annelovesamazon said
In 2003, I tried learning CSS via Dreamweaver, and I must say it scarred me from ever attempting to learn CSS for awhile, until now. A colleague of mine gave me this book, and it sat on my shelf for about 6 months. Then I tried doing the exercises week by week, but would get distracted because the projects didn't look that aesthetically appealing to me, especially coming from a design background.
However, I started working on a side project which used the barebones CSS, and then revisited this book, but this time, I dedicated a good full week, day by day, finishing each chapter. I must say, I'm on the last chapter of the book, and I really have started to get a grasp of how this all works. The exercises are a bit challenging, but very necessary. The last chapter is amazing that I wondered as an author, how he even began to contemplate on writing this chapter. He takes a his own exercise, and then restyles it for the web, which has been really engaging, even in 2009.
I highly recommend this book. It's probably the first instructional book that I've completed.
Some side pointers that have been recommended to me which helped:
-I used the text editor Coda (which is for MACS only). It costs a little less than Dreamweaver, but it encompasses all the programming languages that are hip like [Ruby, Javascript, Actionscript, PHP, Python, Perl, etc. (19 in total)]. You can visit the Panic site, and purchase this as a combo with Transmit.
-In the divs, I always put a temporary border so I can see the elements [border: 1px dotted green;]. Sometimes, I use different colors or patterns. But at the end I delete them. But being a visual person, this really helped. I would try it but if it doesn't work, don't sweat it and delete them.
-Last there are a couple of links in there that are a bit dated because of course this book is 8 years old--pretty prehistoric in web years. Anyway, I want to say don't dismiss the URLs. Instead do a Google Search, and you will find the pages he talks about.
Hope this helps. Feel free to ping me if you have questions.
William E. Mcnamara said
I highly reccomend this and the "More Eric Meyer on CSS". They walk you through the thought process and coding process of Web Page Design. It's a learn by doing book, which works for me.
Fontaine said
This book is good to practice CSS. To be used before the Meyer's second one ("More Eric Meyer On CSS"). On the other hand, because it was written in 2002, it is a little obsolete for some techniques. The using of the 'table' tag for layout is still here. This is not the case in the second book which use the positionning... and sorry for my english !!!
David J. Sweeney said
I have found better books out there, but this one is okay. Good to get you started.
Riccardo Audano said
Awesome learn by example book IF you already have a little background in CSS, and even then if your knowledge is elementary you might be lost on some of the finer points. If it had a little more theory and explanations it would be a killer book, but I guess Eric Meyer didn't have patience enough for that. He is anyway a Master in CSS styling, no doubts about that, and the right author too look at for learning and inspiration. The book is structured around several projects that you see in the various developing stages from beginning to end in reasonably small steps. The explanations of what's going on are like what you would expect from a guru/designer/artist that is, far from complete and basic. Again is like you had the chance to peek over Eric's shoulder while he works, but he won't be bothered to lose too much of his time after you. But don't get me wrong, this book is a must have for anyone interested in CSS, even if I would not buy it now (it starts being a bit dated) but would wait for his next book that should come out this autumn.
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