Book Club

Although this edition was first published in the year 2000, the technical content is still valid. Eric focuses almost the entire text on CSS1, widely accepted by most of the current browsers. Discussion of CSS2 was limited to a chapter on positioning and another chapter on the future of CSS2. That’s not a problem since parts of CSS2 are still not widely implemented in common versions of browsers.

I found Eric's text well organized and easy to read. Starting out with a brief history of CSS and its' relationship to HTML, Eric positions CSS as a powerful tool that takes HTML beyond performance robbing tables and JavaScript. I was quickly secured as a 'newborn CSS evangelist'! Eric builds a solid foundation of understanding CSS by thoroughly covering the essential structure and syntax of CSS. Understanding the rules is important and Eric gives us the rules, examples of their application, and even lists lots of reference material. Want to understand how to manipulate text? Read chapter 4. I especially liked the positioning chapter and the potential power of applying these techniques in lieu of building nested tables.

I have two suggestions for Eric's next edition:

1. Provide an online or CD-ROM to allow readers access to the book examples and listed reference material.

2. Make some of the appendices the tear-out kind. Some of this material would be great propped up next to your monitor.

I recommend this text to beginners and experts alike. Beginners will quickly get CSS proficient and experts should find the resource material worth the cost of the book.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book and refer back to it when I can't seem to remember a specific CSS syntax or rule. Hopefully, we’ll see an updated edition in the near future.

Review by: Bill Valvo
January 6, 2004