Sams Teach Yourself CSS in 10 Minutes [Paperback]

Russ Weakley (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0672327457 | ISBN-13: 978-0672327452 | Publication Date: November 17, 2005

The short, focused lessons presented in Sams Teach Yourself CSS in 10 Minutes will help you quickly understand cascading style sheets (CSS) and how to immediately apply it to your work. Author Russ Weakley is a well-respected member of the CSS community and is known for his ability to make complicated concepts easy-to-understand for even inexperienced CSS users. With this book, you will cover the essentials for standards compliant techniques that are supported by the most common browsers. Once you master the basics, Weakley will also take you inside positioning, troubleshooting CSS, and handling common CSS bugs. Sams Teach Yourself CSS in 10 Minutes is the ultimate quick learning tool and handy desk reference guide to CSS.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Russ Weakley has worked in the web design field for over 18 years. He is one of the principals for MaxDesign, a highly respected Australian design house. Russ currently is co-chairman of the Australian Web Standards Group, through which he assists web developers in understanding a variety of new technologies. He also is well-known in the CSS community for his CSS-based showcases and tutorials.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

Introduction

Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) is a simple and powerful language for adding style to web documents. Whether you are a web designer, developer, or anywhere in between, CSS is an important part of developing websites.

Many web developers still use tables for layout and do not understand the benefits of CSS. Although there are many good CSS resources and books available, people are often overwhelmed by the sheer volume of information. It is hard to decide the best place to start.

Sams Teach Yourself CSS in 10 Minutes is designed to help you get a handle on CSS quickly and easily through a series of step-by-step lessons.

Who Is This Book For?

This book is for you if any (or all) of the following apply:

• You're new to CSS

• You want a simple, hands-on guide to using CSS

• You want to quickly learn how to get the most out of CSS

• You want to learn new ways to use CSS

How This Book Works

Sams Teach Yourself CSS in 10 Minutes is divided into 22 lessons that gradually build on one another. By the end of the book, you should have a solid understanding of CSS and how to apply it in a variety of real-world situations.

Each lesson is written in simple steps so that you can quickly grasp the overall concept and put it into practice. The lessons are also designed to stand alone so that you can jump directly to particular topics as needed.

Online Support Files

Each lesson from Sams Teach Yourself CSS in 10 Minutes has support files that can be downloaded from the Sams Publishing website. The files can either be downloaded as a single file for all lessons, or individually for each lesson.

The address is http://www.samspublishing.com/.

Conventions Used in This Book

This book uses different typefaces to differentiate between HTML/CSS code and other content.

HTML and CSS code are presented using monospace type. Bold text indicates a change in code from the previous step.

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Note - A Note presents pertinent pieces of information related to the surrounding discussion.

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Caution - A Caution advises you about potential problems having to do with CSS or its implementation in specific browsers.

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Tip - Tip offers advice or demonstrates an easier way to do something.

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© Copyright Pearson Education. All rights reserved.

Product Details

• Paperback: 256 pages
• Publisher: Sams (November 17, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0672327457
• ISBN-13: 978-0672327452
• Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 5.6 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 10.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (22 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #339,208 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #89 in Books > Computers & Technology > Programming > Languages & Tools > CSS

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars perfect for what it is, January 31, 2007

By 

Akshay Sthapit (Berkeley) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Sams Teach Yourself CSS in 10 Minutes (Paperback)

Yes, you're not going to become an expert on CSS with this book. But this was my first time working with stylesheets and I was able to get up to speed very quickly - I went through the book in 1 hour WITH running and editing the code (which can be downloaded from SAMS website) to make sure I understood all the examples (disclaimer: I have a PhD in Engineering with 2 minors and I'm proficient in many programming languages). The examples will seem repetitive only if you're not in front of the computer trying the code - else it's nice to see the progression of each section of the chapter and actually see the changes on the screen and it only takes a few mins to go through them. It's cheap and short and sweet. Five stars. I'm now buying a more advanced book on the topic (The Meyer's CSS Definitive guide) just as I'd planned.

Basically -
Advanced and intermediate users: look elsewhere, nothing for you here
Beginners who want to learn CSS before going to bed: yes yes yes (make sure you download the code from the website first)

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Learn CSS In Record Time, November 24, 2005

By 

Daniel McKinnon "Dan" (Tewksbury, MA USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: Sams Teach Yourself CSS in 10 Minutes (Paperback)

If you are new to CSS (Cascading Style Sheets) and want to get up to speed in no time, then Russ Weakley's 'Sams Teach Yourself CSS In 10 Minutes' is the perfect guide to accomplishing that task!! In its simplest form, CSS is a way to quickly style web pages and be able to write HTML quickly and not have to worry about keeping track of fonts, colors, etc. while maintaining a uniform style all throughout your web site. If you need to learn how to use CSS quickly and efficiently, I highly recommend this great time from SAMS, you won't be disappointed!!

Note: This book is for beginners only, any experienced CSS developer will want to go elsewhere as this book is only for newbies.

***** HIGHLY RECOMMENDED

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Disappointed, July 3, 2006

By 

Utsawin - See all my reviews

This review is from: Sams Teach Yourself CSS in 10 Minutes (Paperback)

I, like a few other reviewers here, found the overly repetitive code snippets both confusing and, in most cases, utterly pointless.

I have also yet to find any "Tips" which we are told are marked clearly throughout the book offering advice or demonstrating an easier way to do something (excluding the "Tip" that explains what "Tips" are!). Let me know if you find any others... Is this just another example of poor editing?

It is a real pity, as overall the author presents some good examples. I would have liked the book to go a little more in-depth, but I guess there was little room left after the endless identical samples.

2 stars simply because the book still manages to cover the basics, and the author shows plenty of promise for the future...