Thread

I’ve been hacking my way around web sites for 3.5 years and my friends think I’m kick-ass, but I know the truth. I suck ass. I know enough CSS to be able to read it and understand what should happen, but not enough to design a site from the ground up or troubleshoot when I add/tweak existing CSS. It’s time for me to stop being a poser/hack and get serious about design.

I’ve also got a really major project to do for my church this fall (completely re-designing and moving content to EE) so I would like to get a better grasp of CSS. Which book would you recommend for me and why?

I would like to take the top 2-3 suggestions and then browse through those books at a local bookstore before buying one.

Thanks for your ideas.

Out of all the books I own, it is Elizabeth Castro’s HTML, XHTML, and CSS, Sixth Edition reference which has the most wear and tear, but I have always been searching for the right book which elaborates on a specific (re-)design from start to finish which…... I have not found yet, but Transcending CSS: The Fine Art of Web Design has very promising reviews and A’zon just reduced it’s price - I will be able to tell you more early next month.
Two indispensable online resources are PIE and ALA, but I am sure you know all about that…

THose two look like a good start. I knew about ALA, but not PIE. Thanks for the new resouce.

Looking forward to more recommendations.

2 great books here by Dan Cederholm

Bulletproof Web Design

Web Standards Solutions

I love this one!

Although a tad on the advanced side, I believe if you have any experience with CSS, you’ll handle it fine.  From semantic markup to touching on all the neat tricks to teaching you why you don’t really need “hacks,” this book covers it.  Also, one of the authors (Simon Collison, aka: Colly), maybe all of them, are fellow EE users (I think).

I’ll second the Transcending CSS book. And Anything by Eric Meyer is great as well. More Eric Meyer on CSS is one.

But dont be discouraged. CSS is much more complex than people like to think. And just when you think you got it figured out someone releases a new version of their browser and breaks everything…  😉

I purchased The CSS Anthology: 101 Essential Tips, Tricks & Hacks by Rachel Andrew and CSS Mastery (mentioned above). But, honestly, while it’s nice to have a desk reference or two, the web itself has been my main teacher. I guess it depends on how you like to learn and what level you’re at. The Max Design site was pretty helpful when I first started out.

Thanks for all the suggestions so far. I’ll be looking at these soon and picking up one or two of them.

I bought the CSSmastery book from FriendsOfED.com publishing…
W3schools.com is indispensable.
I’ve got that wired in my FF as a search extension.
So far I’ve pretty much been able to build everything I needed to build, and I usually begin with a layout something like:
http://www.456bereastreet.com/lab/developing_with_web_standards/csslayout/2-col/

Some designs call for adding more div’s in the header, some for moving the footer out of the wrap, or maybe the header out of the wrap.
It just depends on the necessary graphic backgrounds, if you’re a Photoshop head. If you can’t hack it to work one way, something will come to you that the structure isn’t as simple and straight foreward as it needs to be, and you have to step back and see what is going to work.
Don’t get stuck in the thinking that Oh IE6 is boogering up what I’m trying to do, I’ve had glitches in either browser. IF you need a hack according to your guru buddy, maybe it needs to be built with a different structure. The hack days are pretty much over.
I’ve been building sites since 2000 and nothing but CSS layouts for going on a short year now.

And Anything by Eric Meyer is great as well. More Eric Meyer on CSS is one.

While I am not a web designer/developer by trade, but have played one in my past, I will second the thoughts on anything from Eric Meyer as well 😊

I want to put a second vote for the CSS mastery book. I am much like you I know enough CSS to be dangerous. I found the CSS mastery book was right where I needed to be. I understood enough that I was not lost, but not so bored out of my mind if I read a total beginner book.

I would go for Beginning CSS Web Development if you are a beginner and CSS Mastery if you are advanced.

Both are excellent books written by leaders in the field. Simon Collison is even a regular user of EE.

Some solid recommendations already have been mentioned. When I just started learning CSS I worked my way through both “Eric Meyer on CSS” books and even though they may have dated a little by now they’re still excellent if you’re a hands-on type of learner.
While not a book I’d like to add Westciv’s CSS courses as they’re excellent. Also still fun are the archives of Dan Cederholm’s Simplequiz, a lot of this material made it into Dan’s great books, which already have been mentioned above.
Good luck!

It was Eric Meyer’s CSS book for Oreilly that gave me that light-bulb moment.  But it is getting a little old.  I suspect here are more up to date books out there now.

Jamie

Jeffrey Zeldman’s Designing with Web Standards was useful to me as well as the Eric Meyer’s books. Amongst these is CSS Pocket Reference which I always keep handy.

You can see a complete list on my shelf Here

CJ