Cascading Style Sheets
Eric A. Meyer
ISBN: 0-596-00525-3

This book is packed full of information about CSS. There are chapters devoted to each general category of CSS such as fonts, text, blocks, borders, etc.

One item that could be improved is the chapter headings. Most O'Reilly books put the chapter at the top of each page, so at any time you can glance up to the top of the page you are reading and orient yourself. This book only lists the chapter title on the first page of the chapter and in the TOC. In a fiction tome, this probably would not be a big deal, but I rarely read reference books in an orderly fashion preferring to skim to the subject I need assistance on at the moment. Not having the chapter headings on each page makes this much more difficult.

The book does have a generous amount of info on CSS and nice appendices. Appendix A on properties is particularly useful.

I had to buy this book for an Intro to Web Design class and many of my classmates and I agreed that this is not an easy book to follow. It dives into details without laying out the most basics first. In general, the lack of structure and more complicated than necessary language was confusing and maybe one with previous CSS knowledge would know what he's talking about but for a beginner it was quite unhelpful.

If you are not using Cascading Style Sheets in your own HTML documents, you should consider them. They will save you hours of tedious formatting time. CSS allows you to control every aspect of the formatting and display of your website, without having to "touch" each page individually.

This book is great for someone who has never worked with CSS before. It is very easy to read, and leads you through some very good examples that show how to use CSS for what it does best.

As some reviewers have pointed out, this is not a reference book. It is not well suited to some who is already well versed in CSS, as it will take you awhile to find the exact item of information you are looking for. However, for learning CSS, in the first place, this book does a good job.

1. CSS and Documents
2. Selectors
3. Structure and the Cascade
4. Values and Units
5. Fonts
6. Text Properties
7. Basic Visual Formatting
8. Padding, Borders and Margins
9. Colors and Backgrounds
10. Floating and Positioning
11. Table Layout
12. Lists and Generated Content
13. User Interface Styles
14. Non-Screen Media

CSS is the science and engineering behind the art of display. Meyer's book is a great resource for understanding that science. It is one of the few books allotted a place on my desk.

Written much like a programming book, it explains in logical steps exactly how the rules of CSS work. It is not a picture book: it does little to help someone design a website as that is not the intent. What the book does superbly is give the reader a detailed understanding of how to correctly construct a well designed (or not so well designed) website.

Because it examines the theory and logic underlying CSS, many portions of the book require thought and concentration to read. Some paragraphs seem quite difficult to follow at first glance, but the reason for this is that the ideas being conveyed are subtle and oftentimes complex. I found the book to be slow reading, much along the lines of a physics text, because a great deal of information is being conveyed in a small space.

My CSS code is much cleaner, and my coding and debugging time greatly reduced, as a result of *studying* this book.

I read a lot of good things about Eric Meyers and people say he's practically like the king of CSS teachers or something. I read reviews from amazon about this book and decided it was time I read this book.
At first, it seemed like a good book, explaining core concepts of CSS to me. I've been using it for years, but never really had a book teach me everything, I picked it up as I went along.
However, as I reached further into the book, the topics became more complicated and his explanations became weaker and weaker. There are no practical examples. I was hoping to get some insight in the way certain code could be used but instead, this was more like a help/reference manual which made me wonder why I even needed this book in that case when there are great help/reference manuals all over the Internet.

I thought reading this book would make me like Mr. Meyer's apprentice, to learn from the master. It was like going to an experienced carpenter and being told "This is a hammer, u hit nails with it." and then leaving. I was looking for more like "this is a hammer, notice how if I hit it hard it causes a dent in the wood, but a soft touch allows you to keep an even wood surface, use least amount of energy and still get the job done."

I learnt more about CSS from other books that were nothing more than basic introductions.

Meyer's book is addressed to web site designers who want a more thorough understanding of the principles underlying CSS. It presupposes some practical familiarity with (X)HTML and prior exposure to CSS. This should probably not be a first book on CSS. And look elsewhere if you're interested in a cookbook approach to design.

Meyer understands the complexities of CSS and has considerable experience with it, which makes this among the more useful books on the subject. Read this book if you want element by element, tag by tag discussion of CSS. Among other things, you will come away with a better understanding of the cascade, the box model, margins and padding, lists, and the differences between block and inline elements. Your coding is also likely to be cleaner. But if what you want is specific design tips for something like a three column layout with masthead and footer, you need a different book.

Things move so quickly in web design that by the time a book reaches the shelf, it almost invariably has a slightly dated feel to it. That's the case here, accentuated perhaps by the less than thorough content and organizational editing this book apparently received from O'Reilly Media. Its organization is too loose, and at times it is not readily apparent why some topics are placed where they are. Meyer also has a tendency to use certain phrases or style devices repetitively, which is at times only annoying but also sometimes frustrating.

That said, however, Meyer's book can help make the difference between really understanding CSS and just being able to use it. I learned a number of things that I was able to apply immediately and expect I will find more in Meyer's book as I return to it as a reference, which may be the best way to use it.

If you're interested in throwing away tables and progressing into using XHTML and CSS for web design, this is an essential reference. It can be read cover to cover and in typical Meyer style, is easy to read and very simple to understand. I'd recommend pairing this with 'Eric Meyer on CSS' and 'More Eric Meyer on CSS'. This will act as a reference for the actual code whilst Meyer's other books walk you through actually using CSS in a variety of different ways. I keep this book on hand constantly while I'm working.

I worked through the first edition four years ago, and found the book to be very easily followed. I realize the specification has changed, and that the syntax (selectors, mostly) has become somewhat more complicated. AND that the issues revolving around using markup for layout (tables vs. div tags, mostly) have yet to be resolved (and, perhaps, have become MORE complicated rather than less so, due to XML), BUT... the second edition could have been improved with perhaps ONE more rewrite and some proofreading. I realize Mr. Meyer is a busy man, but he could have taken a bit more time updating this franchise.

I won't try to waste too much time here. Other reviewers have groused over this book quite enough. Please take the time to go to an actual bookstore, pick up the actual book, and actually skim through it before purchasing. Look at the table of contents. Crack your walnut reading a few paragraphs...

That said, let's look at this book. The only thing missing from its title is "startup". If you're new to the CSS2 standard, this is a great place to start. I will agree with others about the book's page layout- figures should be located closer to the text tied to that illustration. Having to flip forward and back to get a concept is annoying.

Content-wise, I think Meyer points out the relevant shortcomings of IE (and he never even mentions the gaping security holes) and its inability to properly render your CSS2 layout. So download Mozilla. Put a "Mozilla Only" disclaimer on your site and go about your business!

I bought this book to familiarize myself with the box model and at least some of the available properties and values thereof. This book did a great job of introducing me to the box model, positioning, and such. Yes, this is a book for noobs, but if you've got to start somewhere, this is a great source. Also, check out Eric's site, which has some really great tips and tricks on it. And cssplay.co.uk has some really neat things you can try once you master that box model. And no, I'm not related to Eric. No, I do not hold any stock in O'Reilly Press. I just think this book is a great starting point.

I purchased this book for a CSS class that I was taking. The book is good, it does cover a lot of information. I found that it was not the only book that I was using. I had an old HTML book that I used for reference more often then not. It is one that I liked for things like Color codes. The CSS book does not reference these, and if it does, it is not that easy to find.

Agian it is a very good book, but not the only one that you should have for reference.

This book really needs to warn the reader that they are about to read great detail about something they will never use. I would like to make the decision to read a section or not, based on it's usefulness to me. Diagrams ought to support the text around it. I spent a lot of time reading along and referring to diagrams that had nothing to do with the surrounding text.

I bow to this master. This same information, organized differently, would make for a great book. Maybe the 3rd edition?

I've never bothered to write a book review before but I want to warn off this particular book and perhaps give Mr. Meyer some needed feedback.

First, the presentation is disorganized. The endless picayune rules occur as almost stream of consciousness. But worst of all is that after wading through a morass of syntax the author points out that Internet Explorer doesn't accept the rule. Of course, anyone who ignores IE misses 95% of his audience.

After becoming familiar with this trick of pulling the rug out from under the reader after the fact I started looking ahead for the IE disclaimer. Meyer then thwarts this practice by hiding the final disclosure in text.

Second, the book provides painfully few examples of practical CSS-just a bushel basket of useless rules that not even IE 7 will use.

In addition, CSS3 is never presented, though it is the current standard.

If this geek `s intention was to relegate CSS to the Geekhood--those who adore overly complex rules as proof of their mental superiority--then he has succeeded.

If, on the other hand, Meyer is attempting to aid in the raging compatibility issue that plagues working web designers, and that CSS was intended to fix, he has failed miserably.

de·fin·i·tive
adj.
1. Precisely defined or explicit.
2. Authoritative and complete

Can this be said to be a definitive guide?

No doubt Mr. Meyer knows his trade and is a respected individual on the subject of CSS. Anyone who has cut their teeth on CSS knows that what is written in theory, is sometimes fallacy in implementation. This goes true in the various browser interpretations of the CSS language and the different behaiviors each presents.

This is where CSS: The Definitive Guide should have stepped in to fill that void. There should be browser compatability charts showing quirks mode, standards mode, and all the different behaiviors of IE 4/5/6, Opera, Netscape, Firefox, etc.

Authoritative? Yes unless someone else can explain it better.
Explicitly defined to be understood? Somewhat.
Complete? Not really.

Still, this is a good book to have on your shelf just in case you get bored reading dry technical specifications.

If you're looking for a book that will teach you how to actually use CSS, you'll be disappointed by this book. If you're looking for a book that goes into great detail about what CSS can do in theory, you'll love this book. But be warned, before you read a section, you should scan ahead to make sure there's no warning that says, "Internet Explorer for Windows through IE6, the most recent version as of this writing, does not support [whatever...]" The book wastes a huge amount of time describing things that are not supported. And these warnings are at the end of sections.

Eric Meyer's the man when it comes to CSS. This book is very well laid out, very comprehensive and a pleasure to read. It provides an excellent base and would be easily understood, even by someone who's not used CSS before. It really covers all the basics, then proceeds to quite detailed. I'd highly recommend this book to anyone who's going to do any sort of web design. CSS makes things much easier & this book makes CSS a breeze.

This book helped me learn CSS. I think it is well written and well organized. If you go through it in a single day and try out what you've learned, the theory and methods come together very well.

This book seems to get the reader in and out quickly enough to make learning CSS more approchable, yet it is well-written and detailed enough to be useful for those already having some experience with HTML or web development.

As a prerequisite, you should probably have an understanding of HTML and be able to create and view HTML and CSS documents.

I bought this book for one reason, to get a basic understanding of CSS. Getting an overall view of CSS and some examples gets done in this book. In depth of CSS, don't know. I can get a deeper understanding by searching the web. I was looking for some basic discription and examples and I got that. I read some of the other views, agreed "The Definitive Guide" is a bit much. I would think that the book would be a lot thicker wiht that title. I would probably buy it again under the same circumstance.

If you have some experience creating web pages and have a reasonably good grasp of HTML and are really serious about getting deep into CSS, this would be a really good book to do that with.

On the other hand, if you're looking for a CSS cook book or for a basic CSS tutorial for beginners, this is not the book for you.

While not a CSS expert, I've been using CSS to develop websites for a number of years. I've found this book most valuable in deepening my understanding of CSS.

If you want more detail, you could take a look at my somewhat longer review on the Oakland Perl Mongers site.

George Woolley of Camelot.pm and Oakland.pm

I was really expecting to enjoy this book, but I am now having trouble finishing it. The author seems to enjoy telling us how much he knows about CSS and not how we can apply the subject to our own web designs. I also think the book needed some kind of editor or proofreader. Take the following snippet:

"The left (or right) outer edge of a floated element must be to the right (or left) of the right (left) outer edge of a left-floating (or right-floating) element that occurs earlier in the document's source, unless the top of the later element is below the bottom of the former."

I wanted to tear my eyes out reading that....

I've been working with and around computers since 1980. I have a broad technical background. I like technical books and get most of my information from them. I was prepared to like this book. So why don't I?

The short answer is unacceptably poor technical editing.

First and foremost this book suffers from the disease that afflicts virtually all O'Reilly Definitive Guides: An apparent phobia about providing cross-references to the page or pages contain cited information. It thus becomes your job to wade through the T.O.C. and/or index and find the information referred to.

Second, this book assumes that you're keenly interested (to cite but one example) to know what as-yet-unavailable CSS3 might someday do with regard to "Glyph versus content area." As for me, I found the book's abundance of this too-clever-by-half ("Look at how much *I* know!") esoteric detritus infuriating. Again, one can't blame the book's author for wanting to show off a bit, but one can fully blame the book's editor for allowing him to.

Then there's the book's laughably over-complicated section on Tables. Pages of windy bloviation about how XML doesn't understand tables but but precious little on how to use CSS -- the title of the book, remember? -- to get a table setup the way you might want it to be. Did an editor even look at this section?

In the end this book contains lots of excrutiatingly abstruse background minutiae about XML standards and the like that you might possibly enjoy reading about once you've independently acquired your own understanding of it. In the meantime don't think for a second you're going to be able to use this book to come up with a reasonably straighforward explanation of to how to use CSS to display some content the way you want to -- your time will instead be spent trying to swim your way out of yet another of the book's overly detailed technobabble digressions...

First off, if we widen our horizons and try a few different browsers, CSS becomes far more useful -- and for any web programmer it should be like finally getting to the fun part. CSS takes a bit of learning. Experiment with it, play with it, discover the power of it. It will free you from so many pains in the you-know-what, you'll want to have a kegger to celebrate your new found control and freedom.

This guide is not a CSS "cookbook." It is indeed very much like a dictionary and it is exceedingly useful. It is a reference text and it can be used as a learning tool. Figure out how it is organized, mark it up, use index tabs to quickly find the sections you need once you have found them the first time. Whatever it takes to make the information more accessible to you.

There are other books that will illuminate the creative aspects of CSS. Buy them, too, if you like, but this one is the foundation. And Eric Meyer is a sure fire expert with this stuff, if anyone is.

And finally, once you get CSS under your belt, so to speak, you can be creative yourself. Playing with CSS can't hurt you. It won't even get your hands dirty. So, explore, create, do amazingly cool things -- and take this book with you!

I love O'Reilly books but "definitively" not this one!!! What a dissapointment! The author should first learn HOW TO WRITE A BOOK AND THEN, NOT TALK TO HIMSELF OR ABOUT HIMSELF AND HOW POWERFUL CSS IS ON EVERY F'ING PAGE!

Did the O'Reilly editors take a vacation?

This book's problem... the publishing house didn't assign an industry expert as content editor but published it 'as received from author' (though maybe they DID spellcheck it). I say that based on the fact that over the past 35 years, I've earned a tidy little sideline sum as a content editor for various publishing houses. (I am also an sgml expert and have built about 6000 webpages in the past decade, most by hand, some using Cold Fusion, so I am also an HTML/CSS/JavaScript/XML, etc. 'expert'.)
This book has too much author me me me me-ing (kinda like my review, heh heh) and not enough clear, concise explanations as to how CSS works and what problems might be encountered in which browsers if you use css to replace tables for page layout.

I recommend a css beginner go to w3schools site. They have a beginner's css course that is quite good, for the basics. Plus they allow you to try out the css in a browser. It's not a full-on course, but it IS a good beginning and it's free. You should know HTML before you take the css course. Also, you can go to lissaexplains for tidbits of css info such as how 'div' works, etc. Then just start building a site for the practice. If you can't think of a website idea (if you are a beginner, that can be a difficult thing... the design of a website), and you have access to 2002 or newer Microsoft applications, just use one of the office programs (Word or Publisher) to generate a couple of basic webpages, then view the template in a browser, and printout the pages. Don't look at the 'view source' of the generated Microsoft webpage as all that baloney microsoft code will freak you out. Then try to duplicate the webpage layout by writing your own html/css code... after you have learned css at w3schools, etc. You will discover you'll need at least TWO stylesheets for your webpages as css works differently in various browser. Don't worry about it, w3schools will explain the basics. Generally speaking, you'll need one stylesheet for Firefox/Mozilla, the other for MSIE and Opera. But don't waste your money on this book. It's not a beginner's book though it purports to be, and the author, well, he really needs to teach a couple of nightschool courses on css, using his book as the courseware. The questions that the night school (aka 'highly motivated') students will ask over and over and over will quickly enlighten him as to what's wrong with his book and give him a little needed humility. (Teaching nightschool CompSci sure worked for me, heh heh.)

HOWEVER, if you want a book then I recommend anything by Danny Goodman. He's a good 'explainer'. His book (ISBN: 0-596-00316-1) Dynamic HTML: The Definitive Reference, 2nd Edition is a good book to have by your side as you are learning web building.

I'm sorry to say that after getting halfway through this book, I got disgusted with it and am now shopping for another. What bothered me is that the author manages to make CSS look horribly complicated, when the fact is, the authors of CSS never intended it to be so. A book of this sort should start by trying to show how to use CSS in a practical, simple way, to gain the reader's trust that this technology is not off the deep end. Instead, Eric seems to spend most of his effort and time explaining "what can go wrong", which demonstrates his own knowledge of CSS but does little to transfer that knowledge to us.

I just spent the day reading this book and it's about 10 hours I wish I had back. The book may indeed be a good reference, but it isn't much of a teaching model. With the vast majority of the world using IE, all too often you'll spend time reading a section and trying to understand it only to find at the end of the section a blurb "This feature is not supported in any version of IE". The first time it was aggravating, by the fourth or fifth time I began to wonder why the book wasn't structured so that readers could be made aware in advance of theoretical features not yet supported. For the most part I'd have skipped past and saved time.

There are simply not enough examples in the book and many of the ones that exist are confusing. I can't quite explain it, I just found the book aggravating. I'm sure I'll use it as a reference, but my impression of it is the author created a reference first, and then wrote a book around it.

I really enjoyed readig this book! It's written in a simple and undestandable language that even CSS beginer can unterstand everythig, well almost everything, the sky is the only limit... But i really recomend this book for those who is seeking something to start from with CSS. Its NOT a waste of your money, believe me!

Prior to owning this book, I was involved in web design of different types for about five years. I picked up various aspects of CSS from visual editors like GoLive and Dreamweaver, just by visually creating elements and tweaking the code. However, if you really want to understand the way CSS is structured and what the best methods for achieving certain types of looks are, this is a good place to start.

This book is neither pure code reference (you should get that at w3c.org), nor a tips and tricks book (though it does have some good code samples for how to achieve certain things in CSS). Rather it will teach you how to create your own "tricks", by explaining how to: structure CSS code, understand the differences in syntax, and understanding the differences between seemingly similar properties and property values (padding and margins for example).

One qualm I have is that the first book I received had a really poor glue-binding (pages were falling out, and the backing was detached from the binding). The replacement book (Amazon was very quick about it) also had a detached backing, but the binding itself was OK so I kept it. Also, I will say the book is a little dry / difficult to read more than a chapter at a time, but it's just as well because it's hard to retain things from technical books when you read straight through them (usually).

While this won't be the only CSS book you'll ever need by any stretch of the imagination, it's definitely a nice one to have around. I find that after my initial reading, the way I most often use this book is as a sort of "CSS Dictionary".

Once you're ready to start learning how to implement CSS in earnest, I recommend "Cascading Style Sheets: Separating Content from Presentation" by Owen Briggs. Similar in size and depth, this book is more accessible and more of a hands-on tool, while maintaining the important code references.

I have the supposedly "out of date" first edition of this book, which is now on its second edition (which is the edition that Amazon is selling right now, even though it's not that clear from the title--dont' worry, Amazon won't sell you an outdated book).

This book has been sitting on my bookshelf for nearly a year and I finally got around to reading it carefully, and I must say that it's extremely worthwhile reading.

First of all, let me point out that even the first edition of the book is not outdated. It was ahead of its time when it was written. Back then, not all of the browsers supported CSS1. At the moment, not much of CSS2 is supported, so learning CSS2 is a waste.

If you've tried to design web pages usings DIVs, you will probably get extremely frustrated with your DIVs not positioning the way you think they should. This book has the most thorough description I've ever read about how DIVs and other block elements are positioned. Confused about padding vs margin, or floating and clearing? This book explains it all in detail.

The only out of date part of the 1st edition is when the text contains specific mention of obsolete browers. No one cares that IE3 or Netscape4 doesn't support a particular feature, so hopefully the new second edition takes that stuff out of there.

What this books lacks is examples and advice on how to DESIGN web pages. What it does contain is a detailed tutorial on HOW CSS works. But while there are plenty of books about designing web pages, complete with lots of pretty color pictures, the world also needs a book about the HOW.

Eric Meyer is the master. This edition is way out of date. Instead, buy Cascading Style Sheets: The Definitive Guide, 2nd Edition. It explains everything about CSS2 in detail. For examples and workflow, buy Eric Meyer on CSS and More Eric Meyer on CSS. Just don't buy this outdated version of The Definitive Guide.

The subtitle claims this volume is the definitive guide, I believe it. This book provides comprehensive coverage of the current cascading style sheets specification and how it is being of being implemented (or not). The focus is on the CSS2 and CSS2.1 specs. My first impression of the book was that it would be a valuable reference manual, but as I began to read it, I soon realized it would serve as a great instructional source also. The writing style is as if a good friend sat down to explain style sheets. I found the pacing of the material to appropriate and the detail of the explanations to be exhaustive.

The chapter on selectors (chapter 2) was extremely valuable for me. It helped me to understand why some things did not work as I thought they should. Throughout the book, differences between the specification and the implementation in certain products are explained. Additionally, the differences between various levels of CSS are highlighted. The book has numerous examples for the CSS elements and variations.

This is a great book on CSS, but I wish that electronic versions of the examples were available. This is the only shortcoming of the book that I see. This book is a great tutorial and a valuable reference. Regular practice of the techniques contained within this volume can assist the reader in voiding the abuse of the table and fonts tags.

No doubt about it, Eric Meyer knows CSS inside and out! This book should be a fantastic reference for people who really want to explore the power of CSS.

Unfortunately the editing is so poor in many areas that you have to work through examples on your computer to see the effects being described. Screen shots are used to illustrate coding examples, but details which would help the reader interpret the picture are often left out. For example, when looking at an explanation of overlapping elements, you may be left to figure out whether a space between two lines of text is 20 pixels or 30 pixels wide when there is no reference of scale in the picture. You have to guess or try it out yourself.

When a series of examples are used to illustrate a concept, there is a lack of consistency in the example code. Instead of only changing the one element or parameter being discussed, a similar, but different, example is used so you can't simply look at two successive illustrations to see the effect of the change. In a few cases, whole lines of example code are missing. Probably lost in the shuffle while moving Figures and blocks of text to get the page layout right.

That said, there is a wealth of information here if you are willing to work a little to get it. I would still highly recommend this book for anyone who wants to seriously dive into CSS -- but if all you are looking for is an introduction or a basic reference, there are probably less frustrating sources out there.

Working my way through this book, I found that on almost every page I would be scribbling remarks about sloppy, useless, incomplete, redundant, sometimes even conflicting pieces of text.

Admitted, there is a lot of information in this book, but there is a great deal missing as well. When describing some CSS feature, usually first a brief (incomplete) definition is given, and then the feature is further explained by giving examples. Working your way through the examples, and combining remarks spread out over several pages, you usually find that not all aspects of the feature are covered. You'll still need to consult the specification at www.w3.org . And that spec comes with better examples, as well.

Save your money, buy some other book.

Target Audience
Web developers who need a comprehensive guide on the use of CSS1 and CSS2 technology.

Contents
This book is an extensive guide on cascading style sheet technology, specifically the CSS1 and CSS2 specifications.

The book is divided into the following chapters:

CSS and Documents; Selectors; Structure and the Cascade; Values and Units; Fonts; Text Properties; Basic Visual Formatting; Padding, Borders, and Margins; Colors and Backgrounds; Floating and Positioning; Table Layout; Lists and Generated Content; User Interface Styles; Non-Screen Media; Property Reference; Selector, Pseudo-Class, and Pseudo-Element Reference; Sample HTML 4 Style Sheet; Index

Review
Most of my development work is not concentrated on the user interface. To date, I've been able to live with just a minimal amount of HTML and JavaScript knowledge. But more and more I'm being drawn into web design work, and CSS is playing a significant part in that. In order to have the information I need to do my job, I got a copy of this book and I'm glad I did.

Meyer does a nice job in balancing the material between code examples, reference to cover all the parameters, and example output to show what the code will do. I think the last part is very important, as it allows you to visualize the type of effects a certain command will have, and from there you can start to apply it to your own web site. I am undecided as to whether this would make a good first tutorial for someone just learning CSS. For me, it's a better reference guide once you have some basic CSS understanding.

There is one formatting decision that the author made in the second edition that some might find irritating. He decided that to keep the book from growing too large, the information about which browsers support which features would be dropped from the print version. You can get that information from the online web site, so it's not like you're left in the cold. But if that information is important to you and you want one-stop reading, this book might not be what you want.

Conclusion
A solid reference manual on CSS that you will use for coding examples, parameter reference, and visual examples of the effects you can obtain.

It's the last O'Reilly book I get!
This "guide" does not mention what elements are supported by what browsers. Doesn't even mention what is part of the CSS1 or CSS2 standards! (it only mentions these items sometimes within the text, but nowhere else, not even in the pourly formatted reference at the end of the book).
It does a good job detailing how to use the elements but that's about it.
I think that Thomas Powell's "HTML & XHTML, The Complete Reference" does a excellent job explaining CSS and certainly has a better CSS reference in the 2 chapters dedicated to CSS (it's an XHTML book after all, so don't get it if all you need is CSS).

I have not checked other books written by Meyer but this 2nd edition is not a "Definite Guide"!
Check your bookstore and do a good comparison before spending money on this book!

i work as a programmer and occasionally have to get my hands into the design aspect of things, usually cleaning up templates designers have made in some crap gui tool. i understand the basics of css already, i just needed something to outline the syntax and concepts in css2 and then just function as a reference. this book did neither, and i've found it to be a complete waste.