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Summary: One of those indispensible web-design books!
Review: These days, with applications such as "Flash" and "Frontpage" being used to put all the bells and whistles on applications, most wouldn't give a second thought to this book. This is unfortunate. This book is without a doubt the most important book anyone who has a background in HTML can pick up. It deals in great depth with the W3C CSS 1.0 standard, which allows the web designer to customize and standardize their pages to the minutest detail. I was surprised at how comprehensive this book was since it showed me how to do everything from creating lists bulleted with custom images to layering text/images on top of one another. The use of external cascading style sheets allowed me to create elaborate "standard" pages that could be updated by merely changing the stylesheet file. This concept is carried further in eXtensible Style Sheet language (XSL) and therefore is probably the best introduction to XML, before actually beginning to read up on XML! One thing in particular (among many!) about this book that I liked was the extensive use of screenshots to illustrate the effects of various scripts, something often missing from O'Reilly books. After reading this excellent tutorial/reference, read "JavaScript, the Definitive Guide", and "Dynamic HTML: The Definitive Reference" to learn how to create powerful client-side web pages (pop-up images, pop-down menus, etc.). Throw out FrontPage and really begin developing!
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Summary: Clear, informative...
Review: This is a clear informative outline and instructive text of the CSS1 standard, with some short notes on CSS2 at the end of the book. At the time of writing this we are already approaching CSS3, which is in preparation at the W3C, so that this book is somewhat dated; unfortunately that happens very rapidly in this field. Let us hope that the Eric Meyer comes out with a new edition soon. The book is not optimally set out to be used as a reference text, as some of the other books in the O'Reilly series are. A new addition would be enhanced with some tables of CSS heading tags. Properties, on the other hand, are set out rather comprehensively in an appendix, although references (virtual links, so to speak) to the relevant sections in the chapters would have been useful.
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Summary: Annoyingly Bad
Review: The author seems more interested in displaying his extremely limited "sense of humor" than discussing the topics. Also, just a quick glance through the book shows me that the fellow knows next to nothing about typography, which I consider to be a drawback when dealing with a technology that, in part, deals with typography.Mostly, I was annoyed by Meyer's "this is the way things should be" attitude. I work with programmers and technical people everyday; they all seem to have the same techno-fascist attitude, and I find it infuriating. Overall, this book is a bad addition to the otherwise generally good O'Reilly family of references.
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Summary: Confusing and Incomplete Guide to CSS
Review: In chapter 1, the author does a great job of convincing the reader why style sheets should be used in place of HTML tags to control the visual presentation of a web page. In chapter 2, he does an equally good job at confusing the reader on how styles work. When I look back at the chapter, everything seems to be explained in great detail. However, the author provides no exercises or mnemonics to help memorize all the intertwining rules about grouping, selectors, structure, inheritance, specificity, and most importantly of course, the cascade. In this book, CSS is presented like mathematics: you must entirely understand the first chapters before going to the next. Even though I did extremely well in math classes and develop web applications for a living, this chapter made my head spin. The first thing I tried to do with style sheets was to convert some of my web pages to strict HTML by changing my <div align="center"> tags to CSS. According to page 88, the way to do that is with the style "text-align: center;". Of course, this style doesn't center tables, only the text within the table cells. With considerably more digging, I found that "margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" was the way to center a table. Unfortunately, that style doesn't center headings or images. I finally was able to find a combination of both styles that simulate <div align="center">, but I found it only through trial-and-error, not through insight gained from this book. This book needs a chapter on CSS style equivalents to HTML style tags, in more detail than the "CSS in Action" chapter. Perhaps the problem is that I'm working with the latest versions of the Mozilla and Opera browsers, both of which support CSS2. Unfortunately, this book explains only CSS1, and provides one short chapter in the back on the differences between CSS1 and CSS2. Because CSS2 browsers are becoming popular, CSS2 is what should be described through the book, and differences in CSS1 should be explained as they come up, not in a chapter in the back. On the positive side, the book does seem to provide enough information that if you memorize the important parts, dig hard, and experiment a lot, you can eventually figure out how to get CSS to do what you want. I hope the second edition makes this memorization, digging, and experimentation a lot easier.
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Summary: Misled Purchase from On-line comments
Review: There were lots of great comments on this book on how wonderful it was. Based on those comments, I purchased the book at a local bookstore. Using Dreamweaver as my design tool, I thought there might be a book where I can learn more about CSS. I already own a couple of good books, but they are light on CSS, and nothing is indexed. I was hoping this book was a 'reference' on every CSS property for CSS1 & CSS2 with a variety of examples. That is exactly what Eric Meyer's book fails to deliver. For new authors, this book will get you started into the wondeful world of using style sheets - Eric delivers his examples with clear dictation in an editorial style. It's an excellent starting point with good examples and solid explainations on how CSS works. If you are like me however, an experienced webguy, pass on this book. It does not have a complete list of EVERY CSS property, nor are the examples given robust. The book is written in editorial format, flowing from one topic to the next without really getting into the meat of CSS. It's as if Eric wanted to say something on everything, but in doing so, he limited is ability to offer in-depth explainations of each property and it's power/flexibility. To sum up, yes, this book is a good tutorial, but NOT a definitive guide. Maybe Eric should of called it the CSS: Definitive Starting Guide To Get You Going. Next time, I'll actually take time to skim through the book at my local computer book store. N.B. Are all these praises for this book from the author, publisher, or friends of the author to help sell the book? I have my suspicions because a lot of the comments sound 'canned'. Hopefully my review gets published to prove this is not the case. EVR.
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Summary: Great CSS Book for everyone
Review: I'd certainly recommend this book to any web designer, from beginner to advanced. It contains plenty of examples to help you through the tricky parts, but is also great as a reference book. My wife originally bought this book for herself, but I opened the parcel and read it for her. I just consider myself very considerate.
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Summary: This is my go-to reference
Review: IMO, Mr. Meyer has done a good job explaining and showing CSS parameters. He has lots of examples with pictures depicting the results of the code. The book also indicates which styles are applicable to NS and/or IE and how well they work in each browser. There is a comprehensive appendix in the back listing the different styles and their attributes, as well as a good index. As a semi-experienced CSS user, I found it very helpful and informative. I think there are enough tips and tricks for the experienced CSS'er as well as enough explanation and example for the beginning CSS user. The book sits within easy reach on my bookshelf, and I refer to it frequently. (I think I need to get another copy for work so I can take this copy back home!)
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Summary: Nice review of CSS 1
Review: This book was an easy introduction to CSS1 with a smattering of CSS2. The author used plenty of example code and pictorial representations.
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Summary: Not a reference at all, but a very light tutorial
Review: In short: If you are a serious developer who needs information and not editorials, a dictionary reference for the entirety of what CSS is (and is capable of), don't waste your money on this item. My bible for core web development technologies is "Dynamic HTML" (Danny Goodman is excellent, bar-none). That book mentions a "scrollbar" CSS element (which I noticed in a web page while surfing), but did not have a definition entry. Fair enough, it's DHTML, not CSS, right? So, I stuck with O'Reilly publishing, expecting the superior format of my DHTML bible to be carried over to this other publication. To my despair, CSS (the book) is nothing but a light (and I mean LIGHT) overview of CSS (the technology). It would be *ludicrous* to call this book a reference, but rather a tutorial of how CSS works. Not to mention a lot about how CSS is supposed to work (aka, CSS 1 & 2 in a perfect world). Who cares, when today's browsers aren't doing it the right way anyhow? Hence, very little real world information here. How it *should* and *does* work are too different things... Which would you rather be competent in?? This book is a joke. In short, my DHTML bible is the best reference I now have for CSS. I only bought the book based on the comments others left, the title, and the publisher. This time, I'll be visiting my local bookstore for a page flipping session or two.
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Summary: Cool Reference!
Review: As a WebMaster, I try to keep up with the latest trends in web design. When I first heard about style sheets, I cringed because I thought "Oh great..some new complicated thing to learn." However, once I started reading this book, I began to realize the power of style sheets and how they make designing elements on a web site much easier. While small sites like the ones I design may not need Cascading Style Sheets, I realized very quickly what a pain it could be to have to change the color or font for a H1 or P element on a site containing 50 to 100 pages or more! The book covers a number of different subjects, including browser compatability issues (after all, there doesn't seem to be any elements that all browsers support quite the same way), along with element units and values, fonts and text properties, colors, and visual formatting. I now realize the fascinating things you can do on a web site with the help of style sheets. As with other O'Reilly books, there's a wealth of resources in the Appendixes, including a Resources appendix and a sample Style Sheet, done in HTML 2.0 (It always helps to see what a "sample" sheet looks like in order to further understand what all the element attributes mean). An excellent reference guide to Cascading Style Sheets.
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