TIPS - CSS: Professional Techniques for Modern Layout - page 102

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Figure 3-27: The body does not always fi ll the viewport.

If we remove the rule html {background: yellow;} from the style sheet, though, the
entire window will i ll with white.

h is happens because the HTML specii cation says that the canvas, which is the area in which
the Web page is drawn, gets its background from the html element. If there is no background
set for html , then it gets its background from the body element. If the body doesn't have a
background either, then the browser just i lls in some default color.

h is is a special case described in detail in the specii cation; there is no other case where a
background (or any other CSS property) applies upwards in the document tree. Just keep it in
mind if you're setting an html background.

SERVER-SPECIFIC CSS
How many times have you played out the following scenario?

1. Make local changes to your stylesheet(s).

2. Upload the changes to the staging server.

3. Switch to your browser and select Reload.

4. Nothing happens.

5. Force-reload. Nothing happens.