There are several other books on the market that serve as in-depth technical guides or reference books for CSS. None, however, take a more hands-on approach and use practical examples to teach readers how to solve the problems they face in designing with CSS - until now. Eric Meyer provides a variety of carefully crafted projects that teach how to use CSS and why particular methods were chosen. The web site includes all of the files needed to complete the tutorials in the book. In addition, bonus information is be posted.

Amazon.com® Reader Reviews (Ranked by Helpfulness)

Average Amazon.com® Rating:  Based on 77 Ratings

Good but not great - 2009-10-07
Reviewer Rating:
I initially checked this book out at the library and then later bought it. It's interesting but not that great. There are more than a few pieces missing from Mr. Meyer's explanations and, as he openingly admits, for someone not appreciably already well versed in CSS, the content can be quite confusing.

He's has a lot of useful snippets and ideas but, as far as working through the exercises step by step--well, there's a lot of proofing work that still needs to be done. Too, he makes a lot of grandiose assumptions--I'm sure this stuff is obvious to him but the underlying logic behind much of his styling is poorly explained. Too, sections such as project 3 on formatting a calendar I found to be only marginally understandable. Case in point, he jumps right into defining a hodgepodge of multiple classes, which are, at best, over kill, assuming the reader is already thoroughly well versed in object-based theory.

Overall, it's still a good book but, as other reviewers have pointed out, `it ain't no reference text.' If your looking for some interesting concepts and approaches, there's lots it has to offer. If you need straightforward explanations of syntax, structure, nuts-and-bolts types of stuff, I'm sure there are better text out there.

Barebone Basics of CSS, but challenging too... - 2009-02-15
Reviewer Rating:
In 2003, I tried learning CSS via Dreamweaver, and I must say it scarred me from ever attempting to learn CSS for awhile, until now. A colleague of mine gave me this book, and it sat on my shelf for about 6 months. Then I tried doing the exercises week by week, but would get distracted because the projects didn't look that aesthetically appealing to me, especially coming from a design background.

However, I started working on a side project which used the barebones CSS, and then revisited this book, but this time, I dedicated a good full week, day by day, finishing each chapter. I must say, I'm on the last chapter of the book, and I really have started to get a grasp of how this all works. The exercises are a bit challenging, but very necessary. The last chapter is amazing that I wondered as an author, how he even began to contemplate on writing this chapter. He takes a his own exercise, and then restyles it for the web, which has been really engaging, even in 2009.

I highly recommend this book. It's probably the first instructional book that I've completed.

Some side pointers that have been recommended to me which helped:

-I used the text editor Coda (which is for MACS only). It costs a little less than Dreamweaver, but it encompasses all the programming languages that are hip like [Ruby, Javascript, Actionscript, PHP, Python, Perl, etc. (19 in total)]. You can visit the Panic site, and purchase this as a combo with Transmit.

-In the divs, I always put a temporary border so I can see the elements [border: 1px dotted green;]. Sometimes, I use different colors or patterns. But at the end I delete them. But being a visual person, this really helped. I would try it but if it doesn't work, don't sweat it and delete them.

-Last there are a couple of links in there that are a bit dated because of course this book is 8 years old--pretty prehistoric in web years. Anyway, I want to say don't dismiss the URLs. Instead do a Google Search, and you will find the pages he talks about.

Hope this helps. Feel free to ping me if you have questions.

Great Beginner Book - 2008-12-05
Reviewer Rating:
I highly reccomend this and the "More Eric Meyer on CSS". They walk you through the thought process and coding process of Web Page Design. It's a learn by doing book, which works for me.

Good to begin with CSS but a little obsolete. - 2008-08-05
Reviewer Rating:
This book is good to practice CSS. To be used before the Meyer's second one ("More Eric Meyer On CSS"). On the other hand, because it was written in 2002, it is a little obsolete for some techniques. The using of the 'table' tag for layout is still here. This is not the case in the second book which use the positionning... and sorry for my english !!!

Good for starters - 2007-11-06
Reviewer Rating:
I have found better books out there, but this one is okay. Good to get you started.

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