Hello, hopefully not a vague (but perhaps a broad) question. On these forums I've seen people using the words CSS and editing for Rise modules. What does this mean? Any good plain English guides for me to read for further understanding. Yep, I'm a noob, but curious :-)
CSS stands for Cascading Style Sheets, which, in simple terms, provide the formatting (or style) of the components on your web pages. If, for example, you look at the html file of a web page you may see large sections of text with headings and sub-headings that all appear to be in the same size font and all in black. However, when you look at the actual web page, the headings may be twice the size of the main text, bright blue and bold. This is achieved through defining the size, colour and weight of the font in the CSS file.
CSS will also determine the size and placement of images, the width of the text on your page, whether the page scales automatically for different size screens etc etc. There are a large number of formatting possibilities within CSS and the best way for you to gain an understanding of what it can achieve would be to jump on google and have a look. In a way, it's a bit like using styles in a Word document. Once you have defined the style, you can use it as often as you want simply by selecting the text and applying the style to it. CSS, however, does much, much more.
When people talk about editing CSS files for Rise, it could be because they want to change the appearance of the opening screen, for example and they want to know if it is possible to do so.
Thanks Ned for the very informative reply. So, as I have seen others implying they do Rise CSS editing, is this possible? For instance, the front menu font sizes, could I change this?
Yes and no. You can't do it online. You would have to export your course first. Unzip the files to your computer and edit the CSS files. Then zip it up again and the course is ready. However, you can't just change the CSS online and publish it directly to Review for example.
If you change anything in the Rise course, you'd have to do the same process: export, unzip, change CSS, zip.
I should just point out at this stage that the example I have given above is a very basic one and if you are not fully conversant with CSS, I would be very wary of making changes. One bit of advice I would definitely give is to save a copy of your CSS file before you start trying to edit it, that way you always have the original to go back to.
Although I've done a fair amount of CSS in web site design, I haven't made any changes to Rise course CSS files. I'm relatively new to Rise (< 8 months) and so am happy to run with the formatting as it is for now as it suits my needs perfectly.
With regards to learning CSS, if you want to do any web site design work, I would say it was an essential skill to have. Do you need to know CSS to create great courses in Rise? Definitely not, but it may be a useful skill to have if you want to dig deeper.
There are plenty of books and on-line content you can wade through, so I would suggest having a look and seeing if it is something you want to learn more about. It can be a lot of fun and rewarding when things turn out well, but also frustrating when they don't . . . . . a bit like anything else associated with computers these days !!
I appreciate your explanations as well. Now that it's been a couple years, have you "cracked the code" for editing CSS files for Rise courses? More specifically, do you have any knowledge on how to make the standard hyperlinks in Rise courses—which open in a new tab—open in a floating window over the course? Thanks in advance!
I still haven't found the need to edit the CSS for anything I have done in Rise and, unfortunately, I also quite like to have my hyperlinks open in a new tab and so can't provide a solution to your problem. Hopefully someone else will be able to chip in and help you out.
The main reason I avoid editing CSS files is because, as Zsolt has said above, if you make any changes to your Rise course and re-publish it, you then have to re-edit your CSS.
I know that this is an old message but if someone could clarify this for me?
If I inspect the code and change the script, I can see the changes on the section as I am doing it e.g. colour changes - but as soon as I use the back icon and then preview it is all gone - back to the standard RISE format.
So can this only be changed and saved once exported and zipped?
13 Replies
Hi Robert,
CSS stands for Cascading Style Sheets, which, in simple terms, provide the formatting (or style) of the components on your web pages. If, for example, you look at the html file of a web page you may see large sections of text with headings and sub-headings that all appear to be in the same size font and all in black. However, when you look at the actual web page, the headings may be twice the size of the main text, bright blue and bold. This is achieved through defining the size, colour and weight of the font in the CSS file.
CSS will also determine the size and placement of images, the width of the text on your page, whether the page scales automatically for different size screens etc etc. There are a large number of formatting possibilities within CSS and the best way for you to gain an understanding of what it can achieve would be to jump on google and have a look. In a way, it's a bit like using styles in a Word document. Once you have defined the style, you can use it as often as you want simply by selecting the text and applying the style to it. CSS, however, does much, much more.
When people talk about editing CSS files for Rise, it could be because they want to change the appearance of the opening screen, for example and they want to know if it is possible to do so.
As a simple example:
CSS
h1{
font-size: 30px;
font-weight: bold;
color: blue;
text-align: left;
}
html
<h1>
This Is Heading 1
</h1>
End Result
Hope this helps.
Thanks Ned for the very informative reply. So, as I have seen others implying they do Rise CSS editing, is this possible? For instance, the front menu font sizes, could I change this?
Robert,
Yes and no. You can't do it online. You would have to export your course first. Unzip the files to your computer and edit the CSS files. Then zip it up again and the course is ready. However, you can't just change the CSS online and publish it directly to Review for example.
If you change anything in the Rise course, you'd have to do the same process: export, unzip, change CSS, zip.
Interesting - I wonder how many ID's are doing this? Nice to know there is an option to do so, even if painful :-)
Thank you for your reply Zsolt.
Hi Robert,
I should just point out at this stage that the example I have given above is a very basic one and if you are not fully conversant with CSS, I would be very wary of making changes. One bit of advice I would definitely give is to save a copy of your CSS file before you start trying to edit it, that way you always have the original to go back to.
good advice, thanks Ned. Out of interest, have you made CSS changes to Rise content before? Is it worth the time learning?
Although I've done a fair amount of CSS in web site design, I haven't made any changes to Rise course CSS files. I'm relatively new to Rise (< 8 months) and so am happy to run with the formatting as it is for now as it suits my needs perfectly.
With regards to learning CSS, if you want to do any web site design work, I would say it was an essential skill to have. Do you need to know CSS to create great courses in Rise? Definitely not, but it may be a useful skill to have if you want to dig deeper.
There are plenty of books and on-line content you can wade through, so I would suggest having a look and seeing if it is something you want to learn more about. It can be a lot of fun and rewarding when things turn out well, but also frustrating when they don't . . . . . a bit like anything else associated with computers these days !!
thanks Ned for your time.
I appreciate your explanations as well. Now that it's been a couple years, have you "cracked the code" for editing CSS files for Rise courses? More specifically, do you have any knowledge on how to make the standard hyperlinks in Rise courses—which open in a new tab—open in a floating window over the course? Thanks in advance!
Hi Erin,
I still haven't found the need to edit the CSS for anything I have done in Rise and, unfortunately, I also quite like to have my hyperlinks open in a new tab and so can't provide a solution to your problem. Hopefully someone else will be able to chip in and help you out.
The main reason I avoid editing CSS files is because, as Zsolt has said above, if you make any changes to your Rise course and re-publish it, you then have to re-edit your CSS.
Hello all
I know that this is an old message but if someone could clarify this for me?
If I inspect the code and change the script, I can see the changes on the section as I am doing it e.g. colour changes - but as soon as I use the back icon and then preview it is all gone - back to the standard RISE format.
So can this only be changed and saved once exported and zipped?
If so it is such a shame and to painstaking.
Warm regards
Amanda
Hi Amanda,
Export your course.
Edit and save the CSS in the ZIP file.
Repeat editing the CSS every time you export a new version of the course.
sigh... thank you