CSS Web Site Design Hands-On Training

by Eric A. Meyer, Dan Short

An introduction to Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) and their applications in Web design takes readers step by step through the process of creating a dynamic Web site with CSS, providing detailed instruction, hands-on exercises, and real-world examples to help users master essential concepts and techniques and apply them to a variety of real-world situations. Original. (Beginner/Intermediate)

Genres: Nonfiction, Website Design, Reference

441 pages, Paperback

First published November 19, 2006

About the author

Eric A. Meyer is an American web design consultant and author. He is best known for his advocacy work on behalf of web standards, most notably CSS (Cascading Style Sheets), a technique for managing how HTML is displayed. Meyer has written a number of books and articles on CSS and given many presentations promoting its use. Eric currently works for Igalia.

Reviews

[C · Rating 3 out of 5]

An elementary, step-by-step illustrated guide by CSS master Eric Meyer. The book's a good introduction to CSS, but it only covers the basics; it uses a simple, 2-column site for demonstrations, and doesn't provide any advanced CSS techniques. Each lesson includes CSS snippets, then shows screenshots of the results in a browser, then explains the mechanics of the CSS being demonstrated. Meyer plays with the CSS quite a bit to show the effects of various changes.

Meyer stresses the importance of separating style from content. He also advises using scaling factors, such as multipliers, rather than length- or em-based measurements whenever possible.

The book was published in 2007 so it covers CSS2, and barely mentions CSS3. If you have access to Lynda.com, watch the video version of this book: CSS Web Site Design.

[Matt · Rating 4 out of 5]

A hands-on approach to learning CSS.

Part of Lynda Weinman's Hands-On Training series, this book is not your typical CSS reference. Instead, it walks the reader through a series of examples that are designed to show, rather than tell, how CSS attributes work. Better still, the examples are not nonsensical busy work. Rather, each example gets you one step closer to having your page look like the design "provided" by a graphic designer. Full of pictures and sample code, the book not only walks through CSS but explains the whys and wherefores nicely to help the reader understand not just that a particular style works but /how/ it works.

A great book for beginners, a little slow to get started for novices and better, but even experts may find useful bits here and there.

[Jennifer · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book helped make CSS make scene.

[Steve lockwood · Rating 4 out of 5]

his is a really easy to follow CSS guide. It is a series of exercises that lead you through CSS. The box model chapter was particularly helpful.