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CSS CSS Layout Basics Getting Started with CSS Layout CSS Reset with Normalize

In the video he added ol & ul to end of the normalize.css but wouldn't normalize.css come with that default setting?

Plus aren't we supposed to be working within our own style.css file?

I have done css basic courses without much problems however this seems strange... its like getting someone else's work and making it your own.

2 Answers

I think there are a couple of things to remember for this. First, Normalize is just a tool, a highly customizable tool. We can change, add, or remove any of the rules within the Normalize document. They aren't going to be able to anticipate everyone's preferences for what they would like their standard, vanilla web page to look like, so they've left it open for you to customize for your own projects. Second, you shouldn't look at this like it's plagiarism. Normalize is offering this document as a useful tool to help standardize web stylings. Think of it like this; we use sites like unsplash to get pictures to use on our websites, just because I didn't go out and buy an expensive camera and take the beautiful photograph myself doesn't mean I'm passing someone else's work off as my own, it's simply me making use of a resource that helps make development easier. They are offering this service to you, you aren't hunting down someone's source code and copy & pasting it.

I hope this helps! Happy coding!

Chris Conwell
Chris Conwell
2,268 Points

No, the normalize.css is intended as a reference. Free to use and modify. Info gathered from their site:

How to use normalize.css

There are then 2 main ways to make use of it.

Approach 1: use normalize.css as a starting point for your own projectโ€™s base CSS, customizing the values to match the designโ€™s requirements.

Approach 2: include normalize.css untouched and build upon it, overriding the defaults later in your CSS if necessary.