page, which contains site navigation. The page has a white background, but you want this left column to have a blue background. Simple, you assign it the appropriate CSS rule:
#navigation
{
background: blue;
width: 150px;
}
Just one problem though: Because the navigation items don't continue all the way to the bottom of the screen, neither does the background colour. The blue background colour is being cut off half way down the page, ruining your great design. What can you do!?
Unfortunately the only solution to this is to cheat, and assign the body a background image of exactly the same colour and width as the left column. You would use this CSS command:
body
{
background: url(blue-image.gif) 0 0 repeat-y;
}
This image that you place in the background should be exactly 150px wide and the same blue colour as the background of the left column. The disadvantage of using this method is that you can't express the left column in terms of em, as if the user resizes text and the column expands, it's background colour won't.
At the time of writing though, this is the only solution to this particular problem so the left column will have to be expressed in px if you want it to have a different background colour to the rest of the page.
