Rating:  - Ideal solution provider for the not so experienced developer.
A very good book, targeted to the web developer, who knows his bit of CSS, and wants to get his CSS development to a higher level. Most of the hacks presented give solutions to everyday problems, things you always wanted to integrate to your websites, but could not exactly fathom how, just by looking at the source of a website which already includes them. Most can allready be found as tutorials in the a list appart website [...]but it is allways nice to have the really good ones in print.
Rating:  - Decent, but absolutely packed with mistakes and typos
This is a review of the second edition of the book.
I am an experienced web programmer who was looking to get more acquainted with the layout and design aspects of working with HTML. Designers I've worked with have always allowed me to be abstracted from that side somewhat, but I wanted to get my hands dirty.
I feel this book presented a lot of useful information, but it was very frustrating to get through due to all the mistakes in the code, typos, and missing graphics. Since it's an O'Reilly book, I expected this to be the finest book available for CSS. Unfortunately, it's far from it. It's painful to get through certain sections, notably chapter 7, which has graphics from other chapters randomly thrown into it. The mistakes start right on page 3 and don't stop until the end. Clearly, this was a book they hurried to get out. Where were the proof-readers?
I cannot recommend this book unless you are willing to put up with lots of glaring errors. The kicker is that the errata page for this book on the O'Reilly website has nothing listed.
Rating:  - Typos and errata aside, it's a book worth having
First things first. You should have some experience with Cascading Style Sheets before diving into this book. It will not teach you CSS, but you will learn some really nifty shortcuts and tricks using CSS. The book assumes its readers "possess some web design or development experience either as a hobbyist, student, or professional." Take the assumption seriously. But even if you're an expert at CSS, don't overlook the book. It should make a handy resource, especially in terms of interoperability.
For those of you who are weak or rusty with CSS, the first chapter provides a good refresher. Go lightly through it, however, since there are some errata which can leave you scratching your head. Most of the errata in the rest of the book is obvious and doesn't detract from the content, although the typos can be a bit annoying.
The book is structured in a problem-solution format, categorized by type. For instance, "Creating a Hanging Indent," a handy technique to know, is in the Web Typography section (Chapter 2). It begins with a statement of the problem, "You want to create a hanging indent," offers a solution (in this case, pretty brief), then goes into a lengthy discussion of the problems, workarounds and related issues (such as, in this case, paired hanging indents). The "problems" range from fairly simple and obvious to complex, using javascript. I should probably note that there is very little explanation of the javascript when it is included in solutions or discussions. The assumption is that you already have some knowledge about it. I should probably also note that when javascript is included, there are instructions on where to obtain the needed code, and how to include it.
Many of the solutions also include using images. Again, there is the assumption you know how to create or modify the image needed. Like the solutions using javascript, the instructions typically tell you where to get the needed image. But some, like the "Rounding Corners" techniques, tell you to create a rounded corners design, then tell you how to modify it for the solution.
On the issue of cross-browser compatibility, there is a very handy section (Chapter 11) on Hacks, Workarounds, and Troubleshooting, and a section in the index with tables showing the implementation of CSS elements in different platforms and browsers (also available from O'Reilly Media as a pdf file). But compatibility issues, if there are any, are also dealt with in each problem-solution set. IE 7 is also included in the discussions.
On the whole, except for the typos and errata (which, unfortunately, were not listed on O'Reilly's site at the time of this writing), this is a good, solid reference book. I like the discussion part of the solutions, which not only explain the how and why, but often give alternatives and discuss issues which impact implementing the solution (such as validation, and compatibility). While not a book to start out with, it is definitely a book to expand your knowledge and skills.
Rating: - I Love These "Recipes"
As a web designer who finally has become comfortable with CSS, I love the second edition of this book. Filled with examples of how to get around tricky browser issues, as well as helping to make a site look better, this book is an excellent reference. Among the topics this book gives examples for are image placement (and tricks you can do to combine text and images), page elements, various things you can do to make your page lists look spiffier, links and navigation on a site, forms, tables, page layouts, even creating printer-friendly pages. One if the sites I maintain contains frames (which are now considered "not cool") and I was looking for a way to eliminate them. I saw a couple of ideas here that I'm looking forward to trying to see if they indeed make my site look better without those durned frames.
I mentioned "browser issues" in the previous paragraph. One of the book's last chapter is devoted to that topic with workarounds for problems encountered with various versions of Netscape and Internet Explorer, along with troubleshooting CSS problems. As with most O'Reilly books, there's also a wealth of resources in the book's back matter, including web sites for further CSS related information along with information about CSS properties.
I'm currently helping two other people in the redesign of an existing site and I know this book will help both of us get that project done more quickly. Anyone who designs web sites and uses a lot or even a moderate amount of CSS will benefit from this book.
Rating: - Good For a Quick and Dirty Reference
How many times have you visited a website and thought to yourself, "Gee, that looks cool. I wonder how they do that?" Well, chances are this book can answer that question. The examples and solutions are pretty clear, which is good. But I have to agree with other reviewers' comments about the lack of color and typos. Color would definitely help, and a mistake in a CSS solution is a whole different ball game from one in a programming language example. A program error is usually easy to fix as it will oftentimes be flagged by the compiler. A CSS error, on the other hand, can be much trickier to track down. (I don't know how many typos this book contains. I'm only using it to find solutions to particular problems, so there's still a fair amount I haven't tried.)
Note that this book doesn't teach you CSS, nor does it profess to. If you're looking to learn about CSS there are better books out there, for example, O'Reilly's "Head First HTML & XHTML with CSS" (which is in color). This book serves a "I know what I want to do - how do I do it" purpose, and it does that well.
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