General questions about specific properties and values.

Hi Carson,

I'll try to answer your questions so that you'll have at least some familiarity with it as you go into the deep dives.

max-width simply means that the element can't have a width greater than what the max-width is but it could be less than that. You might use this in conjunction with the width property.

For example:

div {
    width: 70%;
    max-width: 1000px;
}

So this means that the div is going to have a width of 70% of its parent container but not to exceed 1000px. So even if 70% worked out to 1500px the div would be forced to remain 1000px wide.

margins and padding -

Margins create space around your elements. Padding creates space around the content of your element.

Sometimes margins and padding can be used interchangeably with no visual difference on the page but there are some differences between them.

You didn't mention borders but they come between margin and padding. So if you want space between your content and its border you must use padding.

You might not have covered css background images yet but they show up in an elements content, padding, and border area but do not show up in an elements margin area.

Those are a few general things about margins and padding. Hopefully enough to get you started on understanding them better.

You may want to look up the "css box model" to see the relationship between an elements content, padding, border, and margin area.

Let us know if you have more questions or anything here isn't clear. As Cherie mentioned, it will probably make more sense to you as you get through the deep dives later.