I loved this CSS book. By the time that I finished with chapter 2, I successfully, applied the information to my website. This book, Professional CSS, was a much needed reference guide to helping me spruce up my website.

OK... obviously mixed reviews on this book. Seems to be good in comparison to others I've read. OF course, the question of them teaching concepts that don't work in IE has been raised to the level of an "issue." One positive I can see in them discussing techniques that don't work in IE6 is that the authors expect IE7 to be more in line with browsers like Mozilla.

If this book leaves me with anything, it will be the fact that standards compliance is a fight being fought by many of the leading designers - not just the authors (see Jeremy Keith, Dave Shea, and of course, www.w3c.org). That gives me reason to open my ears and read about why they find it important. This book explains some of that.

I've made the switch to XHTML (not even really new by today's standards) and CSS with the help of this book and others, dropping the table based design and have already seen the benefits in regards to search engine optimization, and management. Of course, no single book will give some one all the tools necessary to be a guru in a particular topic.

Take what you want from the book. There's cool stuff in it, and of course, not-so-cool stuff. No book is good for everyone. All books are good for at least someone.

As a designer, this year I tackled actionscript in flash and was able to massively improve my designs. I thought I'd follow it up by transitioning away from complex table-based design, which I can do in my sleep, to CSS. I looked at several books and this one seemed to be very straight-forward. It's not. It has a few illustrations that make it LOOK simple, but the lessons and case studies are fractured, messy and confusing. The second chapter devotes a huge portion to workaround for all types of browsers, admitting that this is an advanced concern. I need to crawl before I walk, and walk before I run. And I'm not unfamiliar with CSS - I've been using it to control type for years, but this is completely over my head. I just ordered some visual quickstart guides which I've had good luck with in the past. However, I was too lured in with this book's simple illustrations and blow-up quotes, and ended up buying something that was far too disjointed and complex for me. If you think in code all day long, it may be ok. But if you're a designer with a reasonable technical fluency, this is going to frustrate you.

I don't really know which book the other reviews are talking about, but I do not have much good to say about this book. Couple of reasons: it's incredibly talkative without actually providing any valuable information above very basic knowledge and tips'n'tricks. For example, although shooting at "designers who understand CSS at an intermediate to advanced level", it spends about five pages on (re-)introducing the box model (you know, what exactly padding and margin refer to). The pace of the book is just painstakingly slow: in the chapter where a three-column layout is introduced, it literally builds the three-column layout from a simple text page up, depicting over and over again how the simplest code change affects the browser rendering - only to stop at a stripped-down three-column layout that has achieved nothing (and where you can find much better examples by just typing "three-column layout CSS" into Google).

Now you may say: that sounds great for beginners. It's not at all - since the book doesn't really follow any logic, it just introduces random websites (e.g., fastcompany.com) and uses these websites as an example on how to layout with CSS (then again, without really showing how for example fastcompany.com does it in practice). So there's absolutely no learning curriculum that is being followed.

And lastly, here's my favorite quote: A chapter talking about how to design round boxes with CSS is kicked off by "We also touch upon issues these solutions have with Internet Explorer and provide workarounds (if possible) for this troublesome browser." Yeah guys, too bad that 90% of the world IS using IE. I don't like it either, but it's not my choice, so please give me something I and 90% of the world can work with, and not some geek's elaboration on how great Firefox can render CSS. The chapter goes on to dwell for pages and pages about how to do it, only to conclude that the solution basically doesn't work for IE.

Conclusion: I can't really see who should buy this book - not interesting as a tutorial on CSS (since it doesn't follow any logic and introduces topics as it hums along), not interesting as a resource on coding how-tos (since it's way to shallow on real coding content - see three-column layout), not interesting as a study on how real websites are built based on CSS (because in the end it doesn't really disect these websites or the design choices made, they seem to be used only as an alibi to get on certain topics).

In the last few years, books on CSS have crowded the book shelves as designers clamored to better understand how to use the mighty tool that blew away tables. This, however, isn't just another book on CSS its syntax, and positioning. It uses real Web sites to show how the designer did the work and why the designer took the specific steps or approach with the design. One hundred people can build the same site, but do it 100 different ways. Certain methods work better than others and the authors back up their decisions with clear explanations.

Get the inside story on Blogger's rounded corners and rollovers; FastCompany.com's three-column layout; strategies for style switching; the process of revamping the giant [...] site from tables to CSS; the evolution of The University of Florida's site as many sites realistically evolve throughout the years, and a look at the structure of The PGA Championship Web site. Then the book ties it all together using Christopher Schmitt's personal site as the closing chapter.

Don't expect start-to-finish walkthroughs and how-tos for the sites. This would take more than a book to do. The authors pick a few areas and hone in on them. The book as a whole should be enough to give readers an idea of how to work through a site from the beginning to the end. An intermediate or experienced designer can take her skills and knowledge to another level thanks to the thorough and clear explanations accompanying them.

The first two chapters are different animals from the rest of the book. Chapter 1 is The Planning and Development of Your Site and Chapter 2 covers Best Practices for XHTML and CSS. Some people might find them a waste, while others might appreciate them. These two topics are better covered in the later chapters, as they look at the planning of real sites rather than dealing with theories.

For instance, one chapter looks at how the decision to convert [...] to a CSS-based site came about. Additionally, the author describes how the three content modes (regular, skirmish, and war) are managed on the front page depending on the importance of the headline. 'Regular' mode describes basic news items - like who won the game, who got traded, and an update on a strike. 'Skirmish' typically reports on record breaking events while 'War' is the Boston Red Sox winning the World Series. This is planning and strategy. Because the information is tied with to a real scenario, readers are more apt to come up with ways to adapt the concepts for their own sites.

The XHTML and CSS best practices chapter is more about the rules than about the best ways of doing things. Closing empty elements like the line break with a slash on the end like this is a rule example. Creating left-side menus using list items instead of line breaks is a best practice. The chapter focuses on the former.

The book closes with four helpful appendices. Troubleshooting CSS is the most useful. It has tips on how to find where the CSS "bugs" are - much like troubleshooting code. It also contains other resources where readers can go for help. This section is only a few pages long, but packs lot of useful information in a small space.

Reading about the processes and techniques used in these projects taps into a collective of some of the best designers. The reader is a "fly on the wall" listening to the authors describe how they work - offering advice along the way that can be used in the reader's projects. Expect a few "ah ha" moments in which you suddenly find a better way to approach a challenge. After all, five heads are better than one.

With five authors, some might wonder about the different writing styles. Since every chapter covers a different Web site, readers will find themselves more interested in the process and less affected by the differences in writing style. Intermediate and expert designers will find this solid book complements their other CSS resources nicely.

I was a bit disappointed with this book. There are two rather glaring shortcomings here:

1. There's a distinct lack of focus. While the content is based on real-world CSS solutions, the authors can't really seem to get in the groove. The first chapter is devoted to "Planning and Development of Your Site". While that is certainly important information, it really is a subject that has been treated better and more thoroughly elsewhere (Goto & Cotler's "Web Redesign 2.0" comes to mind). Later chapters sort of ramble through the subject matter, not really succeeding at being thorough case studies of the sites. (For example, the chapter in ESPN was truly disapointing for its lack of content.) I really got the impression that the authors were trying to "pad" the content so as to make the book seem bigger than it really is.

2. Poor reproduction of graphics. In some cases, it's difficult to see what the authors are trying to represent. Several errors in Chapter 3 ("Blogger: Rollovers and Design Improvements") make the examples very confusing. The book's editing left much to be desired--I found quite a few errors throughout the book.

Given these two shortcomings, there is still valuable information in the book. With better editing, and tighter focus on the subject matter, this would be a good choice for a reference book on applying CSS to real-world projects. As it is, it's not a bad book to have in your collection, though I wouldn't put it on my "must-have" list.

Professional CSS from Wrox is a good read with tips and tricks from some of the high profile projects to be put into commercial production from the last several years. Wide scope of designers covered and that is always fun to hear right from the designers mouth. Good insite into the industry of web standards based design and development.

Often it's hard to find a good book to take you beyond the "how" of technology and get into the "why". This one does... Professional CSS - Cascading Style Sheets for Web Design by Christopher Schmitt, Mark Trammell, Eathan Marcotte, Dunstan Orchard, and Todd Dominey (Wrox).

Content: The Planning and Development of Your Site; Best Practices for XHTML and CSS; Blogger: Rollovers and Design Improvements; The PGA Championship; The University of Florida; ESPN.com: Powerful Layout Changes; FastCompany.com: Building a Flexible Three-Column Layout; Stuff and Nonsense: Strategies for CSS Switching; Bringing It All Together; HTML 4.01 Elements; Rules for HTML-to-XHTML Conversion; CSS 2.1 Properties; Troubleshooting CSS Guide; Index

I've spent the last year or so getting into CSS for some site development I've done. Most of it has been learn as you go, and do whatever works. But a book like this forces me to take a step back and examine the "why" of site development with CSS. Each of the authors are seasoned professionals at web site design, and have worked on some of the largest websites out there. They are well qualified to take an aspect of design (like Blogger's "rounded box corner" look) and go into detail about how it's accomplished. Along the way, you pick up insights as to how high-end designers think about their craft and how you can start using the same techniques.

I find books like this extremely valuable as I'm more mechanical than artistic when it comes to programming. I can do a lot when it comes to building functionality, but I'm extremely weak when it comes to designing aesthetically pleasing visual effects. But I can copy real well. :-) Perusing through these pages give me a number of ideas I can implement right away, and I start to look like I know what I'm doing.

Definitely a book that earns a spot on my shelf at work under close watch and guard against "borrowers"...