The CSS Anthology : 101 Essential Tips, Tricks and Hacks

Rating:
Summary: Well thoughtout book--easy to understand
Review: I am a relative newcomer to CSS and have several other books on it. This one is the easiest to understand and follow. The examples are good and I have not found typos in the code as I have in some of the others. The code and examples are all available online for the reader to down load and experiment with.The progress through the book seems well thoughtout and logical. It has clarified numerous questions about CSS that I could not find elsewhere. I can recommend this book to all beginners and middle-level users of CSS. It is probably too basic for truly advanced users. The one criticism that I have is that the book lacks color illustrations which sometimes makes it difficult to see the examples clearly. However, with the all of these available online, it is not a big issue.

Rating:
Summary: Extremely Practical
Review: I rarely give reviews, but CSS Anthology is so well written I had to add one. My main background is programming, with only a bit of CSS experience, picked up from studying source code and on-line tutorials.

Ms. Andrew fills the book with practical, usable examples - from designing 2 or 3 column layouts without tables, to formatting data tables and input controls -- all told over 100 pieces of code, fully worked out and not just 2-3 line snippets. She clearly explains all these examples. The 1st 2 chapters begin at an easy level, with basic styling, and she uses these as a basis for the more complex designs that follow.

If you've read of the amount of work developers of web application servers like Plone put into their CSS design and wanted to understand their choices, this book will be a great aid.

Rating:
Summary: Fine Intro to CSS Solutions
Review: My guess is that there are many hundreds, if not thousands, of web designers who continue to build sites and web applications using "old-fashioned" tables and HTML layout formatting instead of CSS (Cascading Style Sheets). I'm one of them. The problem is that the modern trend is away from HTML table and layout formatting and towards newer standards-compliant means. The protocols and standards of the World Wide Web are evolving towards "cleaner" code, more standardized code, and more capable code, generally guided by principles and standards set by the World Wide Web Consortium, known as W3C.

In the book, "The CSS Anthology: 101 Essential Tips, Tricks, and Hacks", author Rachel Andrew provides an easy way for hold-outs to ease into CSS design. This is not a treatise or concept-minded book, but a practical introduction and guide to putting CSS to immediate use in real-world contexts that every web designer is already familiar with. The author shows how to use CSS to style text, format headings and images, create navigation, style forms and user interfaces, and work with browser-compatibility issues.

Andrew is a working web designer and applications designer and presents the material in a very straightforward practical manner - almost as if the reader was following along at a workshop. The writing is clear, all examples are illustrated with relevant code samples, and she offers the insights of an experienced professional regarding everyday problems and solutions.

The book is composed of a preface, nine chapters, and an index. Chapter 1 is an introduction to CSS showing why it is replacing HTML table and layout formatting, and the basic concepts of CSS. The other chapters are set up in a "problem/solution" format where various design issues - text styling, image layout, etc. - are presented and solved by adept usage of CSS.

Even readers who have never paid much attention to CSS will quickly get a useful, working sense of how it is used and how to use it immediately themselves. Although CSS is yet another language to learn, Andrew presents it in such a way that it seems like it is an easy learn. And it demonstrably is, as here, easy to use.

The best parts of the book are the designer tips from an experienced code-writer on how to work with code across different browsers and platforms, and how to understand that browsers have two modes of parsing - a compliant mode and a "quirks" mode. Some browsers, she shows, just have "quirks", especially Microsoft's Internet Explorer. (Surprise!). Although all the CSS tags necessary to illustrate the solutions presented here are shown, a list or chart of most commonly used CSS tags would have been helpful here. Downloadable code for all of the book's examples are available at the publisher's website - www.sitepoint.com/books/cssant1.

This is a very nice book to transition to CSS and current web standards-compliant code.

Rating:
Summary: A useful member of your CSS library
Review: This book is a useful complement to the other members of my XHTML / CSS library. That is to say that no one book, including this one, provides a complete solution to the problem of learning and using CSS.

By way of illustration, my CSS library already contains a so-called "definitive guide" that provides excellent, albeit somewhat spare and dry, descriptions of every single CSS selector and property. The problem is that while this definitive guide is a useful reference, it seldom illustrates how to use CSS to achieve many common formatting effects. I'm thus obliged to wade through the descriptions of several CSS selectors and properties in a search for the ones that will allow me to achieve my rather simple presentational goals.

This is where the CSS Anthology's example-driven format excels. The vast majority of the book's sections are titled "How do I...?", followed by a straightforward illustration of how to use CSS to achieve a specific sort of output; the examples include some sophisticated and advanced effects that go well beyond my simple requirements.

The CSS Anthology also provides an extremely understandable description of how and why various types and versions of browsers do or do not process standards-based CSS properly. Having gone numb trying to assimilate the information contained in the sprawling browser compatibility tables found in other more comprehensive reference books, I found the CSS Anthology to be refreshing in its straightforward, understandable summation of browser compatibility issues and possible workarounds.

In summary, I would recommend the CSS Anthology as one of the members of your CSS reference library. Note, however, that you'll most likely also want to obtain a complementary reference book for a more definitive guide to the nits and bits of all the CSS selector and property elements; the CSS Anthology does not pretend to be a definitive reference guide.


Rating:
Summary: Recipe oriented approach to CSS
Review: This book takes a cookbook approach to organizing CSS best practice information. It has 101 problems that it presents which it then fixes with tips and tricks designed to work in a cross platform setting.

There are a lot of CSS books on the market. This book stands out in the field because of it's real world examples and practical advice. So many books have esoteric examples of pages you would never find in the wild. This book has elegant examples that show you not only what you can do, but also guide you towards what you should do.

Well written with lots of example code and screenshots. You will need to know CSS before you pick this book up.

Rating:
Summary: True to every word of its title
Review: True to every word of its title, the book is a treasure trove for all using or contemplating using CSS. The writing style of the book adjusts itself very nicely to the varying needs of the reader that may be at different levels of engagement with CSS. Beginners will find immense value in experiences the author shares working with a specific problem while the advanced users will find suggested work-around and tips very helpful.

Layout of the book though stated as problem statements or questions, covers all aspects one needs to know in relation to the CSS application in context. Each question is followed by a "solution" and a "discussion" section. While the "solution" provides a quick answer to your problem, the "discussion" section provides all the basics one needs to know in relation to the CSS application being discussed. Author's note that appears as a "note" or a "tip" is reflective of her wide practical experience, offering value that is only gained through experience.

CSS topics have been sufficiently covered providing just right information and working examples. There is also a good introduction on some practices in relation to cross-browser testing. Advanced topics like CSS positioning and layout are presented in an easy to follow tasks. There is no doubt in my mind that some of the sections can also provide good insights in what all is possible with CSS. In summary this is a highly recommended desktop reference if you work with or are contemplating using CSS.