CSS Tags

 In CSS, the term “tags” is commonly used by beginners, but the correct term is selectors. CSS selectors are one of the most important parts of writing CSS because they define which HTML elements you want to style. A selector targets elements on a webpage, and then CSS applies specific styles to those selected items. There are many different types of selectors, each used in different situations depending on how specific you want to be. The most basic type is the element selector, sometimes called a tag selector, which simply targets all elements of a certain type. For example, writing p { color: black; } applies the color black to all paragraph (<p>) tags. Similarly, h1 { font-size: 32px; } changes the font size for all level-one headings. This is useful for broad styling, but sometimes you want to be more specific. That’s where class selectors come in. Class selectors target elements that have a specific class name. You define a class in HTML using the class attribute, like <div class="box">, and in CSS you reference it with a period followed by the class name: .box { border: 1px solid gray; } . Classes can be reused on multiple elements, which makes them very useful for applying consistent styles across your site. Next, you have ID selectors, which are even more specific. IDs are unique and should only be used once per page. You assign an ID in HTML using the id attribute, like <h2 id="main-title">, and target it in CSS with a hash symbol: #main-title { text-align: center; }. Because IDs are so specific, they often override other styles in the CSS cascade. In addition to these basic selectors, CSS also includes combinators that let you target elements based on their relationship to other elements. For example, div p targets all <p> tags that are inside <div> tags. There are also pseudo-classes, like a:hover, which apply styles when a user interacts with an element—for example, changing the color of a link when it’s hovered over. Another powerful feature is attribute selectors, which target elements based on the presence or value of an attribute, like input[type="text"] to style all text input fields. CSS even allows for grouping selectors using commas, such as h1, h2, h3 { margin-bottom: 10px; }, to apply the same style to multiple elements at once. As your skills grow, you can combine selectors to get more control, like targeting a specific class inside a certain tag: ul.menu li.item { padding: 10px; }. Understanding how to properly use and combine these different CSS selectors—or "tags" as they’re sometimes called—gives you the power to design webpages with precision, clarity, and style. They are the link between your HTML structure and your visual design, and mastering them is one of the most important steps in becoming confident with front-end development.