| CARVIEW |
By Eric A. Meyer
March 2004
Pages: 528
ISBN 10: 0-596-00525-3 |
ISBN 13: 9780596005252
(Average of 11 Customer Reviews)
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Cascading Style Sheets: The Definitive Guide, 2nd Edition is a thorough review of all aspects of CSS2.1 and a comprehensive guide to CSS implementation. The book includes new content on positioning, lists and generated content, table layout, user interface, paged media, and more. It explores in detail each individual CSS property and how it interacts with other properties, and shows how to avoid common mistakes in interpretation.
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Featured customer reviews
Disappointing, January 20 2008
This book is decidedly miss-titled. It is not definitive and it did not guide me greatly. The most obvious flaw is the lack of one single external CSS stylesheet. Honestly, doesn't inline style defeat the purpose of CSS? I'm no expert, and perhaps I'm way off base, but the book was very little help because it failed to provide the real world external style sheet context. I also felt that the book simple failed to cover critical content.
Provide meaningful context with external style sheets and it would be much, much better. Also frustrating was its failure to define technical terms/jargon used in descriptions, and its failure to include critical concepts in its index. I would provide an example (I can't recall a single one), but the book was so worthless that I left it at home (I am on the road, on contract). This last is its most stinging endictment; I brought obsolete books by Colin Moock, just in case, but not CSS the difinitive guide.
Extremely frustrating!, October 15 2007
Cascading Style Sheets - the Definitive Guide -- sets out to fulfill a very important function: to explain the W3C specifications for CSS -- that is, to explain how Cascading Style Sheets works, in minute detail.
However, while the author's conceptions and language are up to the task, the book isn't. It has serious flaws: the absence of any warning that a good deal of its contents just don't work in Internet Explorer; the frequent introduction of terms prior to their definition; and some really abysmal illustrations (O'Reilly's trademark minimalist graphics, which may work well in some contexts, but which frequently misinform or just plain fail in this book). These flaws create endlessly frustrating obstructions, so that the reader who cares has to expend twice the time and energy pursuing alternative sources, while he or she who doesn't will just abandon the task.
This is a real shame, for - as far as I know - there are no other texts out there that try to cover the same territory. Were O'Reilly and the author to tackle these flaws in earnest, this could be an amazing book. But my own experience was very frustrating -- so much so that I was left feeling resentful at such an abuse of my good intentions, time and energy.
Another great from Meyer, May 04 2007
I've been working with CSS for years, but still will usually find a design I like and modify it, rather than coding from the start on my own.
I've seen graphical guides for CSS and I've seen very complete descriptions of CSS elements, but this books a great combination of the two. For every styling element mentioned in this book, there is at least one diagram to help understand how it works. I found this extremely useful for floating elements. There are 9 given situations where blocks are floating in the page. For each example, a supporting diagram shows where the element is put in the code of the page and where it actually will display based on the floating attributes and what other blocks are already on the page.
Not easy to read, February 19 2007
I found the same thing it was very hard to read. That lack of examples also was terrible. It is one thing to see a rule, but to actually have a css and html example and run it makes the light go on sometimes.
Not easy to read, February 19 2007
I found the dame thing it was very hard to read. That lack of examples also was terrible. It is one thing to see a rule, but to actually have a css and html example and run it makes the light go on sometimes.
Pragmatic and useful, September 18 2006
Besides using www.w3.org as a reference this book will be my guide for future reference. It is clear, pragmatic and easy to understand. Like so many O'Reilly books cleanly laid out and even handed in it's critisisms. It really is a definitive guide.
Not easy to read, May 01 2006
This book is NOT easy to read. CSS with its boxes, positioning, floating, ... etc is not easy material, and this book fails to clearly describe the algorithms involved. There is no good "narrative": I found myself paging up and down all the time because the authors were referring to stuff that was explained elsewhere. And few books that I have, have required so many annotations to explain the imprecise phrases in the text, often giving me the feel that I was solving a crossword puzzle.
Yes: there is a lot of data in this book.
No: it's not an easy read.
A Must Have, August 28 2005
Simple a must for any web programmer. Easy to read, easy to follow and written for both novice and advanced designers.
CSS: Definitive Guide (2), May 26 2005
Simply, this book was great. I mean, it was put in such easy terms that almost anyone could understand the criteria of CSS. It had some very nice diagrams(like the Z-Axis model and the CSS Box model). Yes, I gave it a 5, BUT let me list some areas that need a little work on for the third edition, or what should have been in better depth inside this edition.
Well, it had some very nice features, like a full-fledged CSS example and a quick-reference in the back. This book is great if you would like to master "The Art of CSS".
Good Coverage - some more Example would be great!, October 11 2004
This book is easy to read and makes me able to apply CSS-techniques to my website. I can strongly recommend this book for (basic) understanding of CSS and also as a reference.
I gave it only 4 out of 5 "Stars" because of chapter 10 - Floating and Positioning. This Chapter definitely needs at least one complex example because the theoretical background is not enough to be able to design/layout a webpage with CSS.
So i was looking for some examples in the web and found several good sites. Two of them i'd like to present here as an addition to the book:
https://webreference.com/authoring/style/sheets/layout/advanced/
https://www.alistapart.com/articles/flexiblelayouts/
Especially the first example is very intersting with its encapsulated divs.
Enjoy!
CSS 2 TDG 2nd ed, August 19 2004
Eric's writing style is smooth, easy, and just so chock full'o goodness. I really like his use of "real world" examples which are always superb.
Eric also does a fabulous job of explaining a lot of the "why" certain rule react they way they do in different browsers. He also doesn't just leave you hanging wondering how to fix it. He gets right to the meat of the problem in the normal flow of of his explanations. Have questions about accessibility? Eric has got you covered. Want to make your site stand out from everyone else's? Eric has you covered. There is just a plethora of goodness to be gleaned from this book.
At the same time though, Eric explains things so that they are easy enough for the beginner to graps and complex enough that even an experienced CSS designer can find useful information. I find it an invaluable reference tool.
So, for anyone who wants to learn CSS based design techniques whether beginner or expert I think you just can't go wrong with Eirc. Just want to add some monster chops to your CSS Skills, then this is the book for you. And if you're just curious to know what CSS is all about this book will answer that as well. You'll be glad you bought this book.
I know I am.
Media reviews
"...many how-to type books lack quick access to information, or leave out important details. Cascading Style Sheets - The Definitive Guide is a good combination of both. It is laid out in a logical organized manner that makes finding info easy. Additionally, it builds on simple concepts to more advanced techniques, making the read reasonably interesting and not intimidating. It is also absolutely packed with useful examples, tips and 'gotcha's'."
-- Andrew Brosnan, White Mountain Perl Mongers
"The first edition of Cascading Style Sheets: The Definitive Guide became an invaluable resource when it was published in 2000...This new edition will be considered a great reference for many years because Meyer does an excellent job of explaining these concepts."
-- Scott DeLoach, Technical Communication
"I found this book to be a good start in mastering CSS technology...Do you want to take a multi-page website and manually create changes on each and every page or would you be interested in doing a one-stop-shop approach to magically change attributes on every page with a minimum of effort? CSS is the answer to website maintenance difficulties. Expect to spend a little bit of time learning, then mastering the technology. This book will walk you through the process in a matter of hours."
--Eric Meyer, MacCompanion, June 2004
https://www.maccompanion.com/archives/june2004/books.html
Reviews from the previous edition
"I recommend this text to beginners and experts alike. Beginners will quickly get CSS proficient and experts should find the resource material worth the cost of the book.
I thoroughly enjoyed this book and refer back to it when I can't seemto remember a specific CSS syntax or rule."
--Bill Valo, Williamsburg Macromedia User Group, January 2004
https://fsweb.wm.edu/wmmug/reviews/output.cfm?id=225
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