As with most developers I know, I have been using CSS for years but not to its full capability. Typically, I would only use CSS for some general text formatting or making my hyperlinks turn red on hover. I had never really experimented much with CSS layout.

One of my main goals in developing this site was to do most of the layout and formatting with CSS. I wanted to make sure that that CSS would comply with the W3C's CSS specification, be visually appealing, easy to read, and easy to navigate. I have built enough Web sites to know how to accomplish most of the goals but the CSS layout was another story.

For the CSS layout, I turned to two related resources to point me in the right direction. When browsing the local Barnes & Noble for CSS resources, I stumbled across The Zen of CSS Design. The book and it's related Web Site http://www.csszengarden.com have countless examples, tips, and tricks for building Web Sites using CSS positioning.

The Zen of CSS Design: Visual Enlightenment for the Web

For some of the images, particularly the logo, I turned to The GIMP. I had tried previous versions of the GIMP and was not impressed but recent improvements have turned it into a wonderful application that I'm glad to add to my arsenal of software.