---
title: Best practices
crumb: Best practices
---

%h3
  Use a Base stylesheet file
%p
  Create a
  %code
    _base.sass
  %a{ :href => "http://sass-lang.com/docs/yardoc/file.SASS_REFERENCE.html#partials" }
    partial
  to initialize your stylesheets with common variables and (
  %a{ :href => "http://groups.google.com/group/compass-users/browse_frm/thread/0ed216d409476f88" }
    often
  ) the framework utilities you plan to use:
%h4
  _base.sass
%pre
  \!blueprint_grid_columns = 24
  \!blueprint_grid_width   = 30px
  \!blueprint_grid_margin  = 10px
  \!font_color              = #333
  \
  @import compass/reset.sass
  @import compass/utilities.sass
  @import blueprint/screen.sass
  \
  \// etc.
%p
  The
  %code
    _base.sass
  file is also a great place to keep your own custom mixins, so they’re available to any stylesheet that includes it.
%p
  Then you can include this file in all other stylesheets:
%h4
  application.sass
%pre
  @import base.sass
  \
  \#wrapper
  \  +container
  \
  \// etc.
%p
  It is important to define any compass/framework constants that you want to override in base.sass first, before @import-ing the framework files.  See
  %a{ :href => "http://wiki.github.com/chriseppstein/compass/overriding-constants" }
    Overriding Constants
  , for an example of where the number of grid columns for blueprint is overridden/set to 32.
  %br
  Note that you can refer to
  %code
    _base.sass
  without the leading underscore, since it is a
  %a{ :href => "http://sass-lang.com/docs/yardoc/file.SASS_REFERENCE.html#partials" }
    partial
  \.
%h3
  Write your own Custom Mixins
%p
  Mixins let you insert any number of style rules into a selector (and its descendants!) with a single line. This is a great way to
  %a{ :href => "http://c2.com/cgi/wiki?DontRepeatYourself" }
    %span.caps
      DRY
  up your stylesheet source code and make it much more maintainable. Using mixins will also make your stylesheet look like self-documented source code — like using descriptive method names in a programming language. It’s much more obvious to read something like
  %code
    +round_corners(6px, #f00)
  than the whole list of rules which define that appearance.
%h4
  Mixin Example
%pre
  \// Mixin for the html element, so the footer stays at the bottom of the screen.
  \// Relies on the following html structure, and a fixed-height #footer element:
  \//
  \//  %body
  \//    #root
  \//      #root_footer
  \//    #footer
  \
  \=attach_footer( !footer_height )
  \  :height 100%
  \
  body
  \  :height 100%
  \
  \#root
  \  :min-height 100%
  \  :margin-bottom  = -!footer_height
  \
  \#root_footer
  \  :clear both
  \  :height = !footer_height
  \
  \#footer
  \  :clear            both
  \  :position         relative
  \  :height         = !footer_height
%p
  A single line is all that’s needed to use the mixin, which moves the implementation details out of the way and replaces them with a clear and concise label:
%pre
  \html
  \  +attach_footer( 54px )