CSS Mastery: Advanced Web Standards Solutions

by friends of ED

$34.99
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Average Rating: * * * * half star
Sales Rank:7490 (lower is better)
Price Used:$17.00
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Label:friends of ED
Pages:280
Binding:Paperback
Publication Date:2006-02-13
Published By:friends of ED
ASIN:1590596145
Category:Book

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Editorial Reviews and Product Descriptions

Product Description

This book is your indispensable guide to cutting-edge CSS developmentall you need to work your way up to CSS professional. You'll learn how to:
  • Plan, organize, and maintain your stylesheets more effectively
  • Apply the secrets of liquid, elastic, and hybrid layouts
  • Create flickr-style image maps, remote rollovers, and other advanced CSS features
  • Lay out forms using pure CSS
  • Recognize common browser bugs, and how to fix them
While CSS is a relatively simple technology to learn, it is a difficult one to master. When you first start developing sites using CSS, you will come across all kinds of infuriating browser bugs and inconsistencies. It sometimes feels like there are a million and one different techniques to master, spread across a bewildering array of websites. The range of possibilities seems endless and makes for a steep and daunting learning curve. By bringing all of the latest tips, tricks, and techniques together in one handy reference, this book demystifies the secrets of CSS and makes the journey to CSS mastery as simple and painless as possible. While most books concentrate on basic skills, this one is different, assuming that you already know the basics and why you should be using CSS in your work, and concentrating mainly on advanced techniques. It begins with a brief recap of CSS fundamentals such as the importance of meaningful markup, how to structure and maintain your code, and how the CSS layout model really works. With the basics out of the way, each subsequent chapter details a particular aspect of CSS-based design. Through a series of easy-to-follow tutorials, you will learn practical CSS techniques you can immediately start using in your daily work. Browser inconsistencies are the thorn in most CSS developers' sides, so we have dedicated two whole chapters to CSS hacks, filters, and bug fixing, as well as looking at image replacement; professional link, form, and list styling; pure CSS layouts; and much more. All of these techniques are then put into practice in two beautifully designed case studies, written by two of the world's best CSS designers, Simon Collison and Cameron Moll. Summary of Contents:
  • Chapter 1: Setting the Foundations
  • Chapter 2: Visual Formatting Model Recap
  • Chapter 3: Background Images and Image Replacement
  • Chapter 4: Styling Links
  • Chapter 5: Styling Lists and Creating Nav Bars
  • Chapter 6: Styling Forms and Data Tables
  • Chapter 7: Layout
  • Chapter 8: Hacks and Filters
  • Chapter 9: Bugs and Bug Fixing
  • Case Study 1: More Than Doodles
  • Case Study 2: Tuscany Luxury Resorts

Customer Reviews

Glaring Errors - Reviewed on 2008-09-26
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1 customer found this review not to be helpful.
I'm very surprised that no one has mentioned the glaring errors in Chapter 3. A lot of the code does not match many of the names from the downloaded files. The code from pages 52-53 is identical to 50-51 even though it mentions that there are different images. The color they mention doesn't match the images. So far, NOT IMPRESSED!
EXCELLENT!!! - Reviewed on 2008-09-25
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Love this book!! I use it so much pages are falling out. Great book!
Not for beginners - Reviewed on 2008-09-25
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If you are truly new to CSS and not really proficient in HTML, browsers and the like, this is not what you need. The authors will have you think that the book targets a general audience, but this is constantly belied by examples were some elements are not yet defined and, as things grow in complexity, become mere hints rather than the dissections one would expect from an introductory book. If you need more than a concentrated pill of CSS to jog your memory, pick CSS: The Missing Manual instead.
Awesome - Reviewed on 2008-08-26
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This book is helpful. And i needed it for school so it worked out well =]
You will learn CSS and learn it WELL! - Reviewed on 2008-08-24
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After giving a reputable online college a chance, I found myself frustrated with their teachings of xHTML in a class called "WWW Fundamentals" which talked about CSS and I didn't learn what I needed to know about writing CSS code for the web. I decided to look through Amazon.com's extensive list of books and came across CSS Mastery, by Andy Budd. This book taught me more in a single week than what my class at the Art Institute taught me in 6 weeks. Through this book I have successfully kicked the habit of "table based design" and now I'm designing web standard based custom web pages using
tags and CSS.
Tables is for tabular data now and I find I can get more control over my web pages using CSS. This book also teaches you how to overcome the most dreaded browser of all time- Internet Explorer 5.5 and 6.0 (although I don't hack for 5.5 since it's now a dinosaur) due to it's loose interpretation of CSS standards. Anyone looking to get more control of their web designs should pick up this book and read it several times. From it, you will finally understand important fundamentals such as: The Box Model, Redefining Tags, Class, and Pseudo-Class, Floats, and positioning.
I have been recommending this book to everyone who is looking to better their skills in CSS and you can see most of my work online:
[...]
This may be the best money spent on a book if you are a web developer.
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