# Can you use CSS (or something like it) to generate html content?

**URL:** <https://forum.kirupa.com/t/can-you-use-css-or-something-like-it-to-generate-html-content/314668>\
**Category:** web dev\
**Created:** [October 5, 2010, 10:59pm UTC](https://forum.kirupa.com/t/can-you-use-css-or-something-like-it-to-generate-html-content/314668 "2010-10-05T22:59:34Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![oldmanwinter](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/b38774/32.png) [@oldmanwinter](https://forum.kirupa.com/u/oldmanwinter)\
**Post date:** [October 5, 2010, 10:59pm UTC](https://forum.kirupa.com/t/can-you-use-css-or-something-like-it-to-generate-html-content/314668/1 "2010-10-05T22:59:34Z")

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I’m creating my first site with HTML and CSS and since I don’t yet know what items I’ll ultimately have in my nav bar, I’d the content in the nav bar to be generated by referring to an external file.

When I first starting tooling around with CSS I figured this is what CSS is designed for, but now I’m beginning to think CSS is JUST for controlling style and is incapable of generating any content besides text: is this the case, or have I missed something?

I thought of using javascript, but then I realized I’d be leaving people with javascript disabled without a way to navigate my site easily.

I’m currently looking at XML and XLST, but since I’m fairly new to web design I have no idea if using these will allow me to what I want.

If anyone could give me a little guidance here I’d appreciate it, thanks!