Stylin' with CSS: A Designer's Guide (2nd Edition) (Paperback)

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Key Phrases: class selectors, nav inner, footer inner, Internet Explorer, Charles Wyke-Smith, Focus Interface (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description

Cascading Style Sheets enable you to rapidly create web designs that can be shared by hundreds or even thousands of web pages. It accelerates development cycles by centralizing text and layout information for easy editing and updates. This book teaches you everything you need to know to start using CSS in your web development work, from the basics of marking up your content and styling text, through the creation of multi-column page layouts without the use of tables. Learn to create interface components, such as drop-down menus, navigation links, and animated graphical buttons, using only CSS  (no JavaScript required). Discover how to design code that works on the latest standard-compliant browsers, such as IE7 and current versions of Firefox, Safari, and Opera, while working around the quirks of the older ones. With a mastery of CSS, your web design capabilities will move to a new level, and everything you need to know to get started and build your skills is right here in this book. You’ll be stylin’ in no time!

About the Author

Charles Wyke-Smith has been creating web sites since 1994 and currently serves as Director of User Experience for Charleston-based BenefitFocus. In recent years, Charles was VP of Web Development for eStar.com, a celebrity information site, and has provided web design and consulting services to companies including Wells Fargo, ESPN Videogames, and The University of San Francisco. His work today focuses on site development, with an emphasis on user experience, information architecture, and interface design. Charles has taught classes in multimedia and interface design and speaks at many industry conferences.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 312 pages
• Publisher: New Riders Press; 2 edition (December 29, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0321525566
• ISBN-13: 978-0321525567
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 7.4 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (104 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #28,740 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

179 of 183 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Cheesy Title, but an Awesome CSS Book!, September 12, 2005

By	Spencer Hall (Baltimore, MD) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This review is from: Stylin' with CSS: A Designer's Guide (Paperback)

When I started browsing Amazon for a CSS book appropriate for a beginner, I was overwhelmed by just how many there are out there! I read all the reviews and such, but could not really determine any major difference between the books or figure out which ones were `better than the others.

I decided that in order to make my decision I was going to have to flip through the books a little myself before purchasing. I took my little list to the local bookstore, gathered all of them up, and plopped down on a couch. I flipped through about 6 different books including Designing with Web Standards, CSS Core, CSS Cookbook, Beginning CSS, both Eric Meyer books, and of course, Stylin' with CSS.

I really didn't expect much from this book, I kind of grabbed it as an afterthought, or "might as well..."
I spent a good hour or so browsing the table of contents, reading bits and pieces of each book to get a feel for the author's style. I have to say I was not impressed with most of these, particularly the Eric Meyer books that so many people seem to swear by. My decision came down to Stylin' With CSS or Designing with Web Standards by Dan Cedarholm.

I chose Stylin' with CSS for several reasons. For one, Charles Wyke-Smith has a great, easy style of writing and explaining the concepts behind the rules of CSS. CSS is not overly difficult, but there is a learning curve and Wyke-Smith breaks it down into plain English. Secondly, the organization of the book is probably the most logical among the CSS books. It is not a reference book, as there are thorough explanations, but it is organized like a reference- by topic, in a sensible order. This makes it not only easy to follow the first time around, but makes it much easier to jump back to as a reference when needed. The quick reference chart in the back also comes in handy, and this book stays next to my computer at all times. Lastly, the page layout of the book is also visually appealing. It's not a picture book, but it doesn't look like a dictionary either. There's just the right amount of helpful images and screenshots, as well as colored text to differentiate code from explanations.

This book is the best that I can recommend for getting started in CSS. I can honestly say that my purchase was the best $20 I've ever spent on web design.

21 of 22 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Best Learning Resource on CSS, July 13, 2005

By	Edmon Begoli (Knoxville, TN United States) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This review is from: Stylin' with CSS: A Designer's Guide (Paperback)

If you are a beginner or an intermediate user who wants to learn CSS from the ground up this is simply the best source out there.
I got this book two days ago and I did not stop reading it since.
It is very well written - detailed, funny, interesting and it does not treat you like a CSS dummy, but like someone who has to learn this skills to apply it in practice.

Its use of visuals, step-by-step examples and supporting tips is excellent.

If you are looking to learn CSS styling, specially for business applications - buy this book. I also liked "Eric Myer on CSS" book, but that one was more design oriented, and less pedagogical.

15 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Very Helpful and easy, September 2, 2005

By	S. Holsey (California) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This review is from: Stylin' with CSS: A Designer's Guide (Paperback)

Stylin' has easy to understand examples, and gets straight to the point. If anyone wants to learn CSS, in an easy and none confusing way, I really recommend this book. Unlike other books I read on the subject, books that tend to overwhelm the reader with un-necessities, Stylin' gets to the heart of what's important and provides examples of how to do the design.

I originally pursued this book because I wanted to learn how to design web pages without using tables, and this book has helped me tremendously. It's a starter book, not an advanced. But after reading, you'll be designing web pages properly using cascading style sheets for presentation, and XHTML for content.