Customer Reviews

Sams Teach Yourself CSS in 10 Minutes

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(6)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

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)

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

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...

I was so disappointed with this book. The sad fact is that with better editing, it could have been not only a great introduction to CSS, but a handy reference volume as well. Unfortunately that was not realized and the book fails greatly.

The examples are poorly written, with un-necessary duplication of examples. The description of CSS elements, descriptors, etc could have been made much more clearly with some careful editing. Alas no such editing was done.

I cannot recommend this book to a beginner as the content is not complete enough nor clear enough for learning. I can't really recommend this book to anyone for that matter because someone with more CSS experience would be better off with an O'Reilly book on the subject.

I am a newbie with regards to html and css. This book is easy to read and understand for someone who is new to coding.

Everything looked to be clearly and simply explained. I've come to use it as a quick reference if I need to jog my memory. This book provides a solid foundation you can build on.

No plain English explanation of the reasoning behind the code. Assumes you'll understand what he means by "adjacent sibling selectors" and "document tree". I gleaned some knowledge by copying the examples and trial and error, but it was frustrating and tedious. If you're a programmer you might be able to decipher this book, but if you're a newbie you'll get a clearer introduction, with relevant details, from a book like "HeadFirst HTML" by Elisabeth and Eric Freeman.

I work with Web sites every day and will need a reference now and again to get my work done. This book is handy and fits nicely in my pack and acts as my main reference for CSS. The examples are clear and build from the previous chapters. It also has an accompanying Web site that shows you what the CSS script will look like when implemented. I believe this is a good starter book and the price is just right.

Highly recommended well-written book about CSS (Cascading Style Sheets). I am very happy I purchased this book. Twenty-two easy to follow lessons with downloadable support files from their website. I found it very easy to transition from html to CSS. Excellent reference book. I had looked into several other books but didn't purchase them. I only purchased one other CSS book, which I was very unhappy with.

Bonus: author responded to my email question with a very helpful reply. (Rare nowadays instead of other authors whom respond smart-alecky to purchase further books/dvds without answering question.) Check out some of the websites I did:

[...]

Very clearly written so that the CSS coding can be understood. The chapters are broken into easily understood bits. That said, however, "Lessons" is a very loosely used term, and 10 minutes is exceptionally optimistic. There are no lessons per se. The downloadable "Lessons" are simply the codes that are illustrated in the book. No real "Do this" type exercises to see what is happening. You have to sort of play on your own unless you are better than I at understanding abstract concepts.

So far, I'm up to lesson 4 and have about 2 hours in. Of course, this is due to some major "aside" play --I read, add code to a web page in Dreamweaver, change code to see what happens, etc.-- so that I can understand what exactly the code is affecting. I must admit that I do understand the codes a lot better than I did before. Using this book has helped me understand how Dreamweaver works with CSS as well.

It takes longer than 10 minutes to even read some of the chapters, so I'm not sure how they came up with the title; pretty catchy though. This is one useful tool for learning CSS, and works well in conjunction with others; not a stand-alone though.