Authors: Tommy Olsson and Paul O'Brien

Format: Hardcover, 300 pages

Publisher: SitePoint (February 26, 2008)

ISBN-10: 0980285852

ISBN-13: 978-0980285857



Review by James Pyles

March 23, 2008



According to the Book Description blurb: "Stop wasting time doing Internet searches only to find inaccurate, out-of-date, or incomplete information. CSS: The Ultimate Reference includes all the ins-and-outs you need to know including compatibility information for all major browsers, lists of useful hacks, known bugs in CSS, and much more - all presented in a beautiful, full color layout that will have you coming back over and over again". Ok. I know plenty of folks who want to learn more about CSS and are indeed frustrated by online resources. The Olsson and O'Brien book promises what a many CSS books promise...to the the "end-all-and-be-all" of CSS resources. Let's have a look and see if it can live up to this claim.



To facilitate the writing of this review (and because this book is so popular that there wasn't a spare hardcopy of it to send my way), I was given access to an online version (and sworn to secrecy regarding the security account to get "in"). I say that because I SitePoint traditionally produces very visually beautiful books and my interpretation of the online content won't quite reflect what you'll see when you hold the book in your hands.



I'll trust that the screen captures, other visuals, and code samples are all faithfully reproduced online just as they appear on the printed page (I guess I'm just that kind of guy). Part of what makes any book on markup languages, coding, and programming successful is what you see. Since CSS is specifically "presentational" by its very nature, what you see is all the more important. As I've mentioned, visuals are part of SitePoint's specialty, and I wasn't disappointed in full color captures of both style sheet code and the results they produced.



The book is designed (hence the title) to be a reference which means it works like a dictionary or an old-fashioned encyclopedia. You can use it to look up just what you need or you can read the book cover-to-cover to get the full impact. Unfortunately, one of the things I don't get from the online version is the front matter info in terms of who the book is intended for and what sort of experience (if any) you should bring to the table before buying this text. Not that I can't make a pretty good guess based on the content, but it's always nice to read the intent of the authors and then see if the book matches up.



Another thing I look for is a bias in the book in terms of tools. You can write a style sheet using any text editor, however anyone who's ever done any web design knows that any particular web page will be rendered somewhat differently depending on the browser and operating system platforms used to view that page. That also means, how you write your style sheet and the intent you have for the presentation will not be seen in the same way on varying platforms.



While I didn't see a particular bias specifically stated in the text, the screen captures did reveal that they were taken on a MAC using the Firefox web browser (and I thought that MAC and Safari went together like green eggs and ham...). I say all this as a reminder that your presentational results may be somewhat different than what is revealed in the screen captures depending on what platform you use to develop web sites. Best practice suggests testing any of your creations on multiple browser and OS platforms and at various screen resolutions to make sure the maximum number of users will see what you want them to see (and I'm not even mentioning mobile platforms such as iPhone).



One of the real "pluses" of the book is at the back; an alphabetical properties index. Ever need to find out what one particular property does and find yourself thumbing back and forth in the book, trying to remember where you saw it? Sure, a "normal" index will connect you to parts of the book that refer to the name of a property, but you may be an example, a description or something else. However, if I'm looking for the specifics of the background-position property, I go look under "b" and then background-position and I'm taken to a comprehensive page on the topic (ok, that's how it works online...in the hardcopy, I have to believe that a page number is involved). Incidentally, the last section on the page is called Compatibility and includes a small table that shows which web browsers and which versions of those browsers (IE, Firefox, Opera, and Safari), support the property (either having full or otherwise support).



Speaking of compatibility, nothing is perfect including style sheets...at least not on all platforms. If you need CSS Hacks and workarounds, there's a chapter devoted to them in this book. This is another "plus" about the book since it takes you beyond the standard tutorials on the subject. Yes, it's important to have a firm grounding in the basics and you can get that from a lot of resources. On the other hand, if this is your profession, the basics are just the first step.



Information, organization, and "pluses" are what makes "The Ultimate CSS Reference" the "ultimate" style sheet reference. Can I honestly say it's the only CSS reference guide you'll ever need? No, of course not. I can say that with this book in hand, your ability to professionally style web sites will be rendered secure and up to date (at least up to the publication date of the book). Presentation is what style sheets are all about and SitePoint specializes in presentation. It's all about the look and making the look work. That's what this book does for you.

Title: The Ultimate CSS Reference
Category: Programming
Sub-Category: Programming Books
Author: James Pyles
Added: March 23rd 2008
Viewed: 37530 Times
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