This is the Safari online edition of the printed book.

Cascading Style Sheets enable you to rapidly create web designs that can be shared by hundreds or even thousands of web pages. It accelerates development cycles by centralizing text and layout information for easy editing and updates. This book teaches you everything you need to know to start using CSS in your web development work, from the basics of marking up your content and styling text, through the creation of multi-column page layouts without the use of tables. Learn to create interface components, such as drop-down menus, navigation links, and animated graphical buttons, using only CSS  (no JavaScript required). Discover how to design code that works on the latest standard-compliant browsers, such as IE7 and current versions of Firefox, Safari, and Opera, while working around the quirks of the older ones. With a mastery of CSS, your web design capabilities will move to a new level, and everything you need to know to get started and build your skills is right here in this book. You’ll be stylin’ in no time!

Amazon.com® Reader Reviews (Ranked by Helpfulness)

Average Amazon.com® Rating:  Based on 105 Ratings

Author understands how to teach -- not just the subject matter - 2009-09-13
Reviewer Rating:
I've never read a better book on programming. The author hasn't forgotten that his readers know a whole lot less than he does. The information is presented very logically and with excellent examples.

He provides a library of basic styles and web pages that the reader can download, making it even easier to follow. I've found his css sheets to be a good starting point for my own pages.

An extra good bonus is that he highlights the many things that just don't work in Microsoft Internet Explorer 6 and provides the work-arounds. This alone saves hours and hours of frustration and lost time.

The best CSS book I've read so far. - 2009-11-21
Reviewer Rating:
The title for this review says it all. Until I bought this book, I thought CSS In Easy Steps by Mike McGrath, was the best for understanding selectors and page layouts. After reading this book, I ordered his others on JavaScript and Coding for the Web and am now waiting for their delivery. I also recommend The CSS Anthology by Rachel Andrew. It contains a lot of specific How To's. Really, all three of these books have made learning CSS very painless and enjoyable.

Excellent book for CSS beginners - 2009-10-26
Reviewer Rating:
After purchasing several CSS books that were either too hard to follow or didn't cover what I was looking for (basic layout for multi-column sites)..I finally found what I was looking for in this book and solved a problem that had plagued me for weeks. If I had had this book when I first started, my CSS code would have been much more organized and easier to follow. Thanks for a beginner book that teaches in a way we beginners can understand and for giving us good layout practices and techniques to build on. Great foundation to learning CSS!! I ordered his other two books and look forward to reading them.

Don't miss this one if you design websites. - 2009-10-08
Reviewer Rating:
I am a better coder by following the methodology in this book.

A few years ago I was one of the harried site developers embedding all style characteristics in the html. No matter how carefully I preserved indentation and followed protocol the html pages inevitably glutted and became really ugly. When a customer wanted a change, first I had to search through the html to find it and then I often found myself thinking "did I write that mess"? Then came "Stylin' with CSS" the first edition and my monstrosities actually became manageable.

The 2nd edition takes it to a new level. The explanations of key concepts have been expanded and enhanced.

The down-loadable CSS, html examples and clean javascript code alone would be worth the price of the book. Consider them the best set of templates you will ever buy.

The conceptual approach to CSS with liberal illustrations make it clear how CSS is applied throughout the site on every page styled with a given CSS document. Site wide changes for maintenance purposes or simply restyling for visual appeal are magnitudes easier. If you are considering making the transition to standards compliant sites this is your road map. If you are already a CSS advocate, you can hone your skills.

If you are an instructor you could not do better than "Stylin' with CSS, 2nd Edition" for a textbook. If you are an employer, you should consider buying a copy for each of your site developers; it will save you money in maintenance and increase productivity.

For me personally, I've benefited most from enhanced understanding of selectors and inheritance. I can now selectively style elements based on their hierarchy in the xhtml. I know what's going to happen when I simply declare them and if I need to override the inherited values, it's easy to do.

I don't write a lot of reviews, but this is too good not to share. Apply what is taught this book and you will achieve a new level of consistency in your results and greater flexibility in your presentation as well. Cross browser consistency will be the best you can achieve. Did I mention the thought of maintenance will no longer tie knots in your stomach?

Definitely recommended; it would be a bargain at twice the price.

Well organised, well written - 2009-09-28
Reviewer Rating:
Many software books seem to be written by creating a table of contents, then adding details, and more details.

Wyke-Smith doesn't write like that at all. He puts a lot of effort into thinking about what people really need, and then organising it and presenting it an engaging, easy to follow manner.

I read a review of another of his books which said it was too short. I think that being short (280 pages, with lots of white space) is one of the great virtues his books. I suspect that he spends as much time taking stuff out, as putting it in.

After reading the whole book I feel that I now, finally, know enough CSS to start designing web pages from scratch. This book presents, and explains, the most useful CSS techniques for web page construction, and throws in many expert tips, and important hacks.

Although the book is short, it goes beyond the basics in many places, showing how to tweak CSS to give your sites a distinctive look.

Just one minor criticism. I've always struggled with "floats", and find them the most difficult part of CSS. This book provides some float techniques which work, but, still, I found myself puzzled by how they work.

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