Product Description

There are several other books on the market that serve as in-depth technical guides or reference books for CSS. None, however, take a more hands-on approach and use practical examples to teach readers how to solve the problems they face in designing with CSS - until now. Eric Meyer provides a variety of carefully crafted projects that teach how to use CSS and why particular methods were chosen. The web site includes all of the files needed to complete the tutorials in the book. In addition, bonus information is be posted.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #93434 in Books
• Published on: 2002-07-08
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 352 pages

From the Publisher
If you were looking for someone to help you understand how to use CSS effectively in real-world projects that would be compatible across browsers, who would you go to? That one's easy -- Eric Meyer -- the guy web professionals call the CSS master or guru! Eric always wanted to add a third leg to the "two-legged stool" of CSS books he has written. I was fortunate enough to have the pleasure of working with Eric to make a practical project-based guide to CSS a reality.

Eric targeted this book at folks who have a pretty good knowledge of HTML and at least a basic knowledge of CSS. For those of you in that category, you'll love this book. You really get to work right along side Eric as he takes you through the progressively more advanced projects. This is one book you'll truly want to have on your desk if you want to incorporate CSS into your work!

In order to provide you with the resources you need on CSS in particular and web development in general, it's important to me to hear what you think about this book -- and what you'd like to see in future offerings. Please share your thoughts by emailing me at nrfeedback@newriders.com.

Enjoy!

Linda Bump Sr. Acquisitions Editor, New Riders Publishing

From the Back Cover
There are several other books on the market that serve as in-depth technical guides or reference books for CSS. None, however, take a more hands-on approach and use practical examples to teach readers how to solve the problems they face in designing with CSS - until now. Eric Meyer provides a variety of carefully crafted projects that teach how to use CSS and why particular methods were chosen. The web site includes all of the files needed to complete the tutorials in the book. In addition, bonus information is be posted.

About the Author
Eric A. Meyer has been working with the Web since late 1993. He is currently employed as a Standards Evangelist with Netscape Communications and lives in Cleveland, Ohio, which is a much nicer city than you've been led to believe. A graduate of and former Webmaster for Case Western Reserve University, Eric is also an Invited Expert with the W3C CSS&FP Working Group and coordinated the authoring and creation of the W3C's CSS1 Test Suite. He often speaks at conferences on the subjects of CSS, Web design, Web standards, Web browsers, and how they all go together. He is the host of "Your Father's Oldsmobile," a weekly big bandera radio show heard on WRUW 91.1FM in Cleveland. When not otherwise busy, Eric is usually bothering his wife, Kat, in some fashion. About the Technical Reviewers These reviewers contributed their considerable handson expertise to the entire development process for Eric Meyer on CSS: Mastering the Language of Web Design. As the book was being written, these dedicated professionals reviewed all the material for technical content, organization, and flow. Their feedback was critical to ensuring that this book fits our reader's need for the highest quality technical information. Molly E. Holzschlag With over 20 Web development books to her credit, Molly is also a popular columnist and feature writer for such diverse publications as Macworld, PC Magazine, IBM developerWorks, and Builder. She is an engaging speaker and teacher, appearing regularly at such conferences as Comdex, Internet World, and Web Builder. As a steering committee member for the Web Standards Project (WaSP), Molly works with a group of other dedicated Web developers and designers to promote W3C recommendations. Currently, she is serving as the Associate Editor for Digital Web Magazine. Molly also acts as an advisory board committee member to numerous organizations, including the World Organization of Webmasters. Tobias Horvath has been involved with Web technologies since 1995, when he was just 12 years old. Growing up in the early stages of the Internet, he made his journey to become a Macintosh enthusiast. During the day, he is trying to be a student in Essen, Germany, where he lives. Copyright Pearson Education. All rights reserved.

Customer Reviews

Enough five star reviews. It's not that good
The problem with CSS books is that they always take two tracks: They're either a rote reference of the specification, or they're random "projects" that the author either thinks are interesting or, more likely, just happened to complete himself at work, so he feels qualified to write about it. Eric Meyer on CSS is the latter, and it suffers greatly for it, especially if you don't just happen to need exactly the kind of site he likes to create. Which, quite frankly, are unexciting, especially when you consider some of the impressive CSS on the Web today. But the big problem is that core CSS topics are only mentioned--often in passing--when they solve a problem for a project. You'll get no run-down of the importance between various positioning styles, for example, until the CSS he uses throughout the whole book suddenly doesn't work and he has to try something different. Don't get me wrong, this book isn't worthless, but everyone here is acting like this book is a cure-all, and it's not. If you want to master CSS, you will still need several books, none of which are perfect.

Beautifully Done
I've read one of Eric Meyer's other books about CSS (Cascading Style Sheets - The Definitive Guide) and loved it for its informative style and still use it occasionally as a reference. His latest book takes a different approach, not a reference book but more one that takes information about CSS and applies it here to real life examples, which makes it much easier for the average CSS author to learn and see how the CSS styles shown relate to what is being done on the site it affects. The book consists of 13 chapters or "projects," ranging from converting an existing page to CSS, to styling a press release or events calendar, to even creating your own online greeting card. There's a companion web site, which lets you download the files to be used with each project.

The book is wonderfully laid-out with lots of gorgeous color drawings and figures, which aid the reader in understanding each change. The step by step instructions are easy to follow and with each CSS code change or addition shown in red, also easy to understand and follow along with. I was amazed at the wide range of effects that can be done using CSS, as shown with each project.

This book is an excellent "tutorial" for those wishing to learn more about CSS.

Makes CSS make sense
Unlike most of the CSS books floating around out there currently, "Eric Meyer on CSS" gives you practical projects to work through, and apply CSS to, talking you through the whys and wherefores all the way. It takes you all the way from transforming an existing HTML table-based layout into a more streamlined structure using CSS, all the way up to bleeding edge design concepts that will be more and more feasible as the browsers catch up to web standards.

I would not recommend this book to someone who has absolutely no experience or knowledge of CSS (maybe check out the tutorials in your HTML editor, or look at some of the online tutorials at Webmonkey.com before diving into this book).

And, for intermediate users (you've been using stylesheets for awhile, maybe just to handle typography), I'd recommend also getting Eric Meyer's "Cascading Style Sheets: The Definitive Guide" for a more in-depth study of the CSS specs, though you can make it through most of the concepts presented here with just the information given with a little extra mental effort and perseverance.

The writing style is conversational and entertaining, and there are clear reasons given for everything. Meyers is definitely trying to teach you to fish rather than hand you a mackeral and send you on your way.

I really enjoyed that the book was in full color, and had a lot of visual aids -- New Riders is great for this.

If you're interested in the possibilities of web design using CSS, this book is well worth the price of admission.