Designing CSS Web Pages: Amazon.ca: Christopher Schmitt: Books

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Book Description

Go beyond the mechanics of CSS to how to think in the language of web design, and avoid the common pitfalls. Full of examples and deconstruction's to aid in understanding CSS and its application. The ability to use of Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) is fast becoming a vital tool in the web professional's toolkit. But understanding how to use CSS is not intuitive--it requires a new way of thinking when it comes to building web pages. This book encourages web designers to look at the perceived limitations of the web as a new challenge to their design skills--without relying on HTML for presentation of pages. The overall theme is to instruct readers to build pages by using relative design techniques: understanding the relationship within the dynamic space of the web rather than the fixed-design "old-school" notions that have been in use for so long. The web site will include all of the files needed for the exercises and additional information of interest to web professionals including, but not limited to, recommended readings (suggested books, web sites and online articles), full-length interviews and a listing of CSS tools. www.christopher.org

From the Back Cover

Go beyond the mechanics of CSS to how to think in the language of web design, and avoid the common pitfalls. Full of examples and deconstruction's to aid in understanding CSS and its application. The ability to use of Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) is fast becoming a vital tool in the web professional's toolkit. But understanding how to use CSS is not intuitive--it requires a new way of thinking when it comes to building web pages. This book encourages web designers to look at the perceived limitations of the web as a new challenge to their design skills--without relying on HTML for presentation of pages. The overall theme is to instruct readers to build pages by using relative design techniques: understanding the relationship within the dynamic space of the web rather than the fixed-design "old-school" notions that have been in use for so long. The web site will include all of the files needed for the exercises and additional information of interest to web professionals including, but not limited to, recommended readings (suggested books, web sites and online articles), full-length interviews and a listing of CSS tools. christopher

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Customer Reviews

27 Reviews

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(8)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(5)

Average Customer Review

3.4 out of 5 stars (27 customer reviews)

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2.0 out of 5 stars Frustrating, Oct 31 2004

By A Customer

This review is from: Designing CSS Web Pages (Paperback)

While there are some useful concepts in here, they are usually completely glossed over or refer you elsewhere with a link to someone elses web site.

The first 2 chapters are especially frustrating. There are so many errors i found myself actually shouting out loud. He makes statements without backing them up (I thought this was going to be an oppinionated book by a master in his field). The sidebars and captions are so unhelpful and seem to refer to diagrams and screenshots that are not even there (figures 2.4 and 2.5 are identical with different descriptions and captions).

I thought - ok this is a terribly inconsistent error-laden book and the technical reviewers are obviously not really paying any attention here... but it will be ok because the errata will correct it all online ... WRONG!!! All the errata serves to do is correct minor typos (spaces that should be removed in urls etc) and doesn't address any of the technical errors in the book. Mine is the reprinted 2003 version so they had a second chance but clearly didn't use it.

The css code used is incredibly inconsistent, and he makes changes to it from one step to the next, often without a mention as to why.

listing 4.17 (partial)
.sidecol {
padding: 0 22px 0 22px3%;
}

where does the 3% come from? clearly a typo - but in the errata it reinforces this typo. The code that you can download is correct but what confidence can you have when the errata is wrong.

I am reading this book to learn something - i'm not going to use the code for every example because some of it is too simplistic and I dont need to, but when the book is incorrect it just slows you down so much.

Just simply frustrating. This might seem like a simplistic example, and it is. You may be saying - see past it, it's only a typo. But they are everywhere and it's just maddening. He clearly knows his stuff, I just don't necessarily think he writes about it in a good way.

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1.0 out of 5 stars Poorly written and confusing, July 1 2004

By

David Powers (London, United Kingdom) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)

This review is from: Designing CSS Web Pages (Paperback)

I bought this book because of Christopher Schmitt's high reputation, and because I'd heard so many positive reports about it. Christopher Schmitt does have a good sense of design, and he uses CSS in an imaginative way, but he's no writer or teacher. The book would be more aptly renamed "Random Thoughts about Web Design". The first two chapters burble on about design principles - important issues, but others have written about the subject far more cogently. Then a chapter about style rules that is likely to confuse the hell out of anyone not already well-versed in CSS. After a few designs, you're then plunged into the mysteries of handling PNG and SVG with CSS. (Yes, those graphics formats that are not supported by the vast majority of browsers in current use.) And where are the basic rules about creating borders, styling text, and other useful things? In an appendix, that's where. Unless Christopher Schmitt can get a better editor to knock some sense of coherence into his thoughts, he should stick to design, and stay well clear of writing. Sorry, this is one of the worst computer books I've read in a long time.

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5.0 out of 5 stars a lot more than CSS, May 16 2004

By

Tym (Schaumburg, IL) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Designing CSS Web Pages (Paperback)

Christopher Schmitt has taken it upon himself to write a book that not only covers CSS, but the idea of designing websites with sanity in mind. Throughout the book, Schmitt distinguishes between good and bad things to do while you're designing a website. He talks a lot about what clients expect and that kind of things, something teachers need to go over more. He also provides coding for both CSS and Javascript, along with touching on print, audio, and more forms of media CSS can be utilized for. I read this book from cover to cover without becoming bored; Schmitt has found a way to approach a technical subject and make it interesting, as opposed to most tech books which are just straight code and very drull. I definitely recommend this for any web designer, beginning or advanced.

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Most recent customer reviews

2.0 out of 5 stars Poorly written, low on content
I wish I'd paid more attention to the negative reviews of this book because I am very disappointed in it. Read more

Published on April 25 2004 by Patrick Flanagan

4.0 out of 5 stars Makes CSS "Click"
I had picked up several other CSS books that were basically CSS Language References. I got the impression that CSS was basically a more complicated way to accomplish what "font"... Read more

Published on Mar 7 2004 by Jim McMullen