CSS Pocket Reference (Paperback)

~ Eric A. Meyer (Author)

Editorial Reviews

Review

"If you need a small reference for CSS, you'll want this pocket reference. It does exactly what you would expect of a pocket reference, and does it well." - Sam Smith, news@UK --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.

Product Description

CSS (Cascading Style Sheets) is the W3C-approved method for enriching the visual presentation of web pages. CSS allows web pages to become more structural, and at the same time promises that they can have a more sophisticated look than ever before. With good implementations in Internet Explorer 5.0 and Opera 3.6, and 100% CSS1 support expected in Netscapes's Mozilla browser, signs are that CSS is rapidly becoming a useful, reliable, and powerful tool for web authors. The CSS Pocket Reference briefly introduces CSS and then lists all CSS1 properties, plus the CSS1 pseudo-elements and pseudo-classes. Since browser incompatibility is the biggest obstacle to CSS adoption, we've also included a comprehensive guide to how the browsers have implemented support for CSS1. For anyone who wants to correctly implement CSS, this is a handy condensed reference to all the details in the larger volume, Cascading Style Sheets: The Definitive Guide.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 96 pages
• Publisher: O'Reilly Media; 1 edition (May 1, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0596001207
• ISBN-13: 978-0596001209
• Product Dimensions: 6.5 x 4.9 x 0.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 3.5 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (30 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #915,820 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

23 of 25 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Another keeper to add to my programming book shelf..., August 15, 2004

By	Thomas Duff "Duffbert" (Portland, OR United States) - See all my reviews (TOP 50 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

This review is from: CSS Pocket Reference (Pocket Reference (O'Reilly)) (Paperback)

(note: this review is for the 2ND edition of the book...)

I just found a new book that I'll get to wear out really quickly. It's the CSS Pocket Reference (2nd edition) by Eric A. Meyer (O'Reilly). As with all O'Reilly Pocket References, it's just the core information formatted so you can find it quickly for reference.

Chapter Breakout: Adding Styles to HTML and XHTML; Rule Structure; Style Precedence; Element Classification; Element Display Roles; Basic Visual Layout; Floating Rules; Positioning Rules; Table Layout; Values; Selectors; Pseudo-Classes and Pseudo-Elements; Property Reference; Tables; Paged Media; Dropped From CSS2.1; Visual Styles; Paged Media; Aural Styles; Index

For all the Amazon reviewers complaining about this book not being up-to-date... You need to get the 2nd edition. It's got the latest on what you need.

Now, this is not a training manual or something you're going to be able to use to pick up CSS. Rather, like all Pocket Guides, it's the distilled essence of the reference material that you need on a daily basis. Rather than dig through a large book looking for stuff, you can use the pocket guide to get the answer quickly. I'm at the stage in my CSS learning where I understand what I can and can't do, but I don't always know the exact syntax or options available to me in a particular parameter. I've grown quite fond of the larger CSS book from Meyer and O'Reilly, and in fact I've memorized certain page numbers that I continually go back to. This pocket reference will replace much of the wear and tear on that book, and allow me to save it for when I need explanations on concepts.

Another keeper to add to my programming bookshelf...

12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Missing a vital part, November 21, 2004

By	Joshua Cogliati "jrincayc" (Northwestern United States) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This review is from: CSS Pocket Reference (Pocket Reference (O'Reilly)) (Paperback)

The majority of the book consists of an alphabetical guide to CSS properties. If you need to look up what a particular property does this would be quite useful. However, if you are trying to find a property to use and you do not know the name, this does not help. The book is entirely lacking any catagorical index to the CSS properties. Had CSS Pocket Reference 2nd Edition contained a two to four page index of the properties grouped by catagories such as text, layout, borders and so forth, I would have rated it better, but alas, it does not.

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars CSS Pocket Reference 2nd Ed. Does the job very well for me, October 3, 2005

By	Kevin Benton "KB" (Denver, CO United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: CSS Pocket Reference (Pocket Reference (O'Reilly)) (Paperback)

As a Perl and PHP programmer who does a lot of web-based pages, I use this pocket reference very often when designing page styles. It helps immensely that I have syntax and samples in front of me for each of the items I expect to be able to use in today's modern browser. As the title indicates, it is a pocket reference and is not designed to teach people how to get started using CSS. There are plenty of good books out there to help users do that. My favorite is Elizabeth Castro's HTML For The World Wide Web (5th Ed.). Once users have a basic understanding of the rules for creating CSS, this book is an invaluable tool to jog the memory and sits next to my desk anytime I'm doing HTML or XML page layout. Because nearly all the properties covered in this book are supported by Internet Explorer, Mozilla and Firefox, I chose not to ding the book for failing to cover what features were not supported by the major browsers.

Target audience: Web site developers, HTML, XHTML, XML authors with a basic understanding of CSS

Hits: Excellent property reference, good examples, explanations. Well organized.
Misses: Could have done a better job explaining which items are supported in which (of the most popular) browsers.