1.7

Spacing (padding and margin) helps to position elements relative to other elements in the
template; see "Spacing" on page521.
The best way to position elements depends on the output channel for which the template is
intended; see "How to position elements" on page502.
The locale setting influences how dates, numbers and amounts of money are displayed; see
"Locale" on page520.
Styling templates with CSS files
The Layout toolbar and the Format menu offer many possibilities to style every piece of a
template. However, styling every single element, one after another, is a lot of work and, more
importantly, can result in a template with a messy mix of styles that isn’t easy to maintain and
lacks consistent design. Therefore the preferred way to style templates is with CSS: Cascading
Style Sheets.
The basic idea behind CSS is to separate the structure and contents of a (HTML) document as
much as possible from the presentation of that document.
Cascading Style Sheets were originally designed for use with web pages, or HTMLfiles. Since
every template in the Designer is constructed in HTML, CSS files can also be used in the
Designer.
Instead of setting the font size, line height, color etc. for each and every paragraph in the
template itself, you can define a layout for all paragraphs, and for all output channels, in a CSS
file.
The benefit of this is that you can quickly and easily change the look and feel of all contexts in
one template, without having to change the contents. In the event that your company chooses to
use another font or to adjust its corporate colors, you only have to change the style sheets.
You are writing HTML
When you add elements, such as text, images or a table, to the content of a template, you are
actually constructing an HTML file.
To see this, toggle to the Design tab in the workspace. Click anywhere in the content. Take a
look at the breadcrumbs at the top of the workspace. The breadcrumbs show the HTML tag of
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