Reviews for Eric Meyer on CSS (Voices (New Riders))

1. Hands-on CSS

   Rated 4 out of 5 stars, May 12th, 2009

   This is not a book for learning CSS from scratch. However, it is a great book if you know the basics and just want to have a go at various projects to improve your knowledge and confidence. It's rare to find a book of this type which gives such detailed projects for you to try. It's a refreshing read if you just can't get into a big textbook on CSS and are having ltttle difficulties with making CSS work. Eric also has a great support website where you can download all of the files for the projects.

2. The world of CSS

   Rated 4 out of 5 stars, February 12th, 2006

   So far I am just dabbling with CSS. This book is great for taking you from ground zero to something svelte. The lessen format is like having your personal tutor. I will eventually get around to something practical. In the mean time I am expanding my universe.
   So far I find this to be midlevel coding. The real problem with top level is that you have know idea want you are doing and a lot of superfluous overhead is added to the commands; it is good for a quickie but can later paint you into a corner. Low level will give you tighter code and more control over results. Midlevel is a compromise but sometimes adds functionality that can not be reached at the lover level command line coding.
   
   Every language has it strengths and purpose they just do not invent more complexity for the fun of it. I hope to have the mechanics down before I find out what it is.
   
   CSS may come and go but it is necessary to be aware of it incase you need to correct someone else's code. For me this is the right book at the right time. What time is it for you?
   
   

3. May be the best book on learning CSS

   Rated 5 out of 5 stars, January 12th, 2006

   You don't just read about CSS you actually apply it with the exercises. Yeah, you might not learn about the technical ins and outs (covered in the O'Reily book) but you get to learn about the real world applications. Highly recommend this book with the downloadable working files for anyone wanting to learn CSS. Unleash you creativity!

4. Great introduction to unlocking the power of CSS

   Rated 4 out of 5 stars, April 12st, 2005

   I read this book after gobbling up Jeffrey Zeldman's Designing with Web Standards. That book had truly converted me to Web Standards and I was keen to expand my knowledge of CSS to fully embrace standards. Since Eric Meyer is regarded as THE CSS guru his book was the first I went for.

   The book is certainly a good introduction to unlocking the power of CSS. Meyer takes you through various short projects, explaining step by step how he styles each document. His writing is easy to follow and although the example pages aren't jaw droppingly beautiful, they don't have to be to illustrate just what you can do with CSS. One thing to be aware of is that you'll need a decent grounding in CSS before picking up this book. This isn't a reference, more a hands on tutorial in how to use CSS. Try Eric's "Cascading Style Sheets the Definitive Guide" published by O'Reilly if you're a complete CSS newbie.

   From a personal point of view, I found the book a little too basic. CSS isn't hard to pick up and much of the book was going over things I already knew. But nearly every chapter featured a little nugget of information that made me say "ahhhh, that's interesting...." so for that alone it was worth reading.

   It wasn't until the final few chapters on mutli-column layouts, absolute positioning and fixed backgrounds that I started to learn something brand new. But that just shows there's something in this book for everyone and if your new to CSS then I highly recommend it.

5. thick content, though perhaps not the most efficient methods

   Rated 4 out of 5 stars, May 12st, 2004

   All of the other reviews on this page are spot on - Eric Meyer has a fantastic knowledge of what you can do with CSS (see meyerweb.com for up to date stuff) and as a pure reference guide of examples and case studies, there probably isn't a better tome on the market as of 2004.

   Just ONE caveat however - the abundance of detail isn't always backed up by a clear, concise approach, such as planning the page in advance, grouping elements in a logical manner and so on. This means that unless you live your life in code, it can take a while to find out what's making the changes and causing the pretty effects he describes throughout!