Cascading Style Sheets 2.0: Programmer's Reference

by Eric A. Meyer

Book Overview

Publisher's Note: Products purchased from Third Party sellers are not guaranteed by the publisher for quality, authenticity, or access to any online entitlements included with the product.

This handy resource gives you programming essentials at your fingertips, including all the new tags and features in CSS 2.0


The most authoritative quick reference available for CSS programmers. This handy resource...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0072131780
• ISBN13: 9780072131789
• Release Date: April 2001
• Publisher: McGraw-Hill Companies
• Length: 368 Pages
• Weight: 0.90 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.7" x 5.5" x 8.5"

Customer Reviews

Great and Thorough Reference- say it out loud.... REFERENCE

This is a reference book.It says that in the title but some of the negative reviews on this book seem to have overlooked that. It is NOT a turorial. It is NOT going to be a magic book to give you all your ideas so you don't have to think and have good design skills.What it is...A really good, thorough, reference book on CSS2. This guy knows his stuff and presents it clearly and without any clutter. It is laid out so you can easily find every element, property, and atribute there is. Sure you could go to the World Wide Web Consortium's web site for the info, but when you're in the middle of coding - a good REFERENCE book is still tops for getting info fast. And in my opinion, the layout of the book makes more sense than the w3's web site (though it is valuable too).To those just starting with CSS-This book may be hard to grasp at first. Buy it anyway. Find a few web sites to get the basics down because this will be the book you'll want to have after your first week, when what you need is a reference and not a dumbed down overworded tutorial with examples that don't fit your application anyway.

Best CSS2 quick reference I have

Now this is my kind of book, a well stocked reference without all the fluff that usually comes with the explaination of each new idea or concept. You know the sort, a book that you can refer to again and again after learning the basics because it is well organised and laid out. Of course, the reference only style of Cascading Style Sheets 2.0: Programmer's Reference is not really suited to those that are completely new to the topic. Having said that, those familiar with the idea of style sheets might be able to put something together if they mix and match the numerous examples.Unfortunately there are very few illustrations or screen shots to help you grasp difficult ideas, which sometimes results in long and wordy descriptions of the various properties. I found myself skimming over such busy paragraphs because I knew the idea they were trying to describe, but anyone unfamiliar with the ideas may find themselves getting frustrated trying to work out exactly what it is that is being said. A few more well placed illustrations would have made it easier to use.Another thing that annoyed me was the repetition of paragraphs while detailing the properties. While I can understand the need to repeat the paragraphs (after all, it is a reference book!), it did get rather tired, particularly when looking up related properties or attributes.Despite these little annoyances, it makes an ideal quick reference book. The headings and text are clear, the pages easy to scan and alphabetical ordering makes it easy to find attributes by name. There is no obvious distinction between CSS1 and CSS2, but important differences in implementation of the two are pointed out when relevant.

The best reference guide to CSS2

I bought this book several months ago when I first started out using Cascading Style Sheets. I had come across Eric Meyer's work when I visited his web site (meyerweb.com) and I was deeply impressed with the demonstrations he gave, particularly when toying with "position: fixed".Every CSS rule is covered, including print and aural rules. Each rule is given a sophisticated explanation and a few examples. I have several books on CSS, but none come close to explaining the details of each rule as well as Mr Meyer's work.I always have my copy with me when styling pages. The book is quite small, which means it can happily sit on the desk with the keyboard where can be accessed easily.I VERY strongly recommend that designers have a copy. It is particularly important for those who use CSS frequently.

It's what it says it is

The book calls itself "The Most Authoritative Quick Reference for Programmers"...it is. I've been lucky enough to be writing CSS since its beginnings and this book is right now the most current and definitive resource I can find for CSS. Echoing other comments, this is not for beginners. Get Jason Teague's DHTML/CSS Visual Quickstart book if you need a beginner's book. This book, in hand with Bradsoft's TopStyle Pro 2.5+ on your desktop, and you'll be doing what the book says: *programming* with CSS. If you're designing web application GUIs, you need this book. It's a cinch buy with Eric Meyer's name as the author. This volume also bookends quite nicely with the JavaScript Bible by Danny Goodman. One negative note: the organization of this book leaves a little bit to be desired...the black printed "tab" sections are not intuitive. I have purchased stick-on tabs to mark specific sections for quick location.The opinions expressed above are personal and do not represent Mr. Sobkoviak's employers or clients.

Authoritative, serious, concrete

If either HTML or XML is a serious part of your livelihood, you need this book. With every property of CSS level 2 explained in a compact manner -including examples- the book can be a real time saver. Eric's experience in the application of this advanced technique and his participation in the Web community is expressed in the organization and clarity of this book. No hand-holding tutorials here, just the facts and the context which gives those facts meaning.And if that is not compact enough for you, Chapter 8 "CSS2 Quick Reference," condenses the material even more. Also handy is the lengthy chart on browser compatibility. I can only fault the book for not going beyond its purpose. That is, the book covers the CSS specification properties only. In particular, styles implemented by Internet Explorer, which may be extremely handy yet not officially approved, are not covered.