This book clearly explains the concepts of CSS and is very good for people who learned how to do webpages using tables. I purchased another book that just shows how to do one example, this book clearly explains why to do things and gives you a good basis for future sites, not just learning how to do one specific example. I would highly recommend this book.
CSS Mastery - Andy Budd - Great practical book on CSS
Content Overview:
This book by Andy Budd covers CSS topics from a beginners level to a more advanced level. I'm an advanced CSS user, but I actually enjoyed reading the entire book from cover to cover. I find that reading over things you already know or use is a good idea; you never know when you will pick up a little trick that will save you some time every time you are writing CSS. Plus, if you really do know and use a technique 100%, you can give yourself a pat on the back..haha.
When I read a book, I put bookmarks on the MOST important parts. These are of course the most important to ME, maybe you wouldn't even care about these topics. I do this so it's easy to get back to these sections of the book when I'm designing and coding.. so I don't have one of those, "I read about that somewhere" moments. Below I will quickly explain what I found to be the "bookmark worthy" parts of the book.
THE REST OF MY REVIEW IS HERE:
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Excellent learning tool
This book completely changed the way I build and design web sites for the better. I had been using HTML tables for layout for years and never realized how limiting that method was until I read this book. The narrative is very easy to follow and the different techniques are explained extremely well. I highly recommend this book to anyone who wants to expand their web design and front-end coding skills.
Very Good; Limited Coverage
The book covers some topics very clearly. I've used CSS in a limited manner for years, but never done any really serious development. This book helped me gain an actual understanding of what is going on behind the scenes. For example, I never realized that vertical margins are collapsed. It also helped explain some of those annoying float clearing issues. If you already know about those, you may be looking for a more advanced book, but it does cover these beginner areas very well. I knock off a star for lack of coverage. (It's a rather short book.)
Concise, useful and lucid
Concise: an introductory chapter, a chapter explaining the box model, 5 short chapters covering the most useful basics of a few ways to use CSS, two chapters on hacks & bugs, and two case studies. A few hours and you're done -- ready to hit the ground running. This book is by no means a thorough reference: instead, Andy Budd gets down to the point quickly with no extraneous explanations or examples.
Each topic is addressed with a short, lucid explanation, accompanied by some code, useful graphics explaining concepts, and an example. Andy's style of presenting the material carries the same succinct, high-quality feel as his work (see clearleft.com).
The number of techniques, bugs, hacks and filters can be quite overwhelming for a newcomer, especially due to browser inconsistencies. It is therefore imperative to start coding immediately in order to become familiar with the techniques and gain some confidence in using them. This is not due to the nature of the book, but instead due to the nature of CSS. As for me, I'll be referring to the book on countless occasions in the future.
