[thelist] CSS Book

Jono jono at charlestonwebsolutions.com
Fri Sep 16 19:52:50 CDT 2005


Here's the order of books I went through, which seemed to work very well, as
if it were strategically scheduled by my college guidance counselors.
Below, is the order in which I read them, not rank.  Check out Amazon for
good deals on multiple book purchases and free shipping.  Also, I bought
some of these used and they were as good as new.


1. Cascading Style Sheets: The Definitive Guide, Second Edition
   http://www.meyerweb.com/eric/books/css-tdg/

Opinion:  You might skip this one if you have a good handle on CSS, but I
find myself going back to it for a quick reference when I just can't
remember something.
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2. Designing with Web Standards
   http://www.zeldman.com/dwws/

Opinion:  Not strictly CSS, but more of a WHY/HOW YOU SHOULD DO THINGS
CORRECTLY kind of book.
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3. Eric Meyer on CSS
   http://www.ericmeyeroncss.com/

Opinion:  I liked this book b/c it gave good examples that were easy to
follow.  This book is about how to use CSS and semantic markup to accomplish
certain design goals.  Most of the results were not real-world, daily-use
type solutions, BUT I'm not sure that's the point.  The point is, that you
can apply bits and pieces of what you learn here to other projects.  Great
chapters on building list based navigation, and being creative with
background images. 
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4. More Eric Meyer on CSS
   http://more.ericmeyeroncss.com/

Opinion:  More of the same, but slightly more advanced.  You could skip the
first one and go right for this one, but I enjoyed both.  I reference these
two books a lot for guidance on lists, and floats, as well as layout
decisions.
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5. Web Design on a $hoestring
   http://www.roguelibrarian.com/shoestring/

Opinion:  This was my least favorite.  Not because it was a great book, but
because it was mostly information I already knew.  I do recall it being more
of a book of ideas, instead of a book of what to do.  It's worth a look.
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6. Web Standards Solutions
   http://www.simplebits.com/publications/solutions/

Opinion:  I loved this book for its multiple examples, and analysis of why
one example was better than the other.  This was my favorite CSS book, until
bulletproof came along...
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7. Bulletproof Web Design
   http://www.simplebits.com/publications/bulletproof/

Opinion:  ...which is another great book by Dan Cederholm... Except for page
196;)  If I could only have one book, this would be the one.  The last
chapter is a conglomeration of the previous eight or so chapters.  Very well
done.  The final chapter covers a very simple, yet effective, fluid layout,
that is as close to an easy to implement CSS template as I've ever seen.
You might want  to wait for the second printing to get page 196 -  in the
first printing, Page 195 was printed twice causing page 196 to be missing.
In addition to being very helpful, it is also very well designed and easy to
read!
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1 - 7. The Elements of Style
http://www.ablongman.com/catalog/academic/product/0,1144,020530902X,00.html

Opinion:  I need to pay more attention to this one.  It's not even creased
yet.  It's not a book about Style sheets, but a book about the principles of
English style.  If you're going to write copy for your sites, this is a
great reference... which I have been neglecting.
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On 9/16/05 2:54 AM, "Justin Zachan" <justin at jazzmanagement.com.au> wrote:

> What I was wondering if anyone could recommend a good book (or another
> resource) that sets out and describes all the various features. But
> something targeted at someone who already knows there ay around...




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