[Typo3] RTE not able to tag for CSS???

[Mark Fink]

Using CSS with Typo3

I use typo3 since version 3.5 and this is the first time it really 
disapoints me. I invested so much and therefore have not much option 
left but it really hurts. I had this discussion in the german list but 
since it is smaller I received not much of help. But it helped me to 
structure my thoughts on this issue.

Here is what I want to do:
+ I want to use Typo3 in combination with CSS since CSS is the standard
+ I studied and experiment with the "Customizing the Rich Text Editor" 
article. I want to use the RTE if possible. No "rtehtmlarea" or other 
none standard extensions. Unfortunately the promised article of 
adminguide.pdf is not available (anymore). I guess this is only for 
paying customers.
+ I have the extension "CSS styled content" installed because it seemed 
so promising.

RTE.classes {
   Look1 {
     name = Look1 (DIV#LOOK1)
     value = font:bold 10px; margin-bottom: 0;
   }
}
RTE.default.classesParagraph = Look1
RTE.default.hidePStyleItems = *

I have the following two problems:
1. In the RTE I can mark one line of content and assign the style. If I 
check the "sourcecode ckeckbox" I can see the desired result: "<DIV 
class=Look1>...Content ... </DIV>". If I select multiple lines of 
content only the last one is marked up correctly. The other lines are 
wraped with "<DIV> ... </DIV>". This is not pretty but I could live with it.
2. If I save all the format is gone and I have all the content wrapped 
with "<P> ... </P>".

This really could not be true! CSS is the standard for formating HTML 
pages. Sure typo3 can reference stylesheets but this is of little use if 
the content is not marked up accordingly. I think that only very few 
sites can manage with P, H1, H2 and the other standart tags and specific 
extensions are necessary. The CSS standard describes the needed elements.
I have to say that MS with its frontpage supports CSS with not much left 
to desire. I my opinion a enterprize class content management system 
should offer the same support for CSS. Otherwise it seems pretty 
outdated to me.
This is the second time I tried to use CSS with Typo3 and it does not 
work. In my Opinion styling content by using CSS is a standard feature 
for a content management system. I am not able to and I do not want to 
program my own extension for CSS usage. I have to say that I would be 
happy to trade many of the small gimics extensions for a propper support 
of the CSS standard. Maybe the typo3 community should give this argument 
a consideration when next time priorizing new features. I think CSS is 
on the top level agenda. As is propper XML support but I will save this 
discussion for next time.

Cheers,
Mark