CSS Hacks and Filters: Making Cascading Stylesheets Work

• #25 in Best Cascading Style Sheets Books

9 Reviews

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As Joseph Lowery states, "The CSS community enjoys a wealth of information. Unfortunately, the sheer amount of information can also be a detriment: finding the right fix often requires significant digging." Enter CSS Hacks and Filters: a book intended to save readers some time googling their CSS/cross-browser compatibility problems by compiling the most common solutions all in one location.

For the beginner, it covers some of the basics, such as why use CSS at all, the notorious box model, the tan hack and the workarounds for floats. For the more advanced user, it covers some familiar ground, but goes into more detailed topics, including advanced layouts, navigation structures and using server-side solutions (ASP, PHP and ColdFusion) to control CSS. For Macromedia users, there are two chapters devoted to using CSS with Dreamweaver MX 2004 and Contribute 3. While now a version old with the release of Dreamweaver 8, most of the information is still relevant.

Lowery also overviews a few topics that can be used in conjunction with CSS, including JavaScript. One that caught my eye in particular was the section on scalable flash replacement, which automatically generates flash headings to replace CSS-styled text for those users with Flash Player 6 or later. As with most of the topics covered in the book, he provides links to the original sources of the information on the Web to supplement the explanations provided in the book.

In such a recent book, I was surprised to find an entire chapter devoted to hacking Netscape 4 (with a section concerning IE 3 and 4), considering that the only thought most designers give to Netscape 4 nowadays is pitying the poor fools still stuck using 9-year-old software.

While probably not the best book for the absolute beginner with no CSS experience or the very advanced Web developer for whom these hacks have become second nature, it's a useful resource for those of us in the middle... particularly for those who prefer checking an index in the back of a book as opposed to sifting through a few thousand Google hits.

I'm working on my first "Pure" CSS site.

It's very frustrating to work for hours to get a page laid out correctly in one browser and then open it in another and see your layout mangled. Thus, the purpose of this book.

While I'm thankful for the hacks/filters discovered and for Mr. Lowery's collection, the need for such a book demonstrates the poor state of CSS implementation in today's browsers.

Still, CSS is a very useful technology. You need this information for CSS issues. This book is a must. Buy it!

I already have at least 5 very good books on CSS, but this one
really takes the cake! It's probably THE most important CSS book
I own.

It's got more nitty-gritty info than any other...things like differences between browser versions & how to work around them... Or why we can't write off NetScape4 (yet)....it's still out there like herpes.

I also like his style of writing....short concise paragraphs
and sentences with a wry sense of humor. He's "been there, done
that". Very readable.....even the intro.

I've only recently bit the bullet & started to concentrate on learning to use CSS for layout, navigation, etc... not just for text styling. This book gives me confidence I'm going to succeed.

Thanks,Joe, from all of us!

Cal McGaugh

I began using pure CSS to design pages for my clients about a year ago and only wish that I had this book then. I cannot tell you how valuable this book has repeatedly been. The explanations of the hacks are clear and concise. The examples are golden. The appendix of CSS resources is worth the price of the book in and of itself! If you are employing ANY CSS in your pages BUY THIS BOOK! You will definitely save yourself time and headaches!

I know that all of this information is available online, but it is nice to have it collected between two covers. As far as I can tell, Lowery gives full credit to those CSS pioneers who've discovered these hacks, so I tip my hat to him for that. My only complaint is that he doesn't go into more detail about other options available for some of the examples. Links are provided to go straight to the source for most of them though, so you can read more if necessary.

Another great, useful book from Joseph W. Lowery. Not a book for beginners, but a book for those frustrated by the sometimes bizarre implementation of CSS by modern browsers. It came in handy the first day. What greater praise can I give?

Want to add another layer of complexity to your already complex web projects? Add Hack Management. This book will teach you to write hacks that are being overcome through valid techniques almost daily. True, some hacks are still necessary. Most are not - at least not an entire book's worth.

I have to concur with the other reviewers. This book is excellent for its practicallity. While other books concentrate on concepts, and design (all necessary aspects), this is the book to use if you are looking to actually put up a multi-browser compatible CSS based site. This book, together with a great design/concept book such as "Bulletproof Web Design" by Dan Cederholm would be a perfect set of books to both create and implement CSS.

Este libro apesta... trate de desarrollar los estilos según las instrucciones exactas del autor y, es imposible obtener los mismo resultados que él... simplemente no funcionan los estilos o no da las instrucciones de forma correcta, además el libro no incluye ningún CD con los ejemplos o alguna dirección web en donde uno pueda ver que está haciendo mal, simplemente refiere a otras páginas que no tienen nada que ver con él y los ejemplos resultan ser totalmente diferentes o imprácticos.

NO COMPREN ESTE LIBRO... NO PIERDAN SU DINERO...

We thought we had all of the CSS books we needed on our office shelves. Then one day, we were browsing the shelves in Borders and came across this book. There's so much here that you just don't find in the dry basic reference books. It's taken our company's work to a whole new level. Back in 1999, we learned everything about CSS - we learned a lot about what 'could' be done, but was not yet browser compliant. Hence, we used what we could and shelved rest. This book opened our eyes to a lot of things we never learned in the 'official' books back in the day!