CSS Web Site Design Hands on Training [Paperback]

Eric Meyer (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0321293916 | ISBN-13: 978-0321293916 | Publication Date: November 19, 2006

These hands-on exercises, complete with insider tips and detailed color illustrations, teach you the latest techniques for designing Web sites with CSS (Cascading Style Sheets). CSS gives you control over the appearance of your Web sites by separating the visual presentation from the content. It lets you easily make minor changes to a site or perform a complete overhaul of the design. In CSS Web Site Design Hands-On Training, you’ll start with a review of CSS essentials, learn to build effective navigation and page layouts, and then move on to work with typography, colors, backgrounds, and white space. The included CD-ROM is loaded with classroom-proven exercises and QuickTime training videos, and real-world projects take you through the Web page creation process, one step at a time. Over 60 Step-by-Step Tutorials
•  Using CSS and XHTML together
•  Learning essentials of selectors, inheritance, and the cascade
•  Creating CSS navigation
•  Laying out pages with CSS
•  Adding colors and backgrounds
•  Setting typography
•  Creating white space, margins, and borders
•  Creating tables
•  Styling for print
•  Plus much more!
 
 

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Eric A. Meyer has been working with the Web since 1993 and is principal consultant for Complex Spiral Consulting (www.complexspiral.com). A graduate of and former webmaster for Case Western Reserve University, Eric is also an in-vited expert with the W3C CSS&FP Working Group, and he coordinated the authoring and creation of the W3C’s CSS 1 Test Suite. He often speaks at conferences on the subjects of CSS, Web design, Web standards, and Web browsers, and how they all inter-sect. He is the author of Eric Meyer on CSS, More Eric Meyer on CSS, and Cascading Style Sheets: The Definitive Guide, to name a few, and the well-known CSS Browser Compatibility Charts. Eric lives in Cleveland, Ohio, which is a much nicer city than most people have been led to believe.

Product Details

• Paperback: 441 pages
• Publisher: Peachpit Press (November 19, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0321293916
• ISBN-13: 978-0321293916
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 7.6 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.9 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (22 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #27,986 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #12 in Books > Computers & Technology > Programming > Languages & Tools > CSS

More About the Author

Eric A. Meyer starting working on the web in late 1993. A past member of the CSS Working Group, he is the author of several acclaimed CSS books as well as many articles on CSS and web standards. More recently, he co-founded the conference series An Event Apart with Jeffrey Zeldman and speaks about web standards all over the world. In recognition of his work, he was inducted into the International Academy of Digital Arts and Sciences in 2006.

A longtime resident of Cleveland, Ohio--which is a much nicer city than you've been led to believe--Eric used to be a weekly radio presence on WRUW 91.1-FM with a show covering the Big Band era. He now spends most of his free time reading, searching out great dishes, and playing with his wife and daughters.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

78 of 82 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Found and Fixed what seemed to be a "Fatal Flaw", December 25, 2006

By 

Frank (Cape Cod, MA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: CSS Web Site Design Hands on Training (Paperback)

Although there is alot to like about this book, there is a fatal flaw that needs to be considered by anybody thinking about buying it. Apparently the author wrote and tested the book entirely on a Mac, and it appears that the css was never tested under IE6/7 on Windows. Many variations of a single page are used throughout the book and unfortunately 1 small piece of the css used for the masthead and navigation menu simply does NOT work in IE6/7. The problem is some kind of a quirk in Internet Explorer because the css works correctly in Firefox and presumably on a Mac. Because the same page is used in several chapters the problem also ripples through several chapters. The problem is manifested whenever you try to match what you were instructed to do against the screen shot and what happens is that the navigational menu disapears - so your screen frequently doesn't look like the snapshot in the book. I have submitted the problem to the publisher but because it affects so many parts of the book, the fix may take some time.

So if you are running Windows and are willing to work through the book using only Firefox then carry on because I think the material is worth it. And maybe the real value to the book is to challenge you and develop your skills such that you can figure out the workaround. But if you want it all clean and spelled out for you can only be patient.

Later... after the first pass at the review. I can't seem to change the 2 stars to 4 stars which I would if I could. I found the answer to the Fatal Flaw. To give credit where credit is due, the pointer to the answer comes from "CSS The Missing Manual" by David Sawyer McFarland.

In several internal as well as external stylesheets and in multiple chapters, you are either instructed to enter "#masthead {background: #ABD240;}" - not including the quotes, or it is already in the style sheet. What you need to enter is "#masthead {background: #ABD240; line-height: 1.1;}" or change the already existing entry - again not including the quotes. This doesn't change anything else on the screen but apparently fixes this IE6/7 idiosyncracy. With all this said, I recommend that you get this book.

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars You'll be pissed if you code on a P.C. in IE6!, October 29, 2007

By 

David J. Hannes "develop4u_com" (Tempe, AZ USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: CSS Web Site Design Hands on Training (Paperback)

It's all fine and dandy that Eric Meyers knows his stuff. This book will teach you CSS in Fire Fox, no doubt about it. But if you are coding to develop websites for IE, you're going to want to toss this book out the window by the time you get to chapters 6 and 7.

How could the publisher put out a book without testing this cross platform and without previewing it in IE6? That's asinine at best! At the very least put out a website as a follow-up to answer questions brought to your attention by your readers.

Example 1: How do you make the negative margins work in IE6 as discussed in exercise 4 of chapter 7?

Example 2: Why is the date aligned to the left in IE6 as discussed in exercise 4 of chapter 7?

Example 3: Why is the text in the footer not aligned perfectly in IE6 as discussed in exercise 4 of chapter 7?

Test your own product out again, Peach Pit Press. You've written a book without testing the product in Internet Explorer and that is just downright negligent at best.

What a shame too as this instructional manual is otherwise worthy of 4 stars.

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent Tutorial, March 17, 2007

By 

Iris Yoffa (Tucson, AZ) - See all my reviews

This review is from: CSS Web Site Design Hands on Training (Paperback)

This book is a real hand-holder, slowly leading you through the world of separating form from content. The author explains how to use CSS to control the appearance and layout of your pages, and why some choices are better than others. If you've felt challenged in your past attempts to learn CSS, this book might just be the breakthrough you've been looking for. As well as the best guide for self-instruction I've seen yet, "CSS Web Site Design Hands-On Training" would make an excellent textbook for anyone teaching CSS.