1.4

Whether applied through style sheets or through local formatting, behind the scenes all layout
properties in the Designer are CSS properties. When you format an element locally, an inline
style rule is added to the element.
Note that where local formatting conflicts with a formatting rule for the same element in one of
the style sheets, the local formatting rule gets priority; the rule in the style sheet will be ignored.
It is recommended to use style sheets in your templates right from the start, even more so if your
communications are going to be output to different output channels, or if they consist out of
different sections (for example, a covering letter and a policy). With CSS you can give your
templates one look and feel. A style sheet can change the look of multiple elements, making it
unnecessary to format each and every element in the template, time and again, when the
company's layout preferences change, for example. See "Styling templates with CSS files" on
the next page.
Layout properties
Colors and fonts make an important contribution to the look and feel of your template. See
"Colors" on page 235 and "Fonts" on page 239.
Text and paragraphs have a number of formatting options that are not available for other
elements: font styles and line height, for example. See "Styling text and paragraphs" on page
226.
Boxes and a number of other elements can have a background color and/or background image;
see "Background color and/or image" on page 231.
Several elements, such as boxes, images, paragraphs, and tables, can have a border; see
"Border" on page 233.
Boxes, images, tables, text and other elements can be rotated; see Rotating elements.
Spacing (padding and margin) helps to position elements relative to other elements in the
template; see "Spacing" on page 241.
The best way to position elements depends on the output channel for which the template is
intended; see "How to position elements" on page 230.
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