Pro CSS and HTML Design Patterns is a reference book and a cookbook on how to style web pages using CSS and XHTML. It contains 350 ready-to-use patterns (CSS and XHTML code snippets) you can copy and paste into your code. Each pattern can be combined with other patterns to create an unlimited number of solutions.

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Average Amazon.com® Rating:  Based on 29 Ratings

You *can* code HTML/CSS deliberately! - 2009-06-21
Reviewer Rating:
Many programmers I know don't bother to learn HTML and CSS, disdainfully shrugging it off as "not really programming". Seriously - that is no excuse to do it badly!

This book might change a programmer's mind. Certainly, markup is still markup, but this treatment of HTML/CSS is - well - awesome.

Most CSS/HTML code I see employs the "programming by coincidence" model. Add a rule here to fix something that doesn't quite work there, use a negative margin here, maybe a browser-specific hack there. In the end, it works. It might even look pretty good, but invariably, the result is unnecessarily bloated.

Pro CSS and HTML Design Patterns makes it possible to code deliberately. It provides a solid fundamental understanding of how elements and rules interact, and especially how the same element or attribute will behave differently in different environments.

In several cases, it has saved me hours of trying to achieve something which simply cannot be done in the current specification. At the same time, it has provided enough information to find a different approach that does work.

The book is very systematic, and while it is a great read cover-to-cover, it functions very well as a reference volume. The 'patterns' format (name/problem/solution/pattern) makes it very easy to locate the exact information you are looking for.

The author focuses on browser compatibility, and accessibility to screenreaders. I have been disappointed only once - when I thought 'accessibility' included those who do not use a pointing device. But that is more of a javascript question than CSS/HTML, and therefore falls outside the scope of the book.

Summary: Buy this book. Read this book. I mean it.

The book I turn to for CSS and HTML problem solving - 2009-03-11
Reviewer Rating:
This book is not one to read from cover to cover to contemplate the academic possibilities. For me, this book has become the prime muse for CSS and HTML problem solving. I have about half a dozen CSS and HTML books on my shelf, and whenever I have a problem (with CSS and HTML this is all too often) this is the book I tend to turn to first and last, and generally after some contemplation I am able to solve the problem. Other books have tended to frustrate me with their verbosity and lack of information.

I would recommend that you also look at the companion website when solving problems using this book - not only does this allow you to play with code, but I also found that the book did not exactly show what was required to make some things work.

all in all, the book and website are a very good package to have at your ready when doing CSS and HTML

CSS dictionary - 2008-12-24
Reviewer Rating:
Pro CSS and HTML Design Patterns by Michael Bowers is an incredible resource and toolbox for any level web developer. Whether you are just beginning with CSS or are of a professional status, this book has something to offer. With over 300 different design patterns, this book is the perfect resource to solve just about every problem you face. There are patterns for every aspect of your site, and their modular nature give you the potential to combine several of them to create some very unique websites. All of this comes with the added bonus that each of these design patterns have been thoroughly tested in all major browsers. There is great attention to the details throughout each of these patterns.

Because most patterns are not given context or application within a broader design, this book is not for beginners. However, it is a well-written reference book for the professional Web designer's bookshelf and it is a useful resource for them..

Topics Covered in this book

* HTML Structure
* CSS Selectors and Inheritance
* Box Models, Extents, Properties
* Positioning Models in detail
* Styling Text
* Spacing Content
* Aligning Content
* Blocks
* Tables
* Column Layout
* Layouts - these are very well applied combinations of patterns that include Javascript, CSS, and HTML
* Drop Caps
* Callouts and Quotes
* Alerts

Pro CSS and HTML Design Patterns - 2008-10-10
Reviewer Rating:
This is the book to buy for those who want to take it to the next level. So many great thing about this book. If your a novice and want to step-up your design prowess this is the book for you. One review said - "Pro CSS and HTML Design Patterns is just that, a huge guide to each and every HTML and CSS combination you could possibly think of.." I say - very well said.. It's limit-less... I love it!! Wicked!

Excessive omissions for the sake of brevity. Most code samples don't work as written. - 2009-07-02
Reviewer Rating:
I'll admit, this book has great potential. I like texts that try to tackle specific programming concepts individually, without bogging the reader down with excess concepts that haven't been discussed yet. There are far too many CSS books out there which either a.) don't include adequate examples, or b.) have multilayered, 10- to 20-page examples which are excessively complex (and yet many of these books claim to be written for beginners!).

But while the conceptual organization of this book is great, I think it falls flat on its face in practice.

My biggest gripe is simple: For a cookbook-style text to work effectively, you must have recipes which are complete and usable. And the vast majority of the examples in this book are not. Most are akin to a cake recipe which states, "Add 2 eggs, 2 cups of flour. You know the rest."

But I found that, all too often, I didn't know the rest. The author consistently omits code that he describes as "non-essential rules." In some cases, these rules are CSS declarations that are repeated in many examples - e.g., background and border rules.

But in other instances, there is more critical information that is omitted, both from the CSS and HTML sample code... and the only way to figure out how the code is *supposed* to look is to download the sample code off the author's site. These source code files might reveal parent

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