Getting StartED with CSS [Paperback]

David Powers (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: December 1, 2009 | ISBN-10: 1430225432 | ISBN-13: 978-1430225430 | Edition: 1

Knowledge of Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) is essential for developing modern, attractive websites, but many beginners are put off by the need to learn about unfamiliar concepts, such as selectors, properties, and classes, before they can achieve anything. Getting StartED with CSS takes a practical approach by showing you how to use CSS in simple stages, starting by changing the default appearance of HTML tags to improve the look of text and links. It assumes no prior knowledge of CSS and avoids bombarding you with unnecessary technical details. At the same time, it explains all the main points and acts as a reference that you can come back to when you need to refresh your memory. More advanced concepts are introduced gradually, so that by the end of the book you'll have a solid understanding of all the main aspects of CSS. Particular attention is paid to avoiding the common pitfalls of beginners, enabling you to create websites that not only look good, but also are easy to maintain.

• Requires no previous knowledge of CSS
• Instant results—starts off by showing how improve the look of a website stage by stage
• Doesn't bombard you with endless rules and jargon

What you’ll learn

• How to immediately improve the look of your entire website by controlling fonts and colors with just a few lines of code.
• How to control the layout of elements on the page without resorting to complex tables.
• How to add background images that appear exactly where you want them.
• How to create effective style sheets that are easy to maintain by avoiding common mistakes such as over-reliance on classes ("classitis").
• How browsers display page elements and master CSS positioning.
• How to experiment with advanced CSS selectors.

Who this book is for

This book is aimed at anybody who wants to learn how to style websites using CSS. The primary readership is likely to be independent web developers and serious hobbyists, but knowledge of CSS is essential to anyone planning a career in web development, so it should also find a place in the curriculum of academic courses in media studies.

Table of Contents

1. What Is CSS, and Why Should I Learn It?
2. How Do I Improve the Look of Text and Links?
3. How Can I Improve the Layout of My Text?
4. How Can I Flow Text Around Images?
5. How Do I Add Backgrounds and Borders to Improve the Look of My Page?
6. How Do I Solve the Mysteries of Width and Height?
7. How Do I Create Differently Styled Sections?
8. How Do I Style Lists and Navigation Menus?
9. How Do I Style Tables?
10. How Do I Position Elements Precisely on the Page?
11. Are There Any Guidelines for Basic Page Layout?
12. How Do I Create Styles for Printing?

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

David Powers is an Adobe Community Expert for Dreamweaver and author of a series of highly successful books on PHP, including PHP Solutions: Dynamic Web Design Made Easy and Foundation PHP for Dreamweaver 8. As a professional writer, he has been involved in electronic media for more than 30 years, first with BBC radio and television and more recently with the Internet. His clear writing style is valued not only in the English-speaking world; several of his books have been translated into Spanish and Polish. What started as a mild interest in computing was transformed almost overnight into a passion, when David was posted to Japan in 1987 as BBC correspondent in Tokyo. With no corporate IT department just down the hallway, he was forced to learn how to fix everything himself. When not tinkering with the innards of his computer, he was reporting for BBC television and radio on the rise and collapse of the Japanese bubble economy. Since leaving the BBC to work independently, he has built up an online bilingual database of economic and political analysis for Japanese clients of an international consultancy. When not pounding the keyboard writing books or dreaming of new ways of using PHP and other programming languages, David enjoys nothing better than visiting his favorite sushi restaurant. He has also translated several plays from Japanese.

Product Details

• Paperback: 550 pages
• Publisher: friendsofED; 1 edition (December 1, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1430225432
• ISBN-13: 978-1430225430
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 7.5 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.8 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #212,105 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #61 in Books > Computers & Technology > Programming > Languages & Tools > CSS

More About the Author

I specialize in writing about web design using Dreamweaver, PHP, and CSS. PHP is the most popular server-side language that brings life to websites by communicating with external data sources, such as databases, news feeds, and XML documents. Adobe has recognized my expertise in web development by appointing me an Adobe Community Professional (ACP) for Dreamweaver. You'll often find me giving help in the Dreamweaver forums and Dreamweaver Community Help. In 2010, I became one of the first to qualify as a PHP 5.3 Zend Certified Engineer.

Before turning my hand to writing about web design, I spent nearly 30 years as a BBC radio and TV journalist, working both in front of the microphone/camera and behind the scenes. That gave me a wealth of experience in explaining sometimes difficult concepts in straightforward, easy to understand language - experience which shows through in my books.

I spent a large part of my broadcasting career in Japan, first on loan from the BBC to NHK, the Japan Broadcasting Corporation, and later as BBC correspondent. I have traveled all over Japan, and love taking photos, many of which end up being used in my books. Over the years, I have worked closely with the Shiki Theatrical Company, Japan's leading producer of musicals; and have translated several of their plays into English.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Fantastic way to get started with CSS, April 22, 2010

By 

J. Pelagides "Web Developer" (Melbourne) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Getting StartED with CSS (Paperback)

The best way to get the most out of this CSS book is to work through it chapter by chapter in the right order. You can try to dive in somewhere in the middle but the author makes it clear at the outset that you're going to really benefit by reading everything in the right order. I've already built 3 websites so far before getting my hands on this book. Ideally, you'll have read a book that fully covers HTML/XHTML coding, eg 'Learning Web Design' by Jennifer Niederst Robbins, before diving into this. Web designers would do well to learn the foundations of HTML/XHTML first and then work to get your head around the CSS in this book. This book really gets stuck in to take you through each major concept of CSS. The first chapter is a basic overview but rest assured there's other books on the market that cover the total ins-and-outs of CSS more thoroughly. Eventually you'll want to read something a little more beefy such as 'CSS The Definitive Guide' which is better suited to an experienced web designer. Getting Started with CSS will have you building your website at a good fast pace. Before you know it, you'll have finished a chapter in an hour or two and have a major concept covered.

I own several other popular books on CSS (check out the popular "CSS The Missing Manual'). They all seem to have a major strength in different key areas. In this book, I was able to complete one chapter comfortably in an afternoon and follow each example from start to finish. While I completed the chapter examples, I'd also open up an existing client project and work through it at the same time. Doing this allowed me to fully understand the right order to apply all my CSS rules. As an example, the book teaches you to style text based CSS rules before moving onto images and then backgrounds. My previous efforts of applying CSS was haphazard. I now follow the order specified here and my new websites are styled right. I'm fully aware of what I'm doing with my CSS.

'CSS The Missing Manual' is another popular book you'll want to add to your library too. That fully covers off important subjects such as CSS Specificity, ID Selectors and such at a deeper level so you'll grasp an understanding of CSS theory more fully. However, this book will allow you to work out CSS at a faster pace and you'll be up and running in no time.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Another Great Book by David Powers, January 31, 2010

By 

R. Wurgley "Life Begins @ 190MPH" (Philadelphia, pa United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Getting StartED with CSS (Paperback)

This is great book, I know quite abit about css as I have used in making web sites. But I found some things that made some of my coding easier. It is an easy read, and now I feel this is a good reference book, I have some things dog eared to refresh my mind. Keep up the good work David.

What I would like to see is an Getting Started on PHP book by David, read his other dreamweaver books, but still a little in the dark with PHP. Thx for given me the opportunity to read and review this book.

5 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Book could easily have been called 'Getting Lost with CSS', January 29, 2010

By 

Front to Back (Australia) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Getting StartED with CSS (Paperback)

I have no one to blame but myself for purchasing this book. I browsed through it at a book store and the things that I liked about it was that it appeared to provide some nice insights into the some of the nuances and intricacies of CSS, especially in the early sections of the book.

The problem is that when you need a more cohesive narrative to quickly solve a problem, or understand a technique it begins to not so much fail in providing the information, as I am sure the information is there, but the approach is all over the place like the proverbial! My two biggest issues are that the book is literally peppered with grey boxes that are entitled "ExplainED", "AdvancED", "LinkED" - they are exceedingly successful in completely distracting the reader and avoiding getting to the heart of the issues - which of course is the root problem with this book. These boxes contribute very little, if indeed nothing, to the intent of the section or paragraph and could very well be left for the end of the chapter where the poor reader can easily choose to leap forward with the hope of seeking some modicum of relief from the torment.

The second annoyance, is that the distance in text and the number of pages between the statement of the problem and the coherent description of the the solution can be immense - for example, Chapter 4 (page 121) begins with "How can I flow text around images?" with figure 4 giving a very good example of what the problem is that we are trying to solve - well a healthy sprinkling of "AdvancED, and "ExplainED" boxes along with a wealth of other distractions, we finally get to something like the solution on page 150, even then it is not clear it is the same problem we are discussing.

If someone writes another book like this, how about something very simple, a small box with the code pointing to the effect that gets us from the before and after state is step one. The next step is to build upon that base or fundamental piece of knowledge.

Perhaps I am being overly critical because I do know CSS and use it quite extensively, and my frustration comes from knowing the author should have been able to do a much better job.

In summary this is a dreadfully muddled book and have added to the list of books, that when my conscience allows, will pulp and have them recycled.