Beginning CSS Web Development: From Novice to Professional

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"Beginning CSS Web Development: From Novice to Professional" by Simon Collison is the perfect book for newcomers to CSS and for those slightly more-experienced CSS designers who need a soup-to-nuts review.

The book is very well organized, easy to read, easy to digest, and well edited. The progression of chapters is logical, as the book flows from CSS mechanics to layout and design concepts. Topics are covered completely yet succinctly; at just over 400 pages, this is not a typical, bloated computer book. Coverage is complete, however, and nothing seems to be left out. There's a very useful, 15-page CSS reference guide in the appendix, and URL's for many third-party articles and examples are provided throughout the text.

Collison's writing style is relaxed, clear, and appropriately humorous. He even tells you (often -- he's English!) when's a good time to grab a cup of tea. He presents complex topics very clearly, using progressively built-up examples to keep thing clear. Learning CSS from a designer like Collison is so much better than learning it from a programmer, because the designer will teach you why, when and how to apply certain styles, while the programmer will only teach you how; Collison accomplishes the former with aplomb.

The case study in the final chapter is really excellent. Despite the very professional appearance of the sample site, every technique used to create it is indeed covered in the preceding chapters. (If you want to get an idea for how much the book will teach you before you buy it, skim through the last chapter or download the accompanying files from the publisher's website. It's impressive.)

I have only two negative criticisms -- and these are minor. The downloadable files found on the publisher's website are poorly organized, with all the code snippets for the entire book stuck into a single, long text file and with the sample images stored in a separate directory hierarchy from the sample HTML files. Most of the screenshots in the book are shown with browser decorations (title bar, tool bar, etc.), which when added up waste a lot of space that could have been used to include a couple of advanced topics or to decrease the book's cost. But as I said, these are minor criticisms that are far outweighed by the stellar quality of the book -- and the problem with the downloadable files is something that could possibly still be corrected by the author.

In summary, I highly recommend this book, particularly for CSS beginners or novices, but also for CSS-savvy coders who need to re-learn CSS from a design-oriented perspective, as well as for slightly more-advanced designers who need a broad, quick review. I've sampled at least a half dozen CSS books recently, and "Beginning CSS Web Development" is FAR AND AWAY the best.

Finally, I have a book that I can recommend to someone as *The* first CSS book.
The first indication to me that this was an excellent purchase was the fact that Simon started off this book with a strategy as to how *organize* your CSS!
After all, it's a Given that throughout the years you will be spending as a web designer, that you will be continually adding to your collection/library of CSS code! So you've got that excellent foundation of Simon's seasoned experience in how to best structure your growing library of reusable and specific-purpose CSS.

Also, some instant gratification, for me at least: Early in my reading, I was happy to come to the very clear distinction between How to use, When to use, the Id (the pound sign) and the Class (the period). It made me feel like a CSS Pro from the get-go.
-How does that "em" thing really work? Read this book.
-How do those tedious margin and padding properties work? Finally, no more trial and error with these CSS properties. YOu'll know how these work.
-Ever wonder what are good Fonts to use, so that you can finally build that "ultimate template" CSS file which will serve as your starter CSS for every new project? Simon will let you know. (Verdana is one of them)

I'll stop here and just mention that there's nothing to criticize here. And trust me, there's more complex subjects than just the above.
I still even now pick up this book, because I have the convenient "CSS Reference" section marked with a label. Since the book is relatively small compared ot the large CSS books out there, it's easy to physically pick up and utilize this CSS Reference.

I also have CSS Mastery which was co-authored by Simon. I'd recommend that highly too when you get around to it.
( I wish this book were available 4 years ago, when I thought I was smart enough to dig right into one of the professional CSS books, just because I knew programming languages such as c and python )

With so many CSS book out there today its refreshing to see one that takes it a little differently. Simon Collison [...] is a very well known and accomplished web developer (co-authored CSS Mastery with Andy Budd) has wrote an excellent CSS book that focuses on how to use CSS effectively in a way that most books fall short. I have bought over the years at least 6 or 7 CSS books from beginner to advanced (actually most are intermediate at best) and none have I found really shows you the power and simplicity using CSS make your web designs.

The first part of the book gives the reader a great foundation on topics like: types of style sheets; print style vs. screen style; importing and combining styles; keeping styles modular; IDs vs. Classes; how CSS cascading really works; the power of inheritance, pixels vs. em's; box model; fonts; color and images. As you look through most of these topics (in chapter 1 thru 5), you'll say to yourself..."we'll I know most of those, no big deal". That may be true, but I knew most of these topics too, but I never found all of these in the same book before.

Next, the middle of the book covers a very useful use of CSS styling with lists. With all the emphasis on web standards with difference technologies (especially JavaScript), this simple html tag ul and li has been the foundation for many re-deigns for creating accessible, standard and semantic markup. Simon goes through in great detail the use of lists for navigation and shows many examples that are great reference as you design (or re-design) your own web site(s). Other chapters focus on using CSS with tables and forms with some very helpful suggestions and examples that I have already used in my current sites I have created.

The best part (in my opinion) and most `advanced' section is the latter part of the book (chapter 10 thru 13) which is how CSS is used for page layout. I could've saved some money if this book came out a year or two earlier with all of its many great detailed examples of CSS layouts. Simon first talks about using floats and absolute positioning for layout which I kind of knew already but he covered points I didn't quite grasp yet and later he went into discussing how CSS is used for the basic types of layouts that are currently on the web: fixed, liquid, elastic, and variable fixed width as well as variations of each. This chapter alone (chapter 11) is worth the price of the book because no other book I have looked at or bought has covered this. The next chapter is just as good which covers using your layouts and cutting them up into templates. This is great if you create medium to large sites or create many sites with only slight variations of each. A great "real-world" topic that I have also never seen in any other CSS book. And to top it off, the last few chapters (14-16) goes into usability and accessibility, tips and tricks (IE6 hacks, IE7 differences, IE Mac issues, etc.) and a case study.

So if you're new to CSS all you need is this book, and if you already know the basics of CSS, then this book will advance your existing skills, and if you're a season-pro, you'll still learn something new about CSS.

This is hands down the best CSS book on the market!

This book is ideally suited for those who are still using table based layouts. If you are familiar with tables and want a smooth transition to table free layouts, that are easy to manage, this book is a must have.

Coming from a background of using table layouts and a bit of CSS, mostly for fonts, I found that the writing style of the author was very clear. In particular, I like that the author writes a code snippet, explains it, demonstrates it, then as he progresses, repeats the process pulling all the snippets together to render the final / polished results. I only had to refer back to a previous chapter just a few times, when tackling a new topic.

In reality, it took about 4-5 days to complete the book -- that is reading the book in its entirety, something as a programmer, I rarely do, skipping about finding only what applies to me. You will need to read the entire book to get a full understanding of CSS because each section throughout the chapters builds upon each other.

The book does discuss when it is acceptable to use tables in VERY rare situations; mainly when working with tabular data. The only section I had difficulty with was the different types of positioning, static, fixed, absolute and relative. I had to do a re-read several times, with patience, but I got a grasp on it -- a topic that is completely confusing to covey for any author.

I would also recommend that if you decide to purchase this book, go ahead and buy Pro CSS Techniques, as you will need it for more advanced issues, such as dealing with browser quirks, hacks and filters. Buying them together will save you some time. In addition, the Pro CSS Techniques books flows much better with the Beginning CSS Web Development than the CSS Mastery (Advanced Web Standards Solutions) Book.

In conclusion, if you are serious about learning CSS fast, have a little HTML under your belt, and can spare 4-5 days going through the book, you can't go wrong. I highly recommend this book. You can also download the full source from the author's site; in addition, you can download the entire book in electronic format for $10 (limited time) once you purchase the physical book.

On a side note, I did not find any errors in the book -- it was well edited.

Again, highly recommended. Great work Simon!

Beginning CSS Web Development is a thorough tutorial on designing websites with cascading style sheets. The subtitle of this book, From Novice to Professional, is a reasonably accurate description -- it might overstate how much an expert would get out of this volume, but there is plenty of knowledge and insight to benefit most CSS users.

Simon Collison starts by covering concepts such as class and ID selectors, what he calls "technical theory." It is not until chapter 4 that he gets to styling text. There is a question in my mind as whether this is the most effective way to present CSS for beginners. I do not think the technical concepts mean anything to novices until they have actually worked with CSS. Collison recognizes this dilemma and says at the start that you can skip the beginning and go back afterwards. I would second that suggestion, though I can't say how the book would flow if a reader starts in the beginning, nor would it be clear when to go back other than when things get too confusing.

That general point aside, this book is not only a very effective introduction to CSS, it is also a trove of insight into web design and the judgment calls that are part of the process.

The book is divided into two parts. The first is about styling the appearance of a page, and the second is about layout. Collison very concisely teaches the basics of CSS in the first section and give some good examples of page templates in the second.

The book as a whole covers a lot of ground efficiently with well thought out examples, but the value in this book for experienced as well as beginner designers is the perspective on how to put the techniques together for good design practices. Often the ideas are drawn from other sources, and Collision gives appropriate credit when due.

The chapter on tables starts with a good perspective on why and when to use tables. I found this chapter, which also covered definition lists, particularly instructive, and accessibility was addressed as well as appearance.

The concluding chapters of the book are valuable for anyone. The writer has a good review of accessibility from the perspective of an experienced designer, and he keeps it realistic as far as what one can accomplish, at least at the beginner level. The final chapter on process emphasizes starting with Photoshop or even a pen and paper to wire frame a page before getting into the coding.

The appendix is a well-organized listing of CSS 2.1 properties with a particularly useful section on shorthand properties.

The book has minimal but useful sidebar interruptions. The source can be downloaded from the publisher's website, and the examples are nicely annotated to let you easily relate them to the corresponding text. I found three or four errors and submitted errata notices. I suggest checking the publisher's website for updates.

Beginning CSS Web Development by Simon Collison is the perfect beginners guide to CSS. As the subtitle says, the book is about taking you from novice to professional by the time you are finished. This book is laid out very well, and moves at a perfect pace. Now, for those who are advanced CSS developers - this book is still a great book to have as reference to different aspects or topics. I agree with Simon, in that I wish I would have had a book like this when I started using CSS a few years ago. It would have saved many headaches and late nights of figuring things out the hard way. Here are some of my thoughts after reading the book:

The book's pace was perfect.
Simon did a great job of breaking this book into two major sections. The first section is comprised of understanding CSS. It starts with a very brief discussion of CSS and some core concepts. He doesn't dwell on this, though, and dives right into the meat of the book. Some of the different aspects discussed were styling text, backgrounds, colors, images, lists, links, and tabular data. Each having its own chapter to discuss the basics.

The second section gets into more advanced CSS. It discusses positioning, floating, layouts, templating, usability, accessibility, and some tips and tricks. Each of these given a good amount of time with some great examples. The end chapter brings it all together with a case study, a very interesting case study to say the least (you'll just have to read the book to check it out).

Styling of headers left me thinking about a few things. I agree with his approach, in using an actual image in the markup (since it IS content). The flip side would be using image replacement - but then losing any textual representation or alt attribute if images are disabled and CSS is still active (unless you implement Richard Rutter's method with some JavaScript). With his style of setting up templates and reusable CSS - it would be tough to update h2 images over an entire site when updating a template, design scheme, or even typeface (depending on the size of the site). This discussion has been had many different times, and I am not sure I am completely settled on one specific solution for image replacement. So, he gives the best solution for a beginner - I was just left wondering if there was a better option.

Styling of forms is something that is super tricky, even for the advanced CSS developer. He does a great job of covering three different approaches (table, using a combination of p and br and finally using a definition list). The tricky part is: What is the best solution? He gave the answer I would have given, in that it depends on the job and the needs. Lately I have been very prone to using a definition list to style some of my basic forms (contact, newsletter, etc). I believe this does a great job and gives great flexibility. Some would say that it is not a proper use of the definition list, but I would beg to differ. I think there are many uses for the definition list. Simon walks through each, giving you a base form template, and then using the cascade to style via the other methods.

Frustrations in CSS often lie in the confusions of browsers, hacks, and filters. Dealing with the different quirks in the different browsers makes things complicated (at times). I believe the best thing to do is to understand how each browser renders different elements with its default stylesheet. Simon discusses some of these differences, and then shows how to override with the cascade to get the desired results (IE: zero out margins and padding). I have always felt that using hacks was simply not the best option. Simon agrees with this, but at the same time shows how to manage hacks and filters - with descriptions of each and their workings (how they manipulate the browser bugs, etc). This discussion, coupled with his beginning chapter of managing your style sheets will ultimately help you to keep your CSS clean, organized, and protected against future browser fixes. Simon makes this process easier by explaining best practices and showing solutions.

This book is full of much more information, and I even learned a few things myself (I was not aware of the content: property and how to use it with a:after). If I were just starting out CSS - I truly believe this book would have been the perfect starter. Not only did Simon cover the basics of CSS styling, managing your CSS, and using CSS for advanced layouts - he also encouraged me to drink more tea. My evenings consisted of banana bread, some peach tea, and Beginning CSS Web Development. I think the tea helps you understand the chapters better, therefore making it a necessity.

For those beginning CSS and looking for the perfect book, this is it. Having read CSS Mastery by Andy Budd and Bulletproof Web Design by Dan Cederholm, I can say that all three of these books work very well together. If I could recommend a sequence, it would be to read this book first, followed by Bulletproof Web Design, and finally CSS Mastery. All three books are great, and all three serving a different purpose and audience.

I can't tell you how many computer books I have purchased that claim to be able to teach programming skills. This is the only one I have been able to learn from - right the way through, from start to finish. The author has an ability that is very very rare - the ability to break things down into understandable chunks and to actually TEACH NEW SKILLS.

That said, this is not a book for people who don't know any HTML, it's a book for people who have a good grasp of HTML, have possibly been working with CSS for styling, have possibly been building web sites with tables for many years, but have been frustrated by attempts to learn CSS positioning.. (that pretty much describes this reviewer).

One thing you need to be willing to do though, in order to get the full benefit from this book, is work through the coding exercises. Not necessarily every single one, but the material that you are not already working with on a regular basis. Generally I find this kind of thing tedious, but in this case, somehow, it is fun! Simon has a great sense of humor and that really transforms the material from mind-numbing to entertaining.

I can't recommend this book enough. It's one in a million.

I occasionally receive free books, because I'm an editor at an online magazine, but I paid for my copy of this book. The author has an excellent, well-deserved reputation in the web standards/web design field and I was eager to take a look at it. Many CSS books are written by teachers, not actual web designers. While their books certainly are valuable, it is so great to read about CSS from someone who actually uses it on a daily basis to design top-notch sites. It's sort of like watching over his shoulder as he works. He doesn't hesitate to give advice and opinions, to alert you to sticky problems, or to throw in all the little practical tips that make a book really practical and useful. The book is also somewhat unusual in that many teachers of CSS and HTML aren't strong visual designers. The author of this book is. I find it much more inspiring to read a book that has a case study done by someone who knows how to design. If, like many people, you've been learning CSS and HTML here and there on the web, you'll appreciate this book for taking you through the whole subject from fonts to complex layouts. A couple suggestions: You should definitely have a good understanding of HTML before reading this book. And, because learning CSS usually involves going over it a number of times before you really absorb it, I recommend buying a simple, step-by-step book on HTML and CSS (say one by Molly Holzschlag, who is a great teacher) at the same time, or taking an online tutorial along with reading this book. If you are a programmer type, you won't need to do this, since you are accustomed to reading this sort of book, but if you want to sort of take baby steps in the beginning, you'll like having two kinds of books on the subject. This book by Simon Collison jumps right in without spending time on the history of the web and CSS (thank goodness). He forges ahead, taking you right into all the practicalities and ins and outs of CSS design. This is an excellent book from a practicing web designer who really knows what he's talking about. I highly recommend it.

I've used a lot of "teach yourself" books in the past, and this one is not as clear as many others out there. It does a good job walking you through a lot of the technicalities of CSS, but the author flips between changing HTML code and CSS code and often times it's unclear as to which one he wants you to change. He could take a lesson from Lynda Weinman's HOT (hands on training) books. . .they're really dumbed down, but when you're stuck, being able to go back and see the step by step of even the simplest things, "open file A: now insert "x" in this exact location" is really helpful. This book left me wanting to do more exercises, read less, and wishing I had bought another book.

This book claims to be for Novice to Pros. Not true. For instance on page 4 it says "1. Create a new file called base.html but not how or where. 2. Add the (X)HTML". How do you create this file? It doesn't say. I also went to the site to download the file and it wasn't there. I found this to be true throughout this book. If you are looking for a beginners book on CSS, keep looking as this is not it.

This is one of the best and most useful books I have read (and I have read many as a software developer for 20+ years). I thought I had learned everything to know about CSS after reading online tutorials and relying on google, but after reading this book, I realize I had so much more to learn -- everything is so much more clear after reading this book. Simon explains things SO well and he has a knack for narrowing in on what is important. He includes lots of examples and images. He also has a great sense of humor and actually makes the book enjoyable to read (which is hard to do for a topic like CSS!). I will continue to rely on this book as my CSS "bible". Note that he has included a great, well-organized CSS reference at the end.

I am now a huge fan of Simon Collison and his writing. Mr. Collison does a wonderful job of explaining, breaking up in logical orders and really explaining the nitty gritty of CSS/XHTML. The book takes you through the essentials of CSS/XHTML and in the end you apply all your learning by building a complete website.

Here's what I love:
1. The book doesn't feel techy, it is a good read and engaging, sprinkled with some humors while being very comprehensive as well.
2. His websites look great, I'm a big fan of his designs and he shares his tips as well.
3. He is detailed oriented, he doesn't assume you know it all. He gives many clear examples.
4. I've been a big fan of his since I read Andy Budd's book and read about his case study.

I'm looking forward to more writing from Mr. Collison and the next edition of this book.

This book is incomplete! Subjects to quickly covered and many errors between printed copy and downloaded lessons.

Chapter 16 was hurried and confusing and again incomplete.

After saying this I did learn the gist of CSS so not a total loss!

Author knew his stuff - he just seemed to hurry through this book and did not do the job I felt he knew how to do.

I have read 3 other CSS books & this one really "talks" to me. His approach is done in a way that allowed me to grow with each chapter. Also, his techniques for solving problems gave me insights in how to think. Many tips show what a professional writer/designer he is. For me, the book ended to soon.

I highly recommend this book for anyone getting into CSS. It has wonderful examples and such helpful and easy-to-understand explanations of the different ways to set up and understand CSS. I had another book that I had been using that I thought was good, but this one seemed to make everything oh-so clear.

I've read a lot of computer books in my time, and most of them are undeniably tedious. Beginning CSS Web Development is one of the finest introductory guides I've ever read on any subject. Not only will you understand CSS after reading this book, you'll be excited about your newfound design potential. Simon Collison wrote this book in a very lighthearted manner and you may find yourself smiling. Take Simon's advice when he suggests getting a cup of tea, some CSS material is better studied after a brief break! Overall, it's the best way to learn CSS that I've found yet.

I read this book from cover to cover. It is excellent, and I successfully used it to convert my cash4books website from table-based disorganization to use CSS and web standards.

However, I think what was missing was a discussion on Quirks mode. Go to wikipedia and search for "Quirks mode" if you do not know what that is. In fact, if you use the code examples Collison provides, a few of them do not work right, due to Quirks mode issues. Specifically, once you get to the layout chapters, things don't work quite right in the latest versions of BOTH IE and Firefox.

But, as I said, other than that bit of quirkiness, the book is great.

If you are just starting out and are looking for direction in web design, buy this book. Even if you already have your feet wet in Web design this book may help you out. Simon Collison did a great job writting on the topic of CSS stylesheets and web design. Its not a lecture book, its a hands on instruction manual that progressively gets you used to working with CSS. It shows you the do's and the donts and Simon is very motivated to keep your attention.

I went through this book a chapter at a time. I kept record of each chapter and worked through all the examples. I learned how to properly format my XHTML and CSS. Did i mention i don't have any real experience in web design. As a beginner it is very difficult to find a book that will give you examples and teach you how to do things. You usually either get a book thats nothing but a lecture on the topic with a miss leading title that says for beginners, or you get a 800 page manual thats more or less like a dictionary, last you may get a quick project that leaves you with no knowledge of the subject but you sure can make a great steriotipical format of a web page.

The book clearly avoids the common door stopper and quick start book. Its not to lengthy and it does a great job implimenting theory behind the code. Simon shows you formats to properly use when developing CSS style sheets, so that your pages look clean and are easily accessible when it comes to trouble shooting or making changes.


Simon Collison also keeps a light base of humor throughout to keep you interested but it isn't overdone to where it just gets in the way of your reading. The book is finished with a Case Study where Simon has you make a page using all the techniques you have learned previously throughout the book. My only con is that there are a few things at the end in the case study that Simon has you do that arn't previosly covered. You may not even notice. (But if you are making a page alligned in the center don't forget to have your containing div's left and right margin be set to auto.)
But, you have to consider the length of the book and the fact that its intended for beginners, you can't include everything or you start to get to lengthy, which i wouldn't have necesarily minded. I'm sure they probably left some stuff out also because, ...they want you to buy the next book in line.

So in conclusion I recomend this book. Even if you don't want to learn the art of CSS and are a dairy cow farmer that dosn't speek english, i still recomend this book!

As a person who recently decided to learn how to properly use CSS I was drawn to the title. The book delivers everything I needed to to. Good introductions and explainations with illustrations that are helpful. I can't rate how it is from the professional view point but it has helped me add style sheets to my web sites and improved my overall designs.

There are probably other books out there that "teach" you CSS well, but I hadn't found them. I have tried to grapple with this subject for years investing quite a bit of money on various publications and web programs, none of which hit the mark. Some told me what to do without explaining why, while others were lacking in communication to the point that I never finished reading them, having given up in total frustration. This was going to be my final attempt to come to terms with web design using CSS. I have to say that Simon Collison's approach and clear explanation made the task very enjoyable and most importantly "understandable". For the first time I was able to design a website in CSS(with no validation errors) based on a site I had previously constructed with table design. This to me was the true test. Understandably there are things that could have been developed further in the publication, but this is a huge topic and a book such as this cannot tackle too much without becoming overwhelming. I am also able to refer to the other books I bought on CSS and understand stuff that I previously had trouble with. My sincere thanks to the author. I hope the royalties from the book pay for a comfortable retirement.

This is one of the first books I have bought sight unseen, based on the reviews. I was a little disappointed that it didn't have more advanced information. This book is a primer. As a primer it does a good job covering the basics of CSS and how to write good code, but doen't expect to learn complete mastery of CSS from this book.

When I bought the Sams CSS book, I was worried that I would never understand CSS, it was written poorly, etc. Then I came on here and saw that many other people who seem to know what they are talking about had the same things to say about it, and a few people recommended this book.
Am I ever glad that I checked the reviews for that book!
This is a great technical book. It's not written pretentiously, and it's not meant for a robot to read, unlike some technical books I've seen. This book was really interesting to read, and helped me to understand some of the important CSS techniques that I did not understand after reading through the other CSS book.
I am now very interested in CSS, and plan to buy another CSS book, but a more advanced book. Hopefully, I will have as much luck with that book as I have with this one! Thanks Simon Collison, for writing such an awesome book, you are my CSS hero! :D

I have read this book and it's great, although I am not quite a beginner even I found this book very useful. But after You read this book and want to expand your css knowledge you should buy a CSS Mastery not like me Pro CSS Techniques. You will see that author of this book is co-author of CSS Mastery . This two books are "must" for entering css world :)

Written very well. This book uses excellent, hand-on exaples to walk through each section. Well-paced and interesting.

I read this book in a couple days and learned a lot. I had already used CSS a lot, but still learned a great deal about is while reading this book. I have a group at school, making a website for a project and we pass this book around everyday. It is easy to read and the flow of it works great. It gives you all the basics in the first part and the second part works on more advanced CSS topics. This book is also a great reference. I recommend this book to everyone I know that uses CSS.

I purchased this book, along with the companion CSS Mastery. I've just completed reading this one, and I have to say this book was wonderful. The explainations were clear, concise, and everything was well laid out.

The snippets of code were helpful and the CSS reference in the back is a keeper for sure. I will definately be reusing this book time and again. It has earned a rightful place on my bookshelf for a long time to come.

The layout of this reference is excellent. Easy to follow and understand and very practical and intuitive. Logical steps to follow in building a good understanding of CSS design and implementation.
Would highly recommend for anyone planning to learn the use of CSS in web design and layout.

..this book deserves recommendation. I bought it based on the other good ratings left by others and can confirm they're well deserved.

In a very clear and easy-to-read manner the author thoroughly explains the basics of CSS, complete with examples, and takes great care advising on good coding principles.

Having known very little about CSS before picking up this book I'm now very much informed and writing, I dare say, professional and advanced code.

I agree with other reviewers that this is a good book for intro to CSS and I recommend its purchase. It is fairly thorough and Collison explains the subject clearly, in most cases. However, I disagree that it's fantastic or any other superlative that others have applied.

My biggest complaint is the short-shrift given to the subject of the CSS box model. Without a crystal clear understanding of this subject you will never understand why margins, borders and padding are screwing up your layout. For understanding CSS layout there is nothing more important than the box model and the precise relationship between margin, border and padding.

Directly related to the paragraph above, in chapter 11, page 248, the exercise instructions tell you to switch the physical order of two elements in the html file (and there is a big erratum here, too), and then additionally lists the required changes to the css file. HOWEVER, if you make only the html changes the layout will be completely messed up even though that doesn't seem to make any sense! Collison missed an important opportunity here to explain WHY switching the order of the html requires changes to the css! The true learning opportunity in this exercise was squandered.

Onto more picky items, every single time the author refers to web markup, he writes (X)HTML. After the first 10 times it's incredibly annoying. He should have just written XHTML since his book is 100% compliant with the new standard.

Lastly, and clearly leastly, for a Brit his humor is NOT funny! Collison needs to read "Eats, Shoots and Leaves" if he wants to learn about British humor. In the meantime, just skip it; you're not John Cleese!

What a great book. I just could not put this down and read the whole book in 1 day. As a asp.net coder, Css is the last thing I needed to learn to make great looking websites.
Simon explans things clear and complete. I was always a but lost with id and class and what one I should be useing. The way it was expland left me with no questions. I fell CSS is something that you look up when you need to get a result. This book is well layed out to find things fast.
The only thing I fault is that it would be great if the samples were in colour. A must have for beginners to pro.

I bought this book a year ago to get me started in writing CSS web pages. This was just the book I needed to get me started. It is reasonable simple to following along with and experiment with the examples. The outcome of my trek through this book is my personal home page (http://www.intergate.com/~waltwilliams/) which is now so much more presentable and professional looking. I have actually had people ask who I hired to create it. I would recommend this book to anyone who wishes to learn CSS.

Beginning CSS Web Development is a great resource for beginners. As long as you already have some HTML knowledge you will easily pick up on CSS concepts. This book is well written, full of examples and outside resources that will keep you busy for days. Before I got this book CSS had always seemed this mysterious complicated code that would take years to learn and I really didn't want to be bothered. This book proved the opposite, CSS is simple and can make your design much more flexible and elegant, your HTML code will look cleaner and organized. It is a lot easier to work with style sheets than HTML alone. I am confident that this book has covered all the basics of CSS. Definitely a book to have at hand.

The author explains XHTML and CSS standards in such an engaging, humorous writing style that one simple cannot fail to not only grasp the concepts and techniques but also apply them professionally.

This book brings together in one 400 page volume numerous CSS topics that many individuals would normally spend precious time researching on the web. Core topics such as Lists and Links are dealt with beautifully with lots of samples, all of it reinforced through step by step explanations of the XHTML and CSS to prevent one getting lost. In addition, nuggets of additional information are available throughout the volume on diverse areas such as effective CSS syntax and my personal favourite, a complete chapter on usability and accessibility enhancements. This additional information is by no means complete but it does make you stop and think. The author provides ample links for those wishing to investigate these topics further.

The author seeks and very much achieves in giving his readers a core working knowledge of CSS. The chapters on tables and layout basics for example very much skims the surface but sufficient content is available to allow one to grasp the basics thus providing a foundation for more advanced study.

There are many good CSS books available but this book goes that little bit further and thus I would strongly recommend it. All in all an excellent read.

This book helped me turn my 'nothing' website into a better-organized and more attractive one. It is also a fun read!