HTML Utopia: Designing Without Tables Using CSS

by Dan Shafer, Rachel Andrew, Daniel Shafer

HTML Utopia: Designing Without Tables Using CSS, 2nd Edition is for web developers looking to create websites using Cascading Style Sheets for layout, which allow for faster page downloads, easier maintenance, faster website redesigns, and better search engine optimization.

HTML Utopia covers all aspects of using Cascading Style Sheets in Web Development, and is a must-read for Web Developers designing new sites or upgrading...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0975240277
• ISBN13: 9780975240274
• Release Date: May 2006
• Publisher: Sitepoint
• Length: 520 Pages
• Weight: 1.83 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.1" x 7.1" x 9.0"

Customer Reviews

UTOPIA! UTOPIA! UTOPIA!

Are you a web designer who is curious about how CSS can help you become a more effective designer? If you are, then this book is for you. Authors Rachel Andrew and Daniel Shafer, have done an outstanding job of writing a cool book that focuses on the question of how to use CSS to accomplish some of the successes that web designers have spent a significant amounts of time and energy to create using nested tables. Andrew and Shafer, begin with a brief introduction to CSS and the main concepts. Then, the authors show you how to use CSS in practical ways. Next, the authors show you how CSS works. They also show you how to validate your documents and stylesheets to ensure that they comply with the published specifications. The authors continue by looking closely at the ways in which colors can be applied to text and other objects; as well as, to page backgrounds. Then, they examine the question of how fonts can be used properly in CSS-based web design. Next, the authors show you how to create a simple two-column layout. They then show you how to add a third column to the layout you created. Finally, the authors show you how to create a fixed-width layout that's centered in the user's browser window. This most excellent book begins by looking at how CSS should influence the overall design of a site. Perhaps more importantly, the book shows you how to put the CSS framework in place before you begin to deal with individual HTML elements and their styling!

Excellent book for programmers

I am a programmer and for so long had never really been concerned with valid markup and accessible sites...until I started getting clients that needed websites and I began to understand the importance and the effect valid markup can have on your site. This book was extremely easy to follow with great examples. My typical style when trying to learn from a book consists of me going straight for the examples rather than trying to understand the "why" involved. With this book, I was able to sit down and read it and really "get" what they were saying!

Great for beginner to intermediate

I would recommend downloading the sample from the website to get a good idea of if the book's style works for you. Overall, the book provides a top notch introduction to CSS as well as good design and application tips. The emphasis on seperation of style and content is truly appreciated. I would strongly recommend this book to learn to properly build basic sites, and to build a foundation to build more advanced development skills on top of.

Utopia, indeed!

I can't believe I've been so mired in the -stone ages- of Table-based web site design for so long. Rachel made me realize just how easy it can be, with a little care and forethought, to put together an excellent foundation for a site's layout. The information on styling tables (which DO still have a purpose) was also good to see. Finally, I have to say that if this book is any indication, I'd say that Rachel Andrew does, indeed, take a "common sense, real world approach".

Understanding the CSS Revolution

CSS has completely changed the way that websites are designed. That is, if anything, an understatement: CSS has revolutionized Web design. Designers can do things with CSS that would have taken a LOT more time and effort to do using straight HTML 3.2 - if they could have been done at all. But for old-school designers who haven't kept up with things, or the self-taught HTML coders who cut their teeth on 3.2, CSS can seem a bit daunting. The temptation is always there to use the old methods, like tables. And that's where HTML Utopia comes in handy. HTML Utopia isn't a beginner's tutorial; Andrew and Shafer make it clear at the beginning that you should have "at least a little experience building sites" to get the most out of the book. It builds on the experience that you already have to show you how to do things better with CSS. I appreciated the fact that the book doesn't start out with the nuts and bolts of CSS - what an attribute is, what a property is, etc. It starts with how CSS can help you. I think that's important, because if you overwhelm someone right away with a totally different way of coding a page, they're going to run away, no matter how much better it is than what they're currently using. Andrew and Shafer start off with showing how CSS benefits the designer, and from there gradually introduce the nuts and bolts. Another benefit to this book is the website. You get all the code from the examples in the book, as well as updates and errata. With any tech book, a good website is crucial - things change too quickly, and a book that is static is pretty worthless. With ready updates, and the Sitepoint discussion forums, there is a steady source of new information and support. So many web design books end up being a step-by-step guide to creating a website (and never show you how to design anything that is different from their example), or go the other direction and end up being a reference book that doesn't show you how to use any of the tools it contains. HTML Utopia does both. It is a great resource for anyone who has been wanting to use CSS to spice up their existing sites, or who wants to create something from scratch but doesn't know how to do it. While it's not designed for advanced CSS users, it's perfect for the beginner who is trying to bring their Web design skills up to date. This second edition adds content concerning Internet Explorer 7, and gives a lot of great information about cross-browser design techniques.