Reviews for Sams Teach Yourself CSS in 24 Hours (Sams Teach Yourself...in 24 Hours)

1. Another great "in 24 hours" book

   Rated 5 out of 5 stars, October 12th, 2009

   I am a huge fan of the Sams "teach yourself....in 24 hours" series and this is no exception. It can be used as
   a 24 part self-study course or as a handy book to dip into when you come unstuck. Straightforward guidance, clear
   screenshots and easy to find your way around, my standard reference book for CSS.
   
   Coupled with the resources available on the web I haven't felt I needed any other guide.

2. Not good for Begininers, Avoid if your new to CSS

   Rated 1 out of 5 stars, January 12th, 2009

   Okay just to say that i am actually reviewing the latest version of this Book as of 2009, and i found this book very difficult to read and follow.
   
   At the bookshop i picked it up, read a few pages of introduction and seeing how it was arranged in lessons of 123 and thought 'great' this is just what i need.
   
   Turns out the introduction was great, but then you dont actually learn anything you did not already know from reading the back cover, still it just goes over what CSS basically does.
   
   Then he talks you through how to link your CSS with a html page, which is such a simple task (i know now) but the book overcomplicated the whole thing, and that really is my problem with the book - it takes a simple task like linking your CSS to your HTML and starts talking in every direction except the one you want to know!
   
   Page after page on theory but never relevant to the code he just showed last page.
   
   You will read this book thinking there is something wrong with you! but then if you go and read a basic article on CSS from Google you realize that its not CSS which is that difficult, its just the way this guy explains it to you!
   
   The people who will perhaps benefit from this book are probably those who already know how to write CSS and have some experience doing it, they can use the latter chapters of this book perhaps to confirm what they know and pick up some tips.
   
   For beginners like me, we need something less confusing, with more illustrations and relevance to code which builds up your knowledge step-by-step, not something which throws you in the deep end and then pulls you out, chucking you on the beach, and then dips you in a pool and then throws you back in the sea and miraculously expects you to swim across to find a new continent!!! :p

3. Avoid - out-dated

   Rated 1 out of 5 stars, May 12nd, 2008

   I bought this book years ago but only I read it recently (2008) because the need to use CSS went away - and then came back... I shouldn't have bothered - I ended up wasting a lot of time...
   
   If you're new to CSS like I am then the big thing you have to understand is that you don't just have to learn CSS - you have to learn about the bugs in the various browsers (mainly Internet Explorer) and the workarounds.
   
   This book mentions some of them but doesn't offer any help with dealing with them. The problems have been tackled by others and learning about the solutions is just as important as learning about CSS itself.
   
   I bought "CSS - The Missing Manual" by David Sawyer McFarland and it's excellent - not only does it teach you the CSS but it deals with the browser bugs, shows you techniques for dealing with tricky design/layout problems, and points you towards countless web sites that provide extra information, free CSS layouts/templates, and other resources.

4. Very well writtin book

   Rated 5 out of 5 stars, February 12th, 2005

   This book is very good for any one who is starting out learning CSS, I already knew quite a bit of all the basics, but this book helped me go a bit more advance with CSS, well worth the money.

5. A great introduction

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

   This is another excellent book in the SAMS "Teach Yourself" series. It assumes that you know nothing apart from basic HTML and goes from there. The chapters are well paced and introduce topics in a sensible order, each chapter building on the last.

   With some of the later chapters, it helps to have a grasp of JavaScript but you could probably get by without it. However learning JavaScript in addition to CSS will help you get the most out of it.