Amazon.com Customer Reviews
Disjointed, Fragmentary, Incomplete.... - Review written on February 28, 2005
Rating: 2 out of 5
6 customers found this review helpful.
It is apparent that Schmitt has a lot to say and to offer however he does not address the topics completely before he has turned his attention to something else; and unfortunately it is, at times, to a none related subject. The book reads like the story of a person who can't wait to get to the next part of the story so he abandons the part he is telling for the next, and does it repeatedly.
I read this book twice and I'm still wondering 'just what did I get out of it'. I felt the second time as I did the first, like I missed something. Yet I know I didn't. It's just that the content of this book is not well presented. The topics are not addressed completely, that if you did not already have some understanding of CSS you would not get a good one here. If fact I think you would be confused.
In chapter five the author spends almost half the chapter presenting java script apparently without regard as to whether the reader is even familiar with this programing language. The chapter is a waste if you don't know javascript (I don't).
Chapter seven focuses on topics (Utilizing PNG and SVG with CSS) both of which has next to no support is CSS. Couldn't this wait for a later book at a time when the technology is supported? It is a lame rational to ask anyone to remember this technology (most likely for years) till the time it becomes usable.
Part IV (chapters 8-10) while giving examples of what is possible in web design for business, independent publishing and 'underground styles' (what ever that is) the presentations makes no sense - 1. If your intentions are to learn CSS and 2. When neither design example is the law, the rule, standard or effectively makes a point. They're examples with little relevance.
This book at best is a 'survey of CSS' in regards to what it is and what is possible. If the books title and or promo information suggested such it would be easier to be with this book.
It does have a few tidbits to glean from. However it is diapointing on the whole.
This shold have been a larger book with topics completely addressed. It comes through that the author knows the subject, it's just not well addressed here.
I would like to see another book with better and fuller presentation from Schmitt on the subject of 'usable' (i.e. supported) CSS, and properly titled. In short, take this one back and complete it. It would be worth it.
Poorly conceived and written book - Review written on January 30, 2005
Rating: 1 out of 5
4 customers found this review helpful.
Poorly conceived and written book
I purchased several CSS books in a flurry of book buying when I first started to learn CSS two months ago. "Designing CSS Web Pages" by Christopher Schmitt was, by far, the worst of them.
Perhaps the worst feature of the book was is uneconomical use of space. As other reviewers point out, there are several places where entire HTML scripts are reproduced, in standard-sized fonts, using a single-column layout. Couldn't the author have reproduced only the relevant snippets of code, or at least used a smaller font or 3-colum layout? Much of this code provided is irrelevant to the example, and the blank space around the code, in sum, probably adds 10 pages to the books length. This waste of space frustrated me and makes the book difficult to navigate.
Further, Schmitt wastes space by including several printed interviews with members of the CSS community. These interviews don't bear directly on the examples, and give the book a rather magazine-like feel. Why include interviews at all? Would you learn to prepare food by reading the biographies of famous chefs, or would you learn by simply learning to dice an onion properly?
Poor writing greatly detracts from Schmitt's exposition of the material. Other reviewers here have provided examples of his murky syntax. Let me tell you, there are far more examples of poor writing lurking in this book than these reviews might lead you to believe. Having to re-read sentences 3-4 times only to find out the author himself is as confused as me just added to my frustration, and convinced me I was wasting my time with this book.
Readers who are not as snarky about syntax as I will, I'm sure, be able to derive beneficial odd and ends from this book. But, in my humble opinion, you'll be better off purchasing a book like "Eric Meyer on CSS" or "More Eric Meyer on CSS". You will become a better CSS writer by learning to emulate a Master. The examples are well written, and, in addition to achieving the specific goals listed in the beginning of each chapter, you will learn an array of other styling tricks from each chapter. Don't be put off by the books expense. $45 is quite a bit to pay for a book, but the colored fonts and the full color examples contribute to the books effectiveness very nicely. Only the relevant code is included, the updated code is in blue, and when Meyer imports entire pages into his examples, he does so in reduced size, so as not to waste space. This is the book you want to buy to master CSS.
Good, but better books available - Review written on August 15, 2004
Rating: 3 out of 5
2 customers found this review helpful, 1 did not.
This is not a bad book. And with 100 more pages, diving into some more specifics, it would have been a great book. The writer knows his stuff, but too often he turns aside from getting into details that are essential to really building designs with CSS.
Sometimes this takes the form of skimming over the topic. CSS layouts, while they get 45 or so pages, really require more depth -- especially around real world multi-column layouts. This topic (where, in fairness, the expert knowledge is still being developed) could fill an entire book by itself! And yet, multi-column layouts get less than 30 pages in total.
Another form of short shrift comes in the Formatting Exercises, Appendix A. This could have been a brilliant section of the book. When I started reading it I thought, This could save the book for me. The concept, of changing things slowly, so you see what a particular change will do, is terrific. Alas, too many of the 50 examples are so trivially different from each other that it's not worth having taken the space.
Again, this is not a bad book. It makes a fine addition to a web developer's CSS reference collection -- *after* you get Zeldman's Designing With Web Standards, and Eric Meyer's CSS: The Definitive Guide. (And maybe Meyer's other CSS books, too.)
Poorly written and confusing - Review written on July 01, 2004
Rating: 1 out of 5
9 customers found this review helpful, 1 did not.
I bought this book because of Christopher Schmitt's high reputation, and because I'd heard so many positive reports about it. Christopher Schmitt does have a good sense of design, and he uses CSS in an imaginative way, but he's no writer or teacher. The book would be more aptly renamed "Random Thoughts about Web Design". The first two chapters burble on about design principles - important issues, but others have written about the subject far more cogently. Then a chapter about style rules that is likely to confuse the hell out of anyone not already well-versed in CSS. After a few designs, you're then plunged into the mysteries of handling PNG and SVG with CSS. (Yes, those graphics formats that are not supported by the vast majority of browsers in current use.) And where are the basic rules about creating borders, styling text, and other useful things? In an appendix, that's where. Unless Christopher Schmitt can get a better editor to knock some sense of coherence into his thoughts, he should stick to design, and stay well clear of writing. Sorry, this is one of the worst computer books I've read in a long time.
a lot more than CSS - Review written on May 16, 2004
Rating: 5 out of 5
4 customers found this review helpful, 1 did not.
Christopher Schmitt has taken it upon himself to write a book that not only covers CSS, but the idea of designing websites with sanity in mind. Throughout the book, Schmitt distinguishes between good and bad things to do while you're designing a website. He talks a lot about what clients expect and that kind of things, something teachers need to go over more. He also provides coding for both CSS and Javascript, along with touching on print, audio, and more forms of media CSS can be utilized for. I read this book from cover to cover without becoming bored; Schmitt has found a way to approach a technical subject and make it interesting, as opposed to most tech books which are just straight code and very drull. I definitely recommend this for any web designer, beginning or advanced.
Makes CSS "Click" - Review written on March 08, 2004
Rating: 4 out of 5
6 customers found this review helpful, 2 did not.
I had picked up several other CSS books that were basically CSS Language References. I got the impression that CSS was basically a more complicated way to accomplish what "font" and similar tags already did. Who needs that? Turns out, I was doing CSS all wrong and just making my life harder.
This book, however, was the first book I read that really showed how CSS is supposed to be done to make your web design life easier. In the middle of reading this book, it suddenly "clicked" in my head... Mr. Schmitt shows how you can take a plain vanilla page with no formatting whatsoever and turn it into a beautiful layout and design using CSS -- and then reformat it with a few keystrokes. The most valuable parts of the book are the ones in which he demonstrates how to mark up various portions of a page using structural div tags, and then format those portions with CSS style sheets. And there are pages and pages of samples at the end of the book that basically show you how duplicate things you see in printed brochures and ads.
I've read some of the negative comments from other reviewers, and in my opinion, what they are complaining about is CSS itself -- this stuff is really HARD to learn to do well! But this book is a very good place to begin. It's not the only book you'll need on the subject, but it'll train you to think of CSS in the right way and get you ready to use those CSS language reference books effectively.
Get this book first.
The ideal choice for visual designers - Review written on February 17, 2004
Rating: 5 out of 5
7 customers found this review helpful, 1 did not.
I'm a graphic designer and have gathered some solid background in web design through the years.
The moment I saw Christopher's tutorial "Web Page Reconstruction with CSS" [the website] on Digital Web Magazine mentioning the upcoming book, I immediately knew that this was the book for me.
It turned out to be an eye-opening experience starting with the structured content and moving towards the "styled" end result purely with the implementation of css. I have looked at several other books on css and while many of them provided valuable in-depth knowledge none of them created a spark for me like "Designing CSS Web Pages" did. Like no other author Christopher shows in simple examples how CSS can be used to actually work on the look of pages, accompanied by the underlying code. That makes it the perfect companion for the visual designers out there.
Even the so-called appendix has a lot to offer: the 50 formatting exercises show you how to create variations of a headline followed by a paragraph: headlines separated by various line styles, headlines left-, right- and centre-aligned, headlines residing in their own, coloured box tucked into the text block, headlines spiced up by background images... you name it!
I admit, as others have mentioned, that some chapters require an understanding of other, related techniques like JavaScript, so the book would not seem an ideal choice for beginners. However the examples are clearly presented to be as comprehensive as possible and certainly sparked my interest to deepen my knowledge where it was lacking.
For those that have a basic background the book opens up a bunch of new possibilities - it really is that good.
A Great Place to Start - Review written on December 12, 2003
Rating: 5 out of 5
5 customers found this review helpful, 1 did not.
As a person with 8 years of web design experience, I know all too well that things are constantly changing. The vast majority of those years were spent creating table-based layouts. I needed something to jump start me and help me make the switch from table-based to CSS layouts. This book served as the perfect tool.
In reading other reviews, where people complained about errors, I didn't run into this problem. I guess that's because of the way I use books. I simply took the code that Mr. Schmitt has in the book, downloaded the great examples on the book's site, and played with the code enough to gain a solid understanding of the principles that he presented.
Coupling the book's topics with other info readily available on the web and via CSS mailing lists, creating sites with CSS has been (for the most part) a pain-free experience.
My advice? I definitely recommend this book. Just take it with a grain of salt (like any other book or product) and do all you can to get the most out of it. The author definitely knows his stuff, so overall, you can't go wrong.
Excellent Primer - Review written on September 10, 2003
Rating: 5 out of 5
1 customer found this review helpful, 2 did not.
I am an experienced Web Designer and 'HTML terrorist'. I've been hearing the buzz about CSS for so long but never really knew what it was. I thought it wasn't much more then a replacement for the
tag. After reading this book I have defiantly changed my mind.This book will get you thinking about CSS and give some good background and examples on why its the way Web Designers SHOULD be designing their sites. Its excellent reading to clear your senses on what CSS can offer and get your creative ideas flying.
If you know nothing or very little about CSS this will give you the necessary background, and skills to start writing your first styles. Approach this book as a primer, and you will get the most out of it.
It's about time inferior Web Practices that penalizes your users instead of rewarding them went the way of the Dodo.
Excellent Design Reference (not CSS language reference) - Review written on April 01, 2003
Rating: 4 out of 5
31 customers found this review helpful, 2 did not.
First, let me point out that this book is NOT a language/syntax reference for CSS. There are many other (mostly larger) books and web resources that cover the technical details of CSS.
With that said, I found this book to be an excellent design resource. As W3C standards become increasingly accepted, one of the key tasks for web designers is to master separation of content from presentation. XHTML, XML, XSL and CSS are all key components in the effort to streamline web code by separating the "what" from the "how-its-viewed." Designing CSS Web Pages is an excellent primer on how to retool your designs using a more sophisticated approach.
The CSS examples presented in the book are simple, but effective. As a programmer, I spend most of my time worrying about data, not how it looks. The examples helped me quickly transform a project from a boring HTML table-layout into a professional-level presentation. Schmitt's examples demonstrate how to achieve many common effects such as multi-column layouts, layering and a myriad of formatting examples for text. Further, the examples are practical and approachable for most people. Many programming tutorials start with simple examples then proceed to advanced cases without covering the middle. While the exercises in Schmitt's book aren't in laid out as a tutorial, they do demonstrate aspects of CSS that most people will actually use when creating CSS-styled web projects. I found them neither too simple, nor too extravagant (CSS can create some interesting effects). This book focuses on real, practical results.
Finally, the extra sections on non-web CSS usage were interesting, and in the case of the printed examples, quite useful, as found I was able to eliminate some code by simply having CSS create my printer-formatted pages (easier for the user, too). In addition, the interviews with various people involved in the web standards and design community helps highlight the effort to make development on the Internet as consistent and efficient as possible,
Overall, I found this book to be a great companion as I reworked my projects to use CSS. Again, you will want to refer to a complete language reference when writing your CSS code, but I would recommend Designing CSS Web Pages as a style reference for anyone creating new web pages in the proper, content-separated manner.
This is a good book, but not for everyone. - Review written on March 24, 2003
Rating: 5 out of 5
53 customers found this review helpful, 3 did not.
In terms of quality, I'd rate this book as high as anything from Glasshaus, most prominently "Cascading Style Sheets: Separating Content from Presentation".
This book covers a lot of the same ground as the Glasshaus title but I found it particularly useful due to its slightly more graphic design bent. The code samples in the book are not merely basic utility layouts (2 columns, 3 columns, vertical centering etc), but more aesthetically 'designed' examples of using CSS -- a feature clearly missing in a lot of books aimed at the 'web developer' community. I'd venture to say I am not one of those to get so enamoured with the technology itself that they fail to see it as a handy means to an end. I really value Schmitt's efforts in this sense.
Again we get the 'separating content from design' jazz, fair enough, but then the author takes a slightly different direction choosing to show how CSS can be linked to other technologies such as JavaScript and the not-so-common PNG and SVG graphics file formats. PNG (Portable Network Graphics) is partly supported by most modern browsers and offers many advantages over the GIF format. SVG (Scaleable Vector Graphics) is similar to Flash, but can be scripted directly from JavaScript on the page. This may or may not be useful to some of you.
There are many CSS techniques in the W3C specifications that are poorly, inconsistently, or not supported at all, in even the latest browsers. As a practising designer, and not just an academic, Christopher is only too happy to point out the limitations of browsers and explains some of the many pitfalls that await the unwary if you try to push the envelope too far.
The projects, again downloadable from the publisher's Web site, focus on publishing - in business, personal and 'underground' styles. The typography is a lot fancier than any other book I've seen and the attention to detail, even for 'web' typography, is highly commendable.
An earlier review on this website said this book is not well technically edited. I am not sure why that was said, but I work with Opera 6 (and 7 beta), Mozilla 0.9 and above, netscape 6 and above and IE 4 and above. All samples I have tried have impressed me.
In sum, if you want to separate your content from design and give your 'styles' some, er, style, AND if you are fairly familiar with the basic CSS lingo (i.e., you dont need to know box models or glish but should understand what a link rel is), then this is probably a very useful book for you. If you are looking for a very basic introduction to CSS, I'd strongly recommend the Glasshaus book. If you are serious about your work, get both.
Enjoyable and Easy to Understand - Review written on March 13, 2003
Rating: 4 out of 5
Unlike some of the recent reviewers of this book, I found Christopher Schmitt's book very enjoyable and easy to read. I like the way he takes a completely unstyled page and shows you how to take each section and give it some "pizazz." His method's are logical and his results are nice to look at, without being overdone.
People who are heavily into "slicing and dicing" graphics and creating complex table structures may have a hard time with this book, because it puts the *content* first, not the visual effects. But, the future of the living web needs us to get out of that mode and to start thinking about communication of ideas and written content. Schmitt's book does a good job of presenting the information and the appendices in the back of the book are a great resource, too.
My only "quibble" with the book is the large section on SVG which really isn't too helpful, at least not yet. However, before reading this book, I only had a dim idea of what SVG even meant, so I did learn something and will be looking for the advancement of this graphics format in the future.
You will also need to read other books on this topic. My recommendations are for Eric Meyer's books (all of them, but especially "Eric Meyer on CSS") and if you use Dreamweaver MX, Project Seven has a wonderful eBook,"Foundations," that is terrific for putting CSS to work while teaching you best practices of working with Dreamweaver.
Far more errata than the author admits - Review written on March 07, 2003
Rating: 1 out of 5
5 customers found this review helpful, 5 did not.
Horribly written and contains far more errata than the author admits to on his website.
Rattle this inside your melon for a while: "Instead of beginning with the design as a means to get to the content, stylize the information you are trying to convey in terms of visual presentation by examining intensely at the message that got to you this point."
If anyone can parse this sentence, would you mind letting me in on it?
It is followed immediately by this: "Look at the tone of the material you have and how a visual design will best serve your client, your client's audience."
One cannot 'look' at the tone and of course "your client, your client's audience" should be "your client and your client's audience".
New Riders should be ashamed of putting this book on the market unedited.
Save your money until Molly Holzschlag's book on CSS is available later in March. It is bound to be better than 'Designing CSS Webpages'.
Poorly written and edited book - Review written on February 22, 2003
Rating: 2 out of 5
31 customers found this review helpful, 4 did not.
I was drawn to this book because of a line that appeared inside the front cover: 'Designing CSS Web Pages came about because the material available for web builders to use CSS always seemed to be knee-deep in geek speak that produced only superficial design enhancements." I have neither the time nor interest to purchase those 1200 page doorstops, so I bought this book in the hopes that it would impart the essence of CSS quickly and clearly, focusing on the practical over the theoretical.
Well, I ended up returning the book to the bookstore because it was so poorly written and edited. The author's knowledge is clearly advanced, but I needed to read each page six or seven times to grasp even the simplest concepts. Clearly he's lived in the trenches and has a lot of nice advice to help us all avoid common problems, but I rarely understood what he was saying! Then he'd move on so quickly.
For example, he'd have this to say about Cascading guidelines:
"Cascade Guideline #1: in the media type (screen, printer, and so on), look for all the declarations for an element and property. The style is rendered if the selector and element match."
Huh? And that's all he would say about that. No example and no clarification of brand new terms (what's a "selector"). And the number of typos throughout the book are too numerous to mention.
(Epilogue: I sent this review to New Riders and they bent over backwards to restore my confidence in them. They immediately sent me a free copy of Eric Meyer's new book on CSS which was wonderful. I was very impressed with the way they handled it.)
Difficult to Read - Review written on February 18, 2003
Rating: 1 out of 5
11 customers found this review helpful, 4 did not.
This book is the worst-edited technical book I have read in a very long time. It was painful to read. Here are a few of the issues:
- Using new terms / jargon before explaining them (if they get explained at all)
- Awkward sentences & paragraphs; difficult to follow
- Misspellings (not many, but enough to notice)
- Poor organization; the haphazard flow confused me multiple times.
I read a large quantity of technical literature each month. I have come to expect a certain level of professionalism from major publishers. New Riders should be ashamed of itself for letting such shoddy editing out their door. I don't particularly blame the author; he seems to be an expert on the subject, not an accomplished writer. It is the publisher's responsibility to handle the issues that make this book nearly unreadable.
This book did acquaint me with CSS, and the author does a good job of advocacy. I am converted to the CSS doctrine. Unfortunately, now I have to go buy another book (from a more established publisher) in order to use CSS.
Good CSS Learning Resource - Review written on December 03, 2002
Rating: 4 out of 5
6 customers found this review helpful, 3 did not.
This book is well-written and easy to read. Partly because I do a good bit of work in JavaScript, I tend to disagree with the author on the balance of standards compliance vs. backward compatibility (I still prefer to use HTML tables for most page layouts, for instance), however I did learn some new tricks, and that's primarily why I buy computer books.
I especially liked the formatting exercises in the back - works great as a tutorial on how to achieve a certain task in CSS quickly without having to do too much background reading.
DHTML`ers Bible. - Review written on November 19, 2002
Rating: 5 out of 5
6 customers found this review helpful, 3 did not.
Firstly,
I loved this book. Very well written!
As a Web Developer who specialises in writing DHTML based apps, I needed a resource that could provide me with industry raw tips to help making my CSS development that much more solid.
I found the use of interviews with some of the pioneers in the web development industry to be well worth the purchase, as its great to see what the people who invent / author allot of the techniques we use day in day out feel on the subject.
Great book, a must for developers and should be regarded as one of those "bible" books we place on bookshelves above our workstations!
GREAT WORK CHRISOPHER!
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