CSS Cookbook
By: Christopher Schmitt
Published by O'Reilly
Sometimes it can be a real bear of a time trying to write cross browser/platform cascading style sheets (CSS) for a site, so I find it very fitting the cover animal for Christopher Schmitt's CSS Cookbook published by O'Reilly is Usrsus arctos horribilis--a grizzly bear!
With CSS Cookbook, Schmitt offers over 85 quick solutions to common CSS problems. The book is divided into 10 different chapters, each dealing separately with different aspects of design. The sections are divided up as: web typography, page elements, links and navigation, lists, forms, tables, page layouts, printing, various hacks and workarounds, and designing with CSS.
Each section follows O'Reilly's "cookbook format" first stating the problem, then providing the solution and finally providing a discussion with valuable insight to adapt the solutions to other situations.
Obviously the sections that cover topics where my design skills are the weakest are of the greatest value to me, but other recipes are useful too. Some recipes gave me ideas to try, such as using CSS to create a dynamic splash screen (recipe 2.10) and "image based rollovers" using the background-position property (recipe 3.10).
It was also nice to see a few tricks I had worked out myself finally in front of me in print, such as setting a full-bleed effect to override default white space properties of other elements (recipe 2.1). Setting * {margin: 0; padding: 0;} and then forcing myself to specify the properties for ensuing elements has gone a long way in helping me to create cross compatible designs.
... And I don't even want to think about how much frustration and time I could have saved if I had their recipe for creating a flexible multicolumn page layout with floats (recipe 7.5)!
The book isn't a primer on CSS, but rather a companion to O'Reilly's main CSS book, Cascading Style Sheets: The Definitive Guide. Both books would undoubtedly make an indispensable reference pair together on any web designer's bookshelf, but the convenience of having practical examples and solutions at your fingertips makes CSS Cookbook an excellent stand-alone reference as well.
| DISCLAIMER: The content provided in this article is not warranted or guaranteed by Developer Shed, Inc. The content provided is intended for entertainment and/or educational purposes in order to introduce to the reader key ideas, concepts, and/or product reviews. As such it is incumbent upon the reader to employ real-world tactics for security and implementation of best practices. We are not liable for any negative consequences that may result from implementing any information covered in our articles or tutorials. If this is a hardware review, it is not recommended to open and/or modify your hardware. |
More Miscellaneous Reviews Articles
More By bluephoenix
developerWorks - FREE Tools! |
You probably have thousands of lines of COBOL code loaded with business intelligence and being used to run your business, along with an army of developers maintaining these applications. Learn how to prepare your applications and developers so you can keep that competitive edge and move to a service-oriented architecture with the IBM Rational Enterprise Modernization solutions. Replay is available for 9 months. FREE! Go There Now!
|
|
|
|
Learn to enable users to both rate existing animations and to combine existing animations into new snippets. This is the third in a series of three tutorials that chronicle the building of a site that enables collaborative discussion and animation building using Domino and OpenLaszlo. FREE! Go There Now!
|
|
|
|
CakePHP is a stable production-ready, rapid-development aid for building Web sites in PHP. This "Cook up Web sites fast with CakePHP" series shows you how to build an online product catalog using CakePHP. FREE! Go There Now!
|
|
|
|
Download a free trial version of IBM Rational Developer for System z, software that can help you deliver core development capabilities; the power of Java Platform, Enterprise Edition (Java EE); and rapid application development support to diverse enterprise application development teams. With comprehensive development tools to help create, deploy and maintain traditional enterprise and composite applications, Rational Developer for System z enables developers with different technical backgrounds to easily participate in important technology projects. FREE! Go There Now!
|
|
|
|
Visit IBM developerWorks to download a free trial of the latest release of IBM Lotus Sametime Standard V8.0. Lotus Sametime Standard V8.0 is a platform for unified communications and collaboration that combines security features with an extensible, open solution including integrated Voice over IP, geographic location awareness, mobile clients, and a robust Business Partner community offering telephony and video integration. FREE! Go There Now!
|
|
|
|
Rational Build Forge Express Edition is an automation framework that packages the latest enterprise-grade technologies into a reliable, flexible and robust configuration designed and priced specifically for small to midsize businesses. The new Rational Build Forge Express eKit provides you with valuable resources – including a case study, podcast, demo, and articles – to help you increase staff productivity, compress development cycles and deliver better software, fast. FREE! Go There Now!
|
|
|
|
Get a free trial download of the latest version of IBM Rational Method Composer V7.2 which helps you deliver customized yet consistent process guidance to your project teams and IT organization, and includes the latest version of IBM Rational Unified Process (RUP), which has provided process guidance to teams since 1996. FREE! Go There Now!
|
|
|
|
As businesses grow increasingly dependent upon Web applications, these complex entities grow more difficult to secure. Most companies equip their Web sites with firewalls, Secure Sockets Layer (SSL), and network and host security, but the majority of attacks are on applications themselves – and these technologies cannot prevent them. This paper explains what you can do to help protect your organization, and it discusses an approach for improving your organization’s Web application security. FREE! Go There Now!
|
|
|
|
Attend this launch webcast with Scott Hebner, Vice President of IBM Rational Marketing and Strategy, where he will overview Rational’s new offerings and programs to help customers accelerate software innovation on System z. He will discuss how these solutions help organizations extend their core business processes toward modern architectures such as SOA and web technologies to deliver business improvements that stand the test of time. FREE! Go There Now!
|
|
|
|
The discipline of assembling and delivering software is maturing beyond standard developer-centric compile/test software builds. The end-to-end software development lifecycle is emerging as the new focus moves “Beyond the Build.” Join this on demand webcast to learn about methods for streamlining software delivery and key capabilities of the IBM Rational Build Forge framework for automating build and release management in environments of any size. FREE! Go There Now!
|
|
|
|
All FREE IBM® developerWorks Tools! |