Web site design has grown up. Unlike the old days, when designers cobbled together chunky HTML, bandwidth-hogging graphics, and a prayer to make their sites look good, Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) now lets your inner designer come out and play. But CSS isn't just a tool to pretty up your site; it's a reliable method for handling all kinds of presentation--from fonts and colors to page layout. CSS: The Missing Manual clearly explains this powerful design language and how you can use it to build sparklingly new Web sites or refurbish old sites that are ready for an upgrade.

Like their counterparts in print page-layout programs, style sheets allow designers to apply typographic styles, graphic enhancements, and precise layout instructions to elements on a Web page. Unfortunately, due to CSS's complexity and the many challenges of building pages that work in all Web browsers, most Web authors treat CSS as a kind of window-dressing to spruce up the appearance of their sites. Integrating CSS with a site's underlying HTML is hard work, and often frustratingly complicated. As a result many of the most powerful features of CSS are left untapped. With this book, beginners and Web-building veterans alike can learn how to navigate the ins-and-outs of CSS and take complete control over their Web pages' appearance.

Author David McFarland (the bestselling author of O'Reilly's Dreamweaver: The Missing Manual) combines crystal-clear explanations, real-world examples, a dash of humor, and dozens of step-by-step tutorials to show you ways to design sites with CSS that work consistently across browsers. You'll learn how to:

• Create HTML that's simpler, uses less code, is search-engine friendly, and works well with CSS

• Style text by changing fonts, colors, font sizes, and adding borders

• Turn simple HTML links into complex and attractive navigation bars-complete with CSS-only rollover effects that add interactivity to your Web pages

• Style images to create effective photo galleries and special effects like CSS-based drop shadows

• Make HTML forms look great without a lot of messy HTML

• Overcome the most hair-pulling browser bugs so your Web pages work consistently from browser to browser

• Create complex layouts using CSS, including multi-column designs that don't require using old techniques like HTML tables

• Style Web pages for printing

Unlike competing books, this Missing Manual doesn't assume that everyone in the world only surfs the Web with Microsoft's Internet Explorer; our book provides support for all major Web browsers and is one of the first books to thoroughly document the newly expanded CSS support in IE7, currently in beta release.

Want to learn how to turn humdrum Web sites into destinations that will capture viewers and keep them longer? Pick up CSS: The Missing Manual and learn the real magic of this tool.

Amazon.com® Reader Reviews (Ranked by Helpfulness)

Average Amazon.com® Rating:  Based on 117 Ratings

Get the hardcopy, not Kindle version - 2010-01-30
Reviewer Rating:
My review is of only the Kindle version of CSS: The Missing Manual. This book is an extremenly useful resource for learning and applying CSS. However, the book does not lend itself to the Kindle because of the numerous side-boxes and syntax of example code that get mangled on the Kindle. I bought the Kindle version, gave up trying to understand it, and ordered the paperback version. I wouldn't have spent the extra dough if I didn't think it is a great book, but it is just not suitable for the Kindle environment as are novels an other similar more linear texts. Wish I could get the money back that I spent on the Kindle version. I enjoy reading most books on my Kindle but will never again buy this type of book for it.

CSS: The Missing Manual 2nd Edition - 2010-02-06
Reviewer Rating:
Amazing text book, made my professional web authoring much better and much easier to maintain the pages built. Second edition is more useful than the 1st edition and the info is more current. Anyone who wants to use (and they should use) CSS needs to go through this book's tutorials. The tutorials are excellent.

covers all the bases - 2010-02-01
Reviewer Rating:
i bought this book for my wife and i'm sincerely impressed about the improvement she had with this book.

It covers all the basics and more, very recommended

Fantastic title for anyone who wants to understand CSS - 2010-01-22
Reviewer Rating:
And *understand* is the operative word here, because 'CSS The Missing Manual' explains the ins and outs of CSS to make sure you not only know what to do, but why you do it. Too many books sadly leave the important 'why' part out, luckily this isn't the case. I've built several websites in the early 00's using GoLive, using the old school hacks like transparent pixels and such. It's been years since I had to do any web development, I was too busy being a designer, but recent circumstances forced me back to web development. I started out using the old techniques I understood before until someone asked me if I was using CSS (which I wasn't) so I decided at that moment I needed to figure out what it even was. One month later and after reading this book, I'm practically an expert. Things have come so very far in the 8 years since I designed a large scale web project (hooray!). The book is really easy to comprehend, its explained so well, you do NOT have to be a programmer to understand it all. This book is likely not for casual users though, but if you are serious about understanding CSS and want to become proficient in it quickly, this the *THE* book to get, my highest recommendation.

Total beginner now knows CSS! - 2010-01-17
Reviewer Rating:
I was a total beginner regarding CSS. I made a few websites using GoLive, never using CSS, and never getting into any code, including html. But if you're making websites today, you need to use CSS (and basic html, which is also covered, and very easy to learn). So I bit the bullet and started reading this book from page 1, never moving on to a new section until I was sure I understood the basics of what he was covering. The thing is, McFarland explains it all very clearly. When I was done with the book, I knew the basics of CSS! That blew my mind. My friends think I'm a genius when I build web pages for them, but little do they know how simple it is in essence. I refer to this book on occasion. It really is a manual as nobody can read the book and memorize every aspect of CSS. But after reading it and gleaning the essence of it, it is easy to refer to the book and brush up on details. I very highly recommend this book. An understanding of CSS will never be handed to you on a silver platter, or by swallowing the blue pill. You must put your mind to the grind and this is the book to do it with.

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