CSS: The Missing Manual

I have been a student web designer for a few years never touching the coding side of it because well... it scared me. I ended up realising that if I wanted a job as a web designer I needed to learn at least the basics of XHTML and CSS. I started by taking out 'The visual quickstart guide to HTML, XHTML & CSS' from the library. This was a good basic book that got me to grips with it very quickly. As I had to return it after a week I bought CSS The missing manual based on the reviews here.

I prefer it to the quickstart guide as the author explanations are more in-depth, he explains why certain rules get inherited and others don't. However I am glad I had the quickstart book first as it explained more about HTML than this book does. I think if you are completely new to HTML as well as CSS maybe another book is more suited. If you know the basics( and it can be the very basics) of HTML then this book is perfect for teaching you how to use CSS along side HTML for best results.

The books chapters are spit into theory and practical. You will have to read a few pages of explanation and then put that in practise using downloaded html files from the website. This really suited my style of learning. Having a written explanation before the practical also allows it to became a reference book once you have finished the book.

There is also a chapter near the end for people with Dreamweaver showing you how to add CSS in the design view.

Big thumbs up from me. I am currently turning image based websites into fully functioning CSS sites. The only downside is that I'm more of a geek than I was before.

A "Must Have" (0/0 people found this helpful)

I wouldn't recommend it to a raw beginner as it does jump in pretty quickly, but I've got a (very) basic grounding on CSS and found it excellent.
The chapters are sensibly organised, the text is easy to read (for font, style and grammar), there's a humour through it to keep it light, and it even suggests that you might want to skip some bits because they're not essential. The tutorials add to the same 'tutorial site' throughout the whole book, so as you work through the chapters there's continuity in the tutorials and you can really see the effects of what you've learned at the end of each chapter.
This book has got the info I need, and has the feel of being written by a programmer who's read many a manual in his time and has now written the book we've all been looking for, in the format we want.
I've since purchased 3 other books from the missing manual series and would recommend all of them.

Excellent "learning" book (1/1 people found this helpful)

This book really is very well laid out.

The tutorials take you through the concepts step by step so you can see the effect of each of the rules you enter, and show you why certain rules work in certain ways thus doing a great job of de-mistifying CSS.

The book is also chock-full of URLs for resources and further details on the techniques.

All in all, one of the best coding books I've ever purchased.

Excellent Introduction (0/0 people found this helpful)

A very good introduction to CSS, particularly well illustrated explaining the order of HTML and CSS. Would recommend this one to anyone interested in learning the basics of CSS.

Brilliant beginners manual (3/3 people found this helpful)

I'd already designed a couple of simple websites using tables, but knew this was not the way forward and CSS would have to be my next step. I wanted a book that would 'teach' me the basics from start to finish, and I'm pleased to say that this is that book.

I found it a really easy book to read and the tutorials were easy to follow. I was able to apply things I'd learnt in each chapter to the site I was developing at the time, and see it start to take shape, which is extremely satisfying.

David McFarland

Reader Reviews:

Top CSS book (0/0 people found this helpful)

A "Must Have" (0/0 people found this helpful)

Excellent "learning" book (1/1 people found this helpful)

Excellent Introduction (0/0 people found this helpful)

Brilliant beginners manual (3/3 people found this helpful)

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