This CSS specification mechanism is the farthest removed of the
allowed methods from the portion(s) of the document tree it controls.
This method allows a style sheet external to the document to be
"attached" to the current document.
This is the most powerful of all the CSS attachment methods, as it
allows a single style sheet to control the rendering of multiple
documents. This results in a time-savings for the author, a savings of
space for the web server, and less download time for the user. In
addition, this method can be used in both HTML and XML.
An External Style Sheet is a file containing only CSS syntax
(no document content or elements) and should carry a MIME type of
"text/css." The style information is not explicitly tied directly to
the document's elements, so Selector
syntax is used to specify what styles attach to which portions of
the document tree. The full range of CSS syntax
is allowed in this method.
HTML Inclusion Method
In HTML, an External Style Sheet is specified using the
LINK[-->Index DOT Html] element
within the HEAD element block to specify the URL location of the
External Style Sheet. URL values may be relative or absolute.