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The CSS Anthology: 101 Essential Tips, Tricks & Hacks
A practical guide on CSS (Cascading Style Sheets) for professionals and novices, that can be used both as a tutorial and read cover-to-cover or as a handy and practical reference book to common problems, solutions and effects. The 2nd edition is now full-color throughout and is completely updated and revised with the latest tips & tricks.
This book will show you how
Construct robust CSS layouts that work every time. Create sleek drop-down menus using only CSS. Build a professional tabbed navigation system. Replace image-based navigation with low-fat CSS lists. Design smarter, more usable CSS-flavored web forms. Use rounded corners minus the bloated HTML. Allow your visitors to select their preferred look and feel. Let the W3C validator do your debugging. Reduce the burden of site maintenance and updates. ... along with 92 other solutions to common questions and problems. The CSS 101 Essential Tips, Tricks & Hacks is ideal for experienced Web designers who would like to add sparkle to their existing designs, as well as newcomers who want to learn Web design the right way the first time. The book is written so that it can be read cover to cover, or referred to like a cookbook with 101 different recipies for your Website. It's written in an easy-to-follow, consistent format that's well illustrated with plenty of full color screenshots and code examples, providing quick visual cues. If you hate wading through dry academic-style texts, then the illustrations and examples throughout this book will suit you
This book will show you how
Construct robust CSS layouts that work every time. Create sleek drop-down menus using only CSS. Build a professional tabbed navigation system. Replace image-based navigation with low-fat CSS lists. Design smarter, more usable CSS-flavored web forms. Use rounded corners minus the bloated HTML. Allow your visitors to select their preferred look and feel. Let the W3C validator do your debugging. Reduce the burden of site maintenance and updates. ... along with 92 other solutions to common questions and problems. The CSS 101 Essential Tips, Tricks & Hacks is ideal for experienced Web designers who would like to add sparkle to their existing designs, as well as newcomers who want to learn Web design the right way the first time. The book is written so that it can be read cover to cover, or referred to like a cookbook with 101 different recipies for your Website. It's written in an easy-to-follow, consistent format that's well illustrated with plenty of full color screenshots and code examples, providing quick visual cues. If you hate wading through dry academic-style texts, then the illustrations and examples throughout this book will suit you
400 pages, Paperback
First published September 4, 2004
5 people are currently reading
123 people want to read
About the author
Rachel Andrew
51 books13 followersRachel Andrew is a British web developer, author and speaker. She is an Invited Expert to the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) CSS Working Group, Google Developer Expert, and a former member of the Web Standards Project. She is the editor-in-chief of Smashing Magazine.
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Displaying 1 - 19 of 19 reviews
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October 11, 2019I started reading it after a lot of recommendations but it wasn't gone up to the standards. Maybe it's just me, but I was expecting more.
February 14, 2014
I read this book just after reading HTML Utopia HTML Utopia by the same author. (See my review https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...).
This book suffers from many of the same problems as HTML Utopia -- it's quite out of date. Specifically, it doesn't talk about HTML5 or CSS3 (neither of which were around at the time). Now, at least, the author has published a new edition: The CSS3 Anthology: Take Your Sites To New Heights, 4th Edition which apparently talks about CSS3 and HTML5 ; I haven't read that version, so can't really review it.
This book consists of a very short introduction to CSS, and then provides a large number of "Tips, Tricks and Hacks" using HTML and CSS. While this is definitely useful, I dislike books that focus on "tricks and hacks", since I believe they tend to encourage people to just copy code without understanding it properly. Most of these so-called "tricks" are relatively obvious if you understand CSS and how it relates to HTML. If you spent the time to thoroughly understand CSS and HTML, you could probably figure out all these "tricks" for yourself. On the other hand, the book does provide a useful background, and does explain how things work pretty well.
I suspect that I would give the latest edition of this book a higher star rating, as I presume it is more up to date (although its publish date is March 2012, and a lot has happened since even then).
This book suffers from many of the same problems as HTML Utopia -- it's quite out of date. Specifically, it doesn't talk about HTML5 or CSS3 (neither of which were around at the time). Now, at least, the author has published a new edition: The CSS3 Anthology: Take Your Sites To New Heights, 4th Edition which apparently talks about CSS3 and HTML5 ; I haven't read that version, so can't really review it.
This book consists of a very short introduction to CSS, and then provides a large number of "Tips, Tricks and Hacks" using HTML and CSS. While this is definitely useful, I dislike books that focus on "tricks and hacks", since I believe they tend to encourage people to just copy code without understanding it properly. Most of these so-called "tricks" are relatively obvious if you understand CSS and how it relates to HTML. If you spent the time to thoroughly understand CSS and HTML, you could probably figure out all these "tricks" for yourself. On the other hand, the book does provide a useful background, and does explain how things work pretty well.
I suspect that I would give the latest edition of this book a higher star rating, as I presume it is more up to date (although its publish date is March 2012, and a lot has happened since even then).
September 22, 2009
A very good book containing a lot of tips and tricks from various departments, starting at beautifying design and ending at improving usability and accessibility. It's compiled in very user-friendly format of questions and answers with full source code. It is, however, targeted at CSS novices - or it used to be an overwhelming compendium five years ago, when CSS was still new.
SitePoint has recently released 3rd edition of this book (I have 1st) - but I've read its info and it looks like it was updated with revised source codes and tricks for IE7/IE8 and FF3. It's quite misleading now to label such a book as "101 Essential Tips, Tricks and Hacks" because it implies more advanced approach than what CSS Anthology really contains. It's a good book for beginners, but not worth the money for advanced users.
SitePoint has recently released 3rd edition of this book (I have 1st) - but I've read its info and it looks like it was updated with revised source codes and tricks for IE7/IE8 and FF3. It's quite misleading now to label such a book as "101 Essential Tips, Tricks and Hacks" because it implies more advanced approach than what CSS Anthology really contains. It's a good book for beginners, but not worth the money for advanced users.
December 5, 2009
Should I use pixels, points, ems, or another unit identifier to set font sizes? How do I form elements using CSS? How do I set an item’s position on the page using CSS?
The CSS Anthology sets out a question and answer type of resource. Most people using this book will be browsing the topics for solutions to particular problems. However, if worked through from start to finish, this book would even serve beginners well.
The CSS Anthology is complete with full code and illustrations. I find this aspect is particularly useful for trying out different approaches. The book also contains a lot of good tips about compatibility and when CSS is not the best choice.
The CSS Anthology sets out a question and answer type of resource. Most people using this book will be browsing the topics for solutions to particular problems. However, if worked through from start to finish, this book would even serve beginners well.
The CSS Anthology is complete with full code and illustrations. I find this aspect is particularly useful for trying out different approaches. The book also contains a lot of good tips about compatibility and when CSS is not the best choice.
August 13, 2012
E' un ottimo testo per imparare i primi rudimenti dei CSS. Attualmente risulta un po' datato visto l'uso ormai consolidato dei CSS3. Ad ogni modo molte tecniche rimangono ottime e aiutano a comprendere meglio (e ricordare) come andrebbero trattati certi problemi e contesti. Gli esempi sono molto buoni e spesso specificati passo passo. Il codice è fondamentalmente semplice e lo si può seguire bene grazie a spiegazioni molto precise e un linguaggio adatto a tutti. Insomma, un libro che fa bene a chi vuole imparare, ma anche a chi ha già imparato e vuole ricordare meglio.
October 30, 2012
Very good book for those who are less familiar with CSS, but I think too much is not useful for beginner, tricks are very good and very simple language they are learning.
absolutely recommend to people who are still learning CSS.
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اين كتاب توسط اميرحسين عبدالعلي به فارسي ترجمه شده و توسط انتشارات ناقوس به چاپ رسيده كه ترجمه بسيار روان به همراه نكات ميفيدي دارد.
absolutely recommend to people who are still learning CSS.
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اين كتاب توسط اميرحسين عبدالعلي به فارسي ترجمه شده و توسط انتشارات ناقوس به چاپ رسيده كه ترجمه بسيار روان به همراه نكات ميفيدي دارد.
November 5, 2009
Set up as questions posed with clear answers, this CSS handbook is probably the best problem solver book I have found. As my students ask about their design problems, most solutions can be found with clear examples, and sample code.
It is a highly recommended book to use to understand the fundamentals of designing with CSS
It is a highly recommended book to use to understand the fundamentals of designing with CSS
March 16, 2007
This is the best CSS book I have found.
December 31, 2007
A good solid groundwork in CSS for folks like me who learn best through figuring out how to do a specific task, rather than starting with the absolute fundamentals first.
February 19, 2008
Excellent source of CSS!! Great examples and explanations!!
Read
May 27, 2008Well, I never got far into this book and had to take it back to the library...
April 1, 2011
Good book for beginners. you can find practical solutions and learn tricks very fast.
August 23, 2015
Very good CSS Beginers. Very readable writting style.
February 11, 2011
I taught me practical CSS and its common tricks in a short time.
January 20, 2018
Very, very informative, and surprisingly easy to read. Made me wish I could start all of my web projects over and do them right.
August 13, 2011
CSS tips, tricks & hacks - just like it says on the can. Very useful format. After you've learned what CSS is, this is the ideal next book on the topic, prior to something more advanced.
December 9, 2011
campionario di soluzioni pronte e di facile lettura, ma che si mantiene di livello introduttivo
October 31, 2012
This is a brilliant reference book. Very visual with lots of colour which is important for visually inclined web designers
December 13, 2009
1/3 of the tips are good, 1/3 are tiny variations of previous tips, and 1/3 are not useful.
Displaying 1 - 19 of 19 reviews