B. Farrelly said
An excellent reference book on advanced CSS, though written before the current AJAX craze (ie, AJAX not covered).
Frank Stepanski said
The CSS guru himself Eric Meyer has another book that continues this CSS projects (Eric Meyer on CSS). This book is there same basic format where he goes through step-by-step with 10 web projects and shows the reader how to use CSS to improve a non-CSS page.
From the first project which converts a non-CSS site to use CSS in improving its design, accessibility, search-engine optimization, readability and efficiency. Eric really explains in detail exactly why and how CSS can improve an existing site.
There are so many possibilities to use CSS; Eric has created some great projects to show you how. From creating a photo-album, to displaying spreadsheet like data, to background positioning and creating some cool CSS menus.
This is a great book for anyone who wants to learn more about CSS and apply to "real-world" cases that you can use right away. Out of these 10 projects, I found at least half of them useful right out of the box to apply to my site. The rest I will use as a reference for when I add more content.
This way to teaching the reader I find allot more valuable because it includes things that are used in everyday web design, not just theory and what-ifs like other books.
It is easy to find exactly what you are looking for within each chapter and can be used by any skill level because that first project starts from the ground up in teaching the user how to use CSS efficiently and correctly.
You can purchase this first book or this book; it doesn't matter because they both contain great CSS projects that can teach you CSS for any situation.
A great addition to your CSS library...
Mark Lee said
There are a couple of ways to learn something new. One is to follow the traditional pedagogical formula of systematic unfolding of a discipline. The other main way is to watch someone perform the task and learn the lessons along the way. This second approach is the one Mr. Myer uses in this CSS book.
For me, the "sliding windows" technique (based on a pre-existing trick which Eric Myer properly credits and improves upon) in which you learn how to make list-based, auto-sizing buttons using a single image was worth the price of the book alone. I'm using those buttons in my latest web project, and they're fast and nice looking. The great thing is that once you get the CSS set up and the image wherever you want it, simply adding a list element will generate the new button.
The other conversion projects were very good. I really enjoyed the photo gallery chapter. I've used a variant of that theme in my own gallery project with very positive results.
Eric Myer hates tables. Some of the efforts he goes to to avoid tables seem more work (pulling tricks out of hats to ensure cross-browser compatibility) than just surrendering and using the damned table once in awhile. That's where he and I part company. I'm not such a CSS purist that I can avoid, for practical purposes, the ease of the occasional, shameful table.
M. Shuff said
I can't believe I am actually using the title "Worst book ever." It sounds juvenille, but I can't think of any other thing to say.
I am an experienced HTML designer. I do it for a living. I have been using HTML for many years, and I even taught HTML at a local 4-yr college. I use some CSS in all my projects in a separate file. I have also read hundreds of technical books from design to programming languages to networking to...you name it, so learning from books is nothing new to me.
Ok...now about this book.
Perhaps the author's intention was not to provide a reference manual or an in-depth tome of CSS terminology. I get that. However, if he intends for people to learn by following his examples, the book could not be worse.
I could hardly get through the first chapter. There were several errors (the very first project...he tells you to open the wrong file), and he just does things with very little description. I followed along typing everything exactly, and the pages still didn't look like the ones he was referencing. Absolutely no time is given to explaining the values and properties he is using (although he says the book is for experienced HTML users with SOME exposure to CSS). You are just supposed to take an HTML page and rebuild it in CSS. When you're done, you're supposed to magically understand what you did.
The book was incredibly difficult to follow along with. It is disjointed. It references figures that don't seem to correlate with what the author is doing. I found it easier just to take the completed project and go through the code myself and compare it to how the page looked. I also brought the finished files into Dreamweaver for a visual look, and I changed the CSS values to see what it did to the page. As a result, I came to the conclusion that it is easier to learn CSS by just getting some pages and playing around with them.
This book is NOT a learning tool. I checked it out of the library, and the 50 cent fine I was charged for returning it late was too much to pay for this book. There HAS to be better books out there to learn CSS, and if you want an in-depth and/or technical understanding of CSS...this book is not for you.
Maybe his other books were better...I don't know. I would love for anyone who gave this book a high rating to help me understand why?
Tante Waileka said
This guy is not a good writer of how to books. Why isn't he? Because you cannot LEARN from him. I teach people how to build websites as a sideline volunteer project. Furthermore I teach people all over the world... different cultures, different languages, different time zones. How can I do that? The same way that Eric COULD have written his book... by explaining things in easy to understand verbiage, with 'try it' lessons (like w3schools does). If you want people thinking you are 'brilliant', fine, but if you want people to LEARN from you, better step off that spotlighted pedestal and provide what is needed. Brilliance burns out. Common sense, step by step guidance and mentoring, ah!, now THAT lasts, but Eric doesn't have that to give his audience, but obviously he doesn't have anyone guiding and mentoring him either... and that's what he needs.... a good content editor. tsk tsk to his publisher for not providing one. (Also, a good indexer is required for any how to book, and that is also missing here.) Perhaps Eric will mature into a good writer of how to books, but somehow I think he won't... unless his publisher helps him with what he needs. Any good publishing house would, and they would layout the books better too. What IS the world coming too! Alas, I have reached the 'tsk tsk' age. But then, there is so much to tsk tsk about. sigh.
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