Book Review - CSS Cookbook (2nd Edition) by Christopher Schmitt
Category Book Reviews
I've often said that I like the O'Reilly "cookbook" format for getting ideas and solving issues I didn't know I had. CSS Cookbook (2nd edition) by Christopher Schmitt is another one of those books that will earn space on my shelf at work...
Contents: General; Web Typography; Images; Page Elements; Lists; Links and Navigation; Forms; Tables; Page Layouts; Print; Hacks, Workarounds, and Troubleshooting; Designing with CSS; Resources; CSS 2.1 Properties and Proprietary Extensions; CSS 2.1 Selectors, Pseudo-Classes, and Pseudo-Elements; Styling of Form Elements; Index
The "cookbook" formula has a number of recipes on how to do certain things with CSS. It starts with a problem statement, a brief and concise solution, and then a discussion about how it works and factors that come into play. Some of the recipes are really basic, like setting the size of type on a page. In a case like that, the answer is simply font-size with a discussion of how that works. In other cases, the recipe is much more advanced, such as applying specific CSS properties to the IE 5.x browser to handle it's quirky box model implementation. That one is much longer, as there's more to it than just reading the specs or a basic tutorial...
My only disappointment here is that some of the included items are *really* basic. For instance, the General chapter seems to be a basic CSS guide formatted as a series of recipes. A recipe of using comments in your CSS file, while a legitimate question, is one that I'd expect someone to know if they are picking up a book like this. I would have preferred see that space be used for less tutorial-like information and more "meat". Still, having said that, it's still a book that I'd feel comfortable with having around...
Once you're past the "what is CSS" phase, this is a good book to spend time with. It will either answer the "how do I do that" questions or spur the "I hadn't thought of doing that" moments...
If you liked this review and found it helpful, please click on the Amazon book link in the review and click the Yes (Was This Review Helpful To You?) button at the bottom of my review. Thanks!
I've often said that I like the O'Reilly "cookbook" format for getting ideas and solving issues I didn't know I had. CSS Cookbook (2nd edition) by Christopher Schmitt is another one of those books that will earn space on my shelf at work...
Contents: General; Web Typography; Images; Page Elements; Lists; Links and Navigation; Forms; Tables; Page Layouts; Print; Hacks, Workarounds, and Troubleshooting; Designing with CSS; Resources; CSS 2.1 Properties and Proprietary Extensions; CSS 2.1 Selectors, Pseudo-Classes, and Pseudo-Elements; Styling of Form Elements; Index
The "cookbook" formula has a number of recipes on how to do certain things with CSS. It starts with a problem statement, a brief and concise solution, and then a discussion about how it works and factors that come into play. Some of the recipes are really basic, like setting the size of type on a page. In a case like that, the answer is simply font-size with a discussion of how that works. In other cases, the recipe is much more advanced, such as applying specific CSS properties to the IE 5.x browser to handle it's quirky box model implementation. That one is much longer, as there's more to it than just reading the specs or a basic tutorial...
My only disappointment here is that some of the included items are *really* basic. For instance, the General chapter seems to be a basic CSS guide formatted as a series of recipes. A recipe of using comments in your CSS file, while a legitimate question, is one that I'd expect someone to know if they are picking up a book like this. I would have preferred see that space be used for less tutorial-like information and more "meat". Still, having said that, it's still a book that I'd feel comfortable with having around...
Once you're past the "what is CSS" phase, this is a good book to spend time with. It will either answer the "how do I do that" questions or spur the "I hadn't thought of doing that" moments...
If you liked this review and found it helpful, please click on the Amazon book link in the review and click the Yes (Was This Review Helpful To You?) button at the bottom of my review. Thanks!
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