Rating:  - Shouldn't be your prime CSS source.
There is some excellent information here. The sections on forms and the CSS calendar were helpful for me. The nested list to breadcrumb solution is lovely, but this book was written too often for best case (or browser) scenarios, not always the world as it is.
Floats are covered for CSS layout but there is no mention of some common Internet Explorer bugs that make their use tricky, including common bugs like the expanding box and guillotine bugs. Holly Hack anybody? How about the problem with setting percent font sizes in the body selector without defining them first in html. Granted IE 7 fixes most of the shortcomings of older versions of the browser but to pretend they don't exist for a measurable percentage of the browsing population is negligent.
Where CSS works as it should, the solutions are fine. Where it doesn't there is too little discussion of the real everyday lack of support in various browsers. If discrete "solutions" are given, the problems associated with each "solution" should be mentioned in the "solution:, not left to a later section that is not cross-referenced. There is a token section at the end of the book on hack support but it is superficial. Even where browser support is mention, it is usually at the end of the solution, where we see it, if at all, after wasting time working through the code. A simple, "This works in xyz browsers at the beginning of each "solution" would have been a great improvement. As they are, some "solutions" only solve problems in a minority percentage of browsers.
There are simply too many good and complete CSS books like Meyer's CSS: The Definitive Guide and CSS Mastery: Advanced Web Standards Solutions by Andy Budd, Simon Collison, and Cameron Moll that give us better real world coverage of CSS usage. For beginners there is Stylin' with CSS: A Designer's Guide by Charles Wyke-Smith. For the experienced there is the stunning new Transcending CSS by Andy Clarke and Molly Holzschlag. I ordered CSS Cookbook in a moment of book craving and am not thrilled by it.
I'm torn on sending it back. It is far from the best general reference, but does have some good content. If I wasn't experienced enough to recognize where it offers less than complete information, it could cause me head scratching with the layout solutions.
Where was Dan Cederholm for this revision?
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.
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