Core CSS (2nd Edition) - Softcover

Schengili-Roberts, Keith

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0130092789 ISBN 13: 9780130092786

Publisher: Pearson, 2003

Synopsis

This is a guide to cascading style sheets, updated for the CSS3 specification. It explains how individual CSS1, CSS2 and CSS3 properties work. Included is an expanded brower adoption section, detailing the many CSS quirks in specific browsers that often plague developers.

About this title

Review

Useful for both Web designers and developers, Core CSS: Cascading Style Sheets provides a definitive guide to style sheets, which provide a new level of flexibility for browser-based content. With a comprehensive reference to all CSS1 and CSS2 features and an excellent survey of which features work in eight of today's browsers, this book shows off the strengths of style sheets for the next generation of Web content.

Particularly for developers, CSS allows more precise control of elements inside browsers, making it a lot easier to create Web clients that compete with traditional stand-alone applications. But support for CSS in today's browsers is spotty. The strength of this book is that it explains both the CSS1 and CSS2 standards, even though they are still under development. This text shows off what each property is supposed to accomplish with sample HTML and screenshots. The author is careful to note problems with CSS properties in today's browsers. For the CSS1 standard, every property is marked as being unsafe, safe, or partially implemented on no less than eight browsers (including Netscape 3 and 4.x, Internet Explorer 3 through 5, and Opera for Windows, UNIX, and Mac platforms).

The second part of the book is devoted to the CSS2 standard with a description of proposed support for Unicode, for formatting Web pages (with paged media properties), and for tagging content so that it can be read out loud by computer-generated voices. Although still under construction, the CSS1 and CSS2 standards will certainly offer a better Internet for us all. In the meantime, Core CSS: Cascading Style Sheets describes what's available in today's browsers. It's a solid reference that will make CSS understandable to anyone, regardless of their level of Web expertise. --Richard Dragan

Topics covered: Introduction to Cascading Style Sheets (CSS), the CSS1 and CSS2 standards, the browser wars, CSS support on the Netscape, Internet Explorer, Opera and Mozilla browsers; basic CSS (grouping, inheritance, and contextual selectors), cascading order, CSS units, pseudo-classes and pseudo-elements, font properties, color and background properties, text and box properties, classification properties, new CSS2 features, Unicode support, generated content and automatic numbering for lists, properties for printing Web pages, new table properties, aural style sheets for speech-enabled browsers, CSS1 and CSS2 reference and cross-browser comparison of supported properties.

From the Back Cover

The Complete and Comprehensive Web Developer's Guide to Style Sheets

Core CSS, 2nd Edition is a comprehensive guide that shows both beginning and expert Web developers all they need to know to achieve great results with the latest style sheet properties. In this example-rich book, Schengili-Roberts provides in-depth coverage of the CSS1 and CSS2 standards, provides a "head's up" look at what to expect in the forthcoming CSS3 specification, and covers those CSS properties specific to Microsoft's Internet Explorer. It is the most complete and up-to-date CSS reference available.

CSS is fundamental to current Web design, allowing you to separate content from formatting, and to do Web page layout in ways simply not possible using regular HTML. Most books on CSS simply look at how you can accomplish certain formatting tricks, but this book delves deeper, looking at how each CSS property works, what CSS is capable of, and what to expect in the near future.

This book provides the most accessible and up-to-date listing available on CSS compatibility across browsers and operating systems so Webmasters can finally know which CSS properties are "safe" to use.

Detailed appendices provide full CSS property listings, compatibility charts, and more.

Core CSS, 2nd Edition delivers:

• Practical techniques for integrating CSS into your Web site development
• Expert insight into choosing the best style sheet code
• Hundreds of professional-quality code examples
• An overview of new CSS3 properties

Edition details

• Publisher: Pearson
• Publication date: 2003
• ISBN 10: 0130092789
• ISBN 13: 9780130092786
• Binding: Paperback
• Language: English
• Edition number: 2
• Number of pages: 864