If you're a designer, you should love CSS
CSS is a little scary, whether you're a html monkey or a designer. (There are no tables! Ahhh!).
But, you should learn to love CSS.
(To be technical, CSS can be used on other types of documents besides HTML. I'm specifically talking about CSS and xHTML.)
First some background: CSS means "cascading style sheets". CSS is like HTML version 2. xHTML and CSS has been recommended by the WC3 since 1998, yet it's still not the norm on the Web. Why? Probably because we fear change.
Your xhtml webpages reference one CSS file for the style - the way everything looks: Font, background colors, amount of space, etc . You can modify one/hundreds/thousands of pages by changing just one item in the CSS. Say one day you want all the text in the main body of your site should to be a dark gray. The next day you can change it to red - on every page - all via the CSS file.
I've simplified, but if you want to learn CSS, I'd probably recommend CSS for Dummies. It's written for all levels - not just for dummies.
If you're a designer, you should love CSS.
So why should you love CSS? I've always avoided coding. I can make tables etc... but I've always left the heavy stuff to the experts. CSS lets me do just about everything. Because I don't have to really know CSS in order to use it, I just understand it.
I get by using CSS templates from other people. I purchase them online or even download free ones. (See list below.) When there's a big project and I need to create something from scratch, I'll design a few pages in Photoshop, and then use a "Slicer" service to "chop" my design into CSS. (We use the Choppr.)
You could probably do a layout in powerpoint or in Word, and they'd probably be able to turn your sketches into CSS.
CSS on Feed.Us:
Feed.Us was made to work with CSS/xHtml so I've been using CSS templates a ton since we started testing. Feed.Us will work with HTML sites, but we built it to work with the CSS/xHTML div tags.
So don't be afraid. Embrace it asap. You'll be happy you did.
Links (Please comment if you have others.)
Learning:
> CSS tips: http://htmlhelp.com/reference/css/
> CSS Zen Garden: http://csszengarden.com
Layouts:
> Arcsin templates: http://templates.arcsin.se/
> Very bare CSS files: http://www.code-sucks.com/css%20layouts/
> Free CSS templates: http://www.freecsstemplates.org/
> Template monster
Slicing/Chopping services:
> The Choppr
> Most Sliced
