WDM said
I read this book in about 6-8 hours. I was completely glued to this book and had to force myself to put it down to deal with other tasks in life. Yes, it's a book concerning web design and the code involved with such, and, yes, it's a pleasure to read. I normally don't find such a combination when reading code related books. With this book, that combination was very present from start to finish, and on top of that, I found myself having several exciting, "Aha!" moments while reading this book. This book changed the way I view web pages--in some ways dramatically. I can honestly say that with (X)HTML & CSS and JavaScript certifications under my belt.
This book is split into two main sections: markup and styling. The markup section focuses on standards-compliant XHTML techniques. A general trend in this section is reducing markup and increasing the relevance of the markup being used on a web page. The styling section focuses on standards-compliant CSS techniques. A general trend in this section is reducing the reliance on markup and scripting and increasing the effectiveness of the styling used on a web page. Throughout this book, the author of this book demonstrates how standards-compliant code is not necessarily the most efficient or smallest amount of code. Using real-world-applicable examples, the author reveals techniques for overcoming many of the misconceptions and difficulties of standards-compliant code. Another thing I need to point out is that the author presents these examples without compromising accessibility for disabled users. That is very commendable.
The writing style of the author is very easy to read. At times, it almost seems as if the author is engaging the reader in conversation. He covers the topics using everyday English and even mingles a bit of simple humor to keep the mood light. This book is laid out in a very reader-friendly manner. The font size and weight sit very comfortably on the paper. Physically, this book is surprisingly light weight. Packed in the paperback cover are about 148 sheets of paper, or leaves (there are 261 pages of to-read material, sans the foreword, about the author, acknowledgements, introduction, etc.), at about 7.5 inches (~19cm) wide, by about 9 inches (~22.9cm) tall, by almost 0.75 inch (~1.8cm) thick. Ample margins are present, which are wide enough to make notes, if desired.
The one thing to keep in mind about this book is that it may not be intended for the beginner. If you plan on reading this book, be sure to have a good understanding of XHTML and CSS, since the point of this book is to build upon current XHTML and CSS techniques. In my humble opinion, I would say this book is most beneficial to those who are comfortable enough with XHTML and CSS to be able to hammer out a web page with minimal assistance (i.e. reference books).
This book comes at my high recommendation. In fact, I would consider this to be an essential resource to have on any web developer's bookshelf. If you are planning on getting into web development, whether for work or hobby, you will not be disappointed with purchasing this book.
Marc Overmars said
If you are going to write a book about web standard or tell people what web standard should be, then stand by your words.
Through out the book - the author appeared to be playing it safe as if not wanting to offend other web developers or maybe not sure of what he's writing.
It's like telling someone how to drive safely - Example: "Don't drive at night with your lights off but I'm not going to tell you it's wrong or it's right, what I will tell you is don't drive with your lights off."
The author constantly distance himself from his own words, I find it very confusing as to why he bothered writing a book, especially when it comes to telling people about the right way to do something.
In my opinion, web standard is not subjective, there's the right way to do things and there is the wrong way.
Marc - MN
BekaBug said
If you're just starting out with CSS or web standards (where've you been? welcome to the party!) buy this book right now. Don't think about it. I bought this back in 2004 and I've used it so much I probably have most of it memorized. At the time I bought it I knew I should be using Web Standards but I didn't know what that meant. This title revolutionized how I built websites. Even those who have been at this a while can find a lot of useful info here.
Mark Stoecker said
This book is split into two distinct sections, the first about markup (HTML) and the second about CSS. I'll admit, I was hesitant about even reading this book as my initial thoughts were "a book about HTML and CSS? Really?" However, this is not a book about HTML. It is a book about using web standards for common HTML tags that are used in non-standard ways. The chapters include Lists, Headings, Tables, Quotations, Forms, Phrase elements, and Anchors. Any web designer should know these tags without further explanation. Each of the chapters answers a specific question and provides four common ways of answering that question pointing out the good and bad of each. Lastly, the chapters end with an extra credit section that provides a little bonus on using the presented tag in alternate ways.
So why, you ask, is this chapter on HTML so interesting? What I liked most about it is that it provides excellent ways of styling and using tags that are, as I said, commonly misused and even sometimes avoided because of the difficulty in styling them. If you review the list of elements I detailed above, most designers may agree that the tags that they struggle with styling the most are forms and their elements. The best tip I pulled from this book was to wrap form elements in a definition list
- element. For one, this provides easy ways to align elements, but also still gives a nice layout when styles aren't applied. I havn't developed a form without the
- tag since reading this. Additionally, how many designers exactly use the
- tag in their sites regularly? Again, since reading this, I find myself using it more and more.
The second section is all about CSS: Applying CSS, Print Styles, Layouts, Styling Text, Image Replacement, and styling the tag. My favorite chapter, and the longest in the section, was all about layouts. Again, it follow the "question and four answers" theme towards both the traditional 2-column and 3-column layouts and makes it very easy to design both. However, it gets better with a nice chapter on multiple Image Replacement techniques to provide nice header images without sacrificing the text for SEO and non-styled versions of the site.
One last bonus the book gives is that it the book ends with a couple pages with links to 20 useful websites for designers, many of which I use myself. Again, this is another Friends of Ed book that I highly recommend, especially for designers focusing on web standards. As the title of my review, I have changed some of the things I do during web design because of this book. I refer back to it constantly. I was hesitant at first, but glad I made the purchase. I love this book.
Christopher R. Gunther said
A great handbook showcasing common CSS uses. Will definitely keep this by my side when developing.
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