recommend a good CSS book

S

SilverMK3

[H]ard|Gawd
Joined
Dec 15, 2002
Messages
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Hi,
Can anyone recommend a good, advanced CSS book? I think I've outgrown my little O'Reilly pocket reference and w3schools.org.

I'm looking for something that really gets into DHTML and cross-browser compatibility. I've already got a pretty good grasp on XHTML, JavaScript and PHP - its just making complex stylesheets look the same in all browsers that's frustrating me.

Any recommendations?
 
Eric Meyer on CSS and More Eric Meyer on CSS. Same guy who put the pocket reference together, which I think is outstanding for its size. Also does all the niftiness at css/edge.
 
In order to get the most out of those books, you should play around with CSS a bit first, just to get the hang of syntax and whatnot just so you feel more comfortable. If you're already using CSS a little bit, go for the Eric Meyer books.
 
I will agree with the others.

Eric Meyer on CSS, More Eric Meyer on CSS are great books.

I have been having a casual glance at his Cascading Style Sheets: the Definitive Guide from O'Reilly as well.

His CSS/Edge stuff on his website is very good at showing what is possible with advanced CSS, but without using stuff like IE7 (which lomn75 pointed out in some thread, thanks lomn) the only browsers that can really render this stuff correctly are the Gecko-based browsers (NN 6+, Mozilla and Firefox), I think Konqueror, Safari, and Camino, and Opera 7.

IE7 is a bunch of Javascript files that correct a lot of IE's broken CSS behavior.

The web also has some really good CSS resources.

http://www.w3schools.com/css/default.asp is a good css primer and tutorial, with some hands on examples.
 
BillLeeLee said:
Eric Meyer on CSS, More Eric Meyer on CSS are great books.
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I was about to buy them, but "The Definitive Guide" guide got completely pasted in the amazon.com reviews. "On CSS" has some very valid-sounding negative reviews, too.

Can you recommend anything else?

BillLeeLee said:
IE7 is a bunch of Javascript files that correct a lot of IE's broken CSS behavior.
Click to expand...

Huh? Where did you get a copy of IE 7? In September of 2004?
 
mikeblas said:
Huh? Where did you get a copy of IE 7? In September of 2004?
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A whole bunch of [h] members hazored microsoft and stole it! :D joking.

Seriously though IE7 is a set of scripts, as said above, that fixes Internet Explorers rendering problems. IE7 is not released by microsoft, its a private script/app.
 
Steve_Oaks said:
IE7 is not released by microsoft, its a private script/app.
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I see; thanks for the explanation. Microsoft's IE7 is in alpha, so I'm sure there will be some confusiotn when it is finally released.
 
BillLeeLee said:
http://dean.edwards.name/IE7/

That's the IE7 we're talking about right now.

Can't wait for Microsoft's IE beta in the summer. Full PNG support :drool:
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unfortunately, it's going to be at LEAST 2 years after release before IE7 will be widespread enough to make that practical.
:(
 
I'll add my voice to the chorus of those talking about Eric Meyer's books. While it's not specifically CSS, I also like Zeldman's Designing with Web Standards, since he talks a lot about transitioning from old table-based layouts to the new CSS structures. Good reading.
 
carl67lp said:
I'll add my voice to the chorus of those talking about Eric Meyer's books.
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Please do! What did you want to say about them?

carl67lp said:
While it's not specifically CSS, I also like Zeldman's Designing with Web Standards, since he talks a lot about transitioning from old table-based layouts to the new CSS structures. Good reading.
Click to expand...


Thanks for the recommendation. This one gets panned a little in the amazon.com reviews, too, but for reasons that seem far softer than the Meyer books.
 
mikeblas said:
Please do! What did you want to say about them?

Thanks for the recommendation. This one gets panned a little in the amazon.com reviews, too, but for reasons that seem far softer than the Meyer books.
Click to expand...

First, as for Designing with Web Standards... I wrote a review on it a while back, and Slashdot was kind enough to post it. (It even made their front page, along with the other book review I wrote on Dan Brown's Digital Fortress). I think you could look at that review to get my in-depth ideas on the book, as well as reading many comments from other Slashdot readers.

As for Meyer's books: Perhaps the only complaint I have about them (I say "them" when I only own the first, but I've noticed the second is the same format) is that the instruction is project-based; that is, instead of a chapter on, say, "IDs and Classes," you have a chapter on designing a blog using CSS.

Thus, it's important to note that EMoCSS is designed more as an intermediate level text; while I suspect that anyone who read it would come away with more knowledge about CSS, as I did, I don't think it's appropriate for a stark beginner.

When I learned (and continue to learn!) CSS, I relied a lot on Web sites to get the most current information. Here are some of the links I have in my personal bookmarks list. While not all of them are dedicated solely to CSS, they all have excellent CSS information hither and yon. Also, I'm a fan of template sites, if solely to get an idea on how to work something out and learn how to incorporate other techniques later.

A List Apart
Mortal Wombat CSS Demos
CSS Vault
CSS Zen Garden
Glish on CSS
HTML Dog
Jeffrey Zeldman's Daily Report
Mezzoblue CSS Cribsheet
WebDev CSS Layout Templates

Good luck!
 
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