Please note this is a work in progress, and is currently incomplete. You should still find it useful in it's current state, but just keep in mind it's a bit of a mess here and there.
Until I merge them into here, you can also find some useful code examples in my journals back on deviantart, which you can find listed in 'Journal CSS: Index'. They share methods for things like featuring thumbs, hover menus, and sidebars.
Also worth checking out is my deviation Journal Structure: a reference, which gives you a visual guide to the structure of our journals, and also includes some very helpful links for beginners to CSS.
...and more links to tutorials by other members of deviantart can be found in the further reading section of this tutorial.
The purpose of Creative Journal CSS is to be a complete reference covering everything that someone might need to know about designing their own journal skins on deviantART.
Beginners can start from the beginning, people who know HTML and CSS can skip the beginner's sections and start with the tips about writing CSS for deviantART journals, and the rest of you who already code journals can skip the lot and go straight to the end for fancy code modules you can use in your journals (things like custom border images, advanced header/background images, thumb lists - and of course, more).
Something I need to make clear before you read any further though, is that CSS is a wierd and wonderful thing, capable of many amazing things. It would be outside the scope of this guide to teach you everything there is to know about CSS, so I'll be keeping things reasonable by staying within the limits of what is possible (and practical) on deviantART.
It has taken me a stupendous amount of time to complete this, many months infact, and it wouldn't have been possible without the patience of my wife Nadia who put up with my crazy talk about CSS, quite a lot of which probably went straight over her head - but she smiled and nodded all the same. A lot of ideas came about because she was there to listen.
I have the creative folk of deviantART to thank also, you who forged ahead and reminded me of what could be done with CSS. If I've written about a technique I first saw in someone's journal, I've provided links for you to follow where possible.
It would be amiss of me not to thank the countless people who asked for advice, either personaly to me, or in the programming forum. You gave me valuable insight into the problems newcomers face, and how to best help you through that initial learning curve.
Also to thank are the people who where cool enough to proofread/beta test Creative Journal CSS. It just wouldn't have been the same without your input.
The beta testers were:
xork must be thanked too, for his Journal CSS Editor - without it we'd all be hitting the preview button thousands of times more than we need to.
Finally, the various icons around the site are thanks to the most awesome famfamfam.com, who's Silk iconset I've used in many a stylesheet.
Get up to speed with HTML and CSS, it's not as difficult as you might think!
This is where beginners will learn all about the fundamentals of CSS through work-along examples.
So you know HTML and CSS, but here's the things you need to know about writing CSS for deviantART journals.
Grab some cool code modules to do fancy stuff in your journal - custom border images, sexy header/footer images, custom list bullets... and, of course, MOAR!
A clean and simple journal skin that you can use as a basis for your own journal skin.
Common problems you might encounter.