Owners of the book can download a zip file. The zip file contains all the examples, which there are few. You only get 3 examples in the first 6 chapters. I don't really want to read and read and read, I want to practice. The examples in the remaining chapters mostly build on a site adding headers, columns, and footers. I'm not sure I'll get that far, I prefer to learn by doing, not by reading. Here is the breakdown:

Chapter 1 -- 1 example
Chapter 2 -- No examples
Chapter 3 -- No examples
Chapter 4 -- No examples
Chapter 5 -- 2 examples
Chapter 6 -- No examples
Chapter 7 -- 6 examples
Chapter 8 -- 8 examples
Chapter 9 -- 4 examples
Chapter 10 -- 7 examples

In all fairness, the reading chapters do teach a lot, and give the foundation for the practice parts that come later.

I don't know if I will keep the book. The price point is fair but I'm having trouble following along without seeing any examples..

An Excellent and very informative book. Not only does it have a complete list of CSS 2.1 compliant listings, property by property , but practical use and examples that make it easy to understand and apply. You can't beat Amazon's price. I purchased this and "The CSS Anthology" for the same price as one of the books at BN or Borders. AN Excellent Addition to the Web Programmers Library!

Its a great book, but doesn't push very far for creativity. Some books smash the information through to you in such a way like its picture book... extreme use of examples. I'm more of the "just give me the methods and information clearly, and lemme fiddle around with my own creativity." The entire book I was thinking to myself "how can I take these examples and convert them into actual web page designs I want to make?"

Despite that, there is still a lot of information crammed into it. It has a beefy index, but then again, I wish it had more CSS "tricks." Like methods and ideas for pushing css possibilities to the extreme, despite minimal browser compatibility. It didn't shoot for the sky..

I'm not going to launch into a rhapsody like some reviewers do, pointlessly going beyond the pail dissecting a web design book like this. For me I just want to see if a book has what I need to get me where I need to go! Here's the facts - jack.

- The title is misleading, you will learn to design without tables, however that's not where the book is focused, if you expect myriad examples of how to layout pages with CSS you will be disappointed (as I was).

- Almost half of the book is reference!

- It is well written and a good book for those with some (x)html experience looking to power up with CSS.

- Is it worth the money? For me it wasn't since I want a book that's chock full of layout examples - however it's a good deal for those looking to learn CSS.
Of course you can learn all of the stuff in this book online for free, there's many great CSS sites out there.

So there you have it! A sucker free review with no superfluous wordage.

I honestly didn't use CSS too much in the past and I always used tables for my layout. However, this book has quickly shown me everything I needed to know to become proficient and confident in using CSS; it has also allowed me to discontinue using tables (except for certain situations, i.e. tabular data). This book is a very easy read and a great reference to keep on your desk for all your CSS needs.

In my opinion the book was lame. It was apparently written by an author with limited web experience particularly for large scale web sites. The theory of the book is okay, but the details of how to pull this off in a large web site are not discussed. The book is called Designing Without Tables, however nearly 1/3 of the book is dedicated to designing with tables. Might be good for a college student, but not in the real world of Google, Amazon, Yahoo etc.

I purchased this book hoping to use it as a reference to solve various CSS issues that crop. Unfortunately the various chapters don't show how to actually use any of the knowledge its supposed to impart. For example, it'll show an example, and then display various extra code that it says should be "added" to the page. Added where? At the top? Bottom? Inserted inside a DIV tag? Which one?

I can understand a book not having any concrete examples if its going to concentrate on the subject at a conceptual level, but it doesn't explain the concepts either. For example, in the section on positioning it doesn't say more than "absolute" means absolute, and "relative" means relative. That's nice, but doesn't leave me understanding any more how to actually design a page than I did before reading the chapter.

This book is easy to read. I am using it pretty much as a reference book. I do wish it would have been a bit bigger of a book with more indepth examples but thats why they have website.

Web design has always been a hobby for me, so I spent a good part of my life in the dark about style sheets. They've really only surfaced as an essential skill in the past few years, and even today a large amount of sites don't utilize them. This book is an excellent introduction to CSS. It is written clearly, without superfluous language, and is accessible to beginners. After reading it, you will have a very good understanding of CSS and you will be able to build your own webpage using current web standards.

The book begins with a basic overview of CSS - it breaks down the syntax, talks about what CSS can do, and tells you why it is a better choice for design than standard HTML tables (CSS is faster and easier to maintain, and the book tells you why).

The next section is a case study. The authors walk you through the creation of a CSS-only page (no tables!), and it's pure magic for someone who's never used CSS before to see how everything comes together. A second case study follows, and the 2nd edition also includes a new case study on how to build a 3 column layout with a footer.

The book is over 500 pages long, but a good 40% of it is an appendix that lists every single CSS declaration and describes their proper syntaxes and when and how to use them. The appendix alone makes the book worth buying as a valuable reference.

A must buy for the beginning CSS developer.

Most other books on CSS talk about styling tables. I found this book (for a newbie with CSS) pointless and confusing. Don't bother with it. Other books by O'Reilly can teach one enough about theory to make this book superfluous at best.

Most other books on CSS talk about styling tables. I found this book (for a newbie with CSS) pointless and confusing. Don't bother with it. Other books by O'Reilly can teach one enough about theory to make this book superfluous at best.

In a sea of books on CSS, this one stands out because of its title, which promises to reveal CSS's great layout powers. Unfortunately, that's as much marketing as truth.

The first third of the book is a very elementary primer on CSS which can be found in all other books and all over the web. The last third of the book is comprised entirely of appendixes, primarily dedicated to describing every CSS property available, and again is widely-available information.

The middle 150 pages does focus on layout, but again its information is fairly elementary and widely available. An experienced developer looking for the secrets of making very complex cross-browser layouts in CSS won't find a lot here. And like too many books, all of the information provided is bound up in a single end-to-end layout project, the creation of a fairly simple three-column layout. If looking for information on a certain feature or technique, the reader can't easily just read a few pages for the information. S/he must stumble around trying to understand the current state of development of this single project before s/he can glean much on the topic.

So, why am I giving it a 4-star rating? I've read at least a half-dozen books on CSS and this one is by a long shot the best introductory text I've seen. The writing is very clear and focused, the examples are well written and illustrated, the appendixes provide a thorough reference, and the book occasionally nods towards the complexities that cross-browser application of CSS can bring.

It just isn't the advanced Holy Grail of complex layouts that I was hoping it would be.

Are you a web designer who is curious about how CSS can help you become a more effective designer? If you are, then this book is for you. Authors Rachel Andrew and Daniel Shafer, have done an outstanding job of writing a cool book that focuses on the question of how to use CSS to accomplish some of the successes that web designers have spent a significant amounts of time and energy to create using nested tables.

Andrew and Shafer, begin with a brief introduction to CSS and the main concepts. Then, the authors show you how to use CSS in practical ways. Next, the authors show you how CSS works. They also show you how to validate your documents and stylesheets to ensure that they comply with the published specifications. The authors continue by looking closely at the ways in which colors can be applied to text and other objects; as well as, to page backgrounds. Then, they examine the question of how fonts can be used properly in CSS-based web design. Next, the authors show you how to create a simple two-column layout. They then show you how to add a third column to the layout you created. Finally, the authors show you how to create a fixed-width layout that's centered in the user's browser window.

This most excellent book begins by looking at how CSS should influence the overall design of a site. Perhaps more importantly, the book shows you how to put the CSS framework in place before you begin to deal with individual HTML elements and their styling!

Are you a web designer who is curious about how CSS can help you become a more effective designer? If you are, then this book is for you. Authors Rachel Andrew and Daniel Shafer, have done an outstanding job of writing a cool book that focuses on the question of how to use CSS to accomplish some of the successes that web designers have spent a significant amounts of time and energy to create using nested tables.

Andrew and Shafer, begin with a brief introduction to CSS and the main concepts. Then, the authors show you how to use CSS in practical ways. Next, the authors show you how CSS works. They also show you how to validate your documents and stylesheets to ensure that they comply with the published specifications. The authors continue by looking closely at the ways in which colors can be applied to text and other objects; as well as, to page backgrounds. Then, they examine the question of how fonts can be used properly in CSS-based web design. Next, the authors show you how to create a simple two-column layout. They then show you how to add a third column to the layout you created. Finally, the authors show you how to create a fixed-width layout that's centered in the user's browser window.

This most excellent book begins by looking at how CSS should influence the overall design of a site. Perhaps more importantly, the book shows you how to put the CSS framework in place before you begin to deal with individual HTML elements and their styling!

I'm recommend this book. It's a excellent resource. All people who want to learn to design websites without table, must read this book.

I'm recommend this book. It's a excellent resource. All people who want to learn to design websites without table, must read this book.

I've been creating websites for almost 20 years using Tables. But, right after I finished reading this book, I stopped doing tables. This book demonstrates how much easier site design is with CSS. The beginning of the book is kind of slow because the author describes each new CSS feature in detail. But it pays off once you get to the chapters where you actually build some sites. Plus, once you finish reading the book don't put it on a shelf. Appendix C is a great CSS reference to have handy when you start building your own sites. Also, one of the best features of the book is it discusses making your site compatible with all browsers. Appendix C also gives a lot of detail in this area. This book is not for those who are new to HTML because that language is not explained. I highly recommend this book to people like me who are building sites the old way.

This book has been a great help in designing better page layout for our corporate web applications. It does a very good job of explaining how everything works together.

Very thorough and useful approach to life without tables. Highly recommended reading

I am a programmer and for so long had never really been concerned with valid markup and accessible sites...until I started getting clients that needed websites and I began to understand the importance and the effect valid markup can have on your site.

This book was extremely easy to follow with great examples. My typical style when trying to learn from a book consists of me going straight for the examples rather than trying to understand the "why" involved. With this book, I was able to sit down and read it and really "get" what they were saying!

I found this book useful and recommend it. I did find some of the training approach a bit perculiar, though. Chapters 1 thru 7 focus on some of the fundamental elements of CSS (syntax, text effects). Starting with Chapter 8, what one has learned is used as the books goes thru a project of laying out an elegant two column layout. As the project gets progressively more complicated, concepts such as the box model and the types of positioning are covered. I would of course had preferred to have some of the illustrations in color, but having only black and white was ok and I don't recall any typos in the code as is too often the case for these types of books. As I was working thru the project, I was discovering that some things didn't work but then discovered this was just part of the project and the author(s) had a solution a couple of pages further in. So, I was happy with the level of completeness that the author(s) brought to this book.

I would recommend downloading the sample from the website to get a good idea of if the book's style works for you. Overall, the book provides a top notch introduction to CSS as well as good design and application tips. The emphasis on seperation of style and content is truly appreciated. I would strongly recommend this book to learn to properly build basic sites, and to build a foundation to build more advanced development skills on top of.

I can't believe I've been so mired in the -stone ages- of Table-based web site design for so long. Rachel made me realize just how easy it can be, with a little care and forethought, to put together an excellent foundation for a site's layout.

The information on styling tables (which DO still have a purpose) was also good to see. Finally, I have to say that if this book is any indication, I'd say that Rachel Andrew does, indeed, take a "common sense, real world approach".

CSS has completely changed the way that websites are designed. That is, if anything, an understatement: CSS has revolutionized Web design. Designers can do things with CSS that would have taken a LOT more time and effort to do using straight HTML 3.2 - if they could have been done at all.

But for old-school designers who haven't kept up with things, or the self-taught HTML coders who cut their teeth on 3.2, CSS can seem a bit daunting. The temptation is always there to use the old methods, like tables. And that's where HTML Utopia comes in handy.

HTML Utopia isn't a beginner's tutorial; Andrew and Shafer make it clear at the beginning that you should have "at least a little experience building sites" to get the most out of the book. It builds on the experience that you already have to show you how to do things better with CSS.

I appreciated the fact that the book doesn't start out with the nuts and bolts of CSS - what an attribute is, what a property is, etc. It starts with how CSS can help you. I think that's important, because if you overwhelm someone right away with a totally different way of coding a page, they're going to run away, no matter how much better it is than what they're currently using. Andrew and Shafer start off with showing how CSS benefits the designer, and from there gradually introduce the nuts and bolts.

Another benefit to this book is the website. You get all the code from the examples in the book, as well as updates and errata. With any tech book, a good website is crucial - things change too quickly, and a book that is static is pretty worthless. With ready updates, and the Sitepoint discussion forums, there is a steady source of new information and support.

So many web design books end up being a step-by-step guide to creating a website (and never show you how to design anything that is different from their example), or go the other direction and end up being a reference book that doesn't show you how to use any of the tools it contains. HTML Utopia does both. It is a great resource for anyone who has been wanting to use CSS to spice up their existing sites, or who wants to create something from scratch but doesn't know how to do it.

While it's not designed for advanced CSS users, it's perfect for the beginner who is trying to bring their Web design skills up to date. This second edition adds content concerning Internet Explorer 7, and gives a lot of great information about cross-browser design techniques.

A very good book that demonstrates the power of CSS. It is a
book that purely focuses on CSS that assumes a through understanding of HTML. I've done server side program and client side program and CSS's ability to completely steer away from the use of table makes for a much cleaner and slicker way of programming and developing websites. It removes the cluttered formatting of embedded tables.

This book introduces new concept to web development, lets the web developer plan, design and using such incredibly simplistic tools to create incredibly dynamic content. Much of the embedded java script is becoming useless with some of these innovations that are presented in this book.

The authors present the material in a clear focused manner. It allows the user to read along and work on real content following along with the author progressively going from a simple web page to everything this book claims to teach. It also contains a comprehensive reference of CSS. A great book that will help you transition to the next generation of web development.

Being a web software engineer, I have probably more experience with net and database related books than any others that I review. With this solid background, I can quickly tell if a web-related book is a good one or not and sitepoint puts out a lot of SOLID books. 'HTML Utopia: Designing Without Tables Using CSS 2nd Edition' by Rachel Andrew is a wonderful CSS reference that is a great guide for any and all web developers that use CSS in their daily jobs.

With over 450 pages of material, the book is broken down into the following parts:

01. Basics
02. CSS 101
03. CSS Code
04. Validation & Backward Compatibility
05. Color
06. Fonts
07. Text Effects
08. Simple CSS Layouts
09. Three-Column Layouts
10. Fixed-Width Layouts
A. CSS Miscellaneous
B. CSS Color Reference
C. CSS Property Reference

If you want to determine how to produce a professional looking web site that doesn't rely on tables throughout to get the design working as you would like, you really owe it to yourself to pick up this guide. The writing is easy to follow and the layout within is easy on the eyes and a pleasure to open up.

My only complaint with this book is the complete lack of color contained within. You would figure that a book that talks about design would have color pages to drive home points. Appendix B is an oxymoron in itself, titling itself COLOR but then only using the NAMES of colors to explain what they are. When comparing this text to the Pogue Press Missing Manual series, it's incredible that a book which is MORE expensive than those books has no color within while those books are absolutely drenched with pigments.

All in all, a nice effort but the field goal is way way wide right as it concerns the decision (no doubt to save a few bucks on production) to include no color pages.

**** HIGHLY RECOMMENDED

I think this is an ideal book for designers looking to get into CSS. The core of the book shows example sites and how they are developed with CSS. Where it goes into CSS theory the content is a bit thin. The CSS reference at the end of the book is appreciated, but doesn't compare what's provided in O'Reilly's "Dynamic HTML".

I reviewed the first edition of this book and found it terrible: the author (Dan Shafer) didn't bother providing a tutorial and his writing style was hard to endure.

Now here's the second edition, written by Rachel Andrews, a much better writer and someone who clearly knows the purpose of this book. She fixed most of Shafer's blunders, and her clear writing style makes the material much more accessible.

Dan Shafer is still given credit as a co-author, but since he hasn't been asked to write any more books for Sitepoint, I think it's a credit in name only and we can give all the real credit to Andrews, whose other Sitepoint books are equally good.

Had Sitepoint completely purged the book of Shafer's contributions and let Andrews write it over again from scratch, I'd give the book 5 stars. As it is, there's enough legacy material from the first edition to keep the rating down to 4 stars.

Bob McLain

Be careful - there are two editions of this book available on Amazon, but they are (it seems) quite different. I've not read the first edition, but the second edition has a second author who has condensed some sections, updated others, and added what seemed to be missing in the first - a practical, multi-chapter tutorial walking you through using all that you've learned. Make sure you are ordering the second edition; it has "Rachel Andrew" listed as the author. As an absolute beginner in CSS, I've found this to be a *very* helpful book.

this is a very good css book that, without being dull, provides you with a solid css foundation. It also has a useful appendix with many of the most common css properties. I would also suggest the book css anthology which is also written by rachel andrew.

To say that I love this book is an understatement. This was the first book that I'd read on CSS that clicked from the first page all the way through until the last. I have many other CSS books on my shelf, but this one is the one that gets reached for the most.

There are many books on CSS out there, and I've investigated quite a few of them in order to gain some proficiency in it.

However there were always pieces of the puzzle that never came together for me. CSS books seemed to lean towards either the technical or design aspects of CSS, without sufficiently showing their connection. For instance, technical books would discuss in varying detail the types of selectors without examining their practical significance, or what all the properties were without exploring their aesthetic ramifications; or, on the other hand, design oriented CSS books would discuss the wondrous ways to use CSS to create beautiful websites, but without exploring on a satisfactory technical level some of the reasons for their decisions.

Mr. Shafer strikes the perfect balance, demonstrating with succinct examples the relationship between technical considerations and design aesthetics. He takes you by the hand from the beginning and leads you step by step so that the reader will develop solid, standardized habits based on theoretical considerations to produce clear, uniform, and aesthetically compelling stylesheets. He teaches you why you're doing things so that you come away with a greater understanding.

This was a book written by an expert with a complete mastery of his topic on both a technical and design level who knows how to teach. Plus it has the added advantage of being written simply and clearly, with relevant examples demonstrating everything discussed. And it's refreshingly no-nonsense, without the painful condescension or groan-inducing style of all too many computer books.

Don't let the title deter you. Though it's ostensibly written for old-style designers to definitively convince them to move from table-based designs to CSS and showing them how to do it (are there any left who remain so unconvinced?), this book would benefit anyone wishing to really gain a mastery of CSS, no matter what level of expertise. The book even includes an appendix containing a comprehensive property reference for CSS2. I cannot recommend this book highly enough for those seeking to understand the relationship between the technical and design aspects of CSS. Well done, Mr. Shafer -- you have written one of the best computer books I've yet encountered! I wish all computer books were written this well.

(On a related note, this is the second book published by Sitepoint that I've purchased, and I applaud their editorial team for publishing such good books. Judging from these two books they seem to have a successful policy in place to write excellent technical books. Their books remove the chaff that turn so many computer books into useless tomes; and they treat their readers as possessing intelligence but who lack some specific knowledge which their books seek to fill from the ground up. I've grown weary of the condescending, patronizing, and sometimes even (seemingly deliberate) mystifying tone of most of the other computer book publishers out there, especially O'Reilly, who seem to target their books for some kind of "in-group" (wink wink). In the future when I need a technical computer book I will look first to Sitepoint, then to Sams, then to Peachpit. O'Reilly's Nutshell books are often still the best reference standards; but I will look elsewhere when I need to acquire new computer knowledge.)

(On another note, I wrote the above before reading some of the other comments here about this book. Wow -- what a range of opinion! I, as many other commenters here, have been a computer professional for many years (>25). I think the only conclusion I can reach is of the 'different strokes for different folks' variety. Clearly what works for me does not work for many others. Well, Vive la difference!)

This book is very easy to read. The author takes a very simple building block approach. A chapter will talk about a group of CSS commands/options and at the end of the chapter, the author shows how these items can be used in a praticle web site.

The book is simple enough for beginners to understand and yet it provides enough details that advanced CSS users could still learn something from this book.

I was recommended this book by co-workers and I haven't been sorry. Yes, the book is for beginners, but it's answered some questions and has helped out with browser compatibility - a skill I was lacking. The book does jump around a bit, but I feel that it covers each topic completely over time. It's not a dry read like many technology books. What is most helpful is reading the author's recommendations for best practices.

For the beginner, this is a good book to get a leg up on CSS.

I had high hopes for this book. I was ready for something completely dedicated to teaching me everything I needed to know about creating a site without using a single table tag for layout. Although the book does explain how to do this, I was still disappointed. After a brief introduction about CSS (yet again), section two of the book explains how to create layouts without using tables. In all, seventy pages of 500 are centered on this topic. Half the book is a CSS reference. The other sections talk about fonts, colors, etc. Clearly, the book is mis-titled. This remains a good book for someone new to CSS, so they can avoid bad habits from the start.

HTML Utopia: Deigning Without Tables Using CSS is not the book to use when learning CSS. The author states the book is for novice and intermediate CSS users. I think it is more for intermediate users. You have to have a strong background in HTML to understand the CSS code which I have. I had a difficult time understanding the CSS code as there was not much explanation of the CSS code. So, I read the book twice just to understand the content of the book.

The front cover says step-by-step guide but that is really lacking. There are no step-by-step exercises to follow which would have helped in understanding the code for the CSS. The book would have done better by having exercises in building a site using the CSS instead of referring to the many examples.

The support site for the book is disappointing to say the least. I could not find anything that remotely was tied to the book for help. All I found was ads to buy this book and many other books. I was not too impressed with the book, and I am now sorry for buying it. I don't recommend the book at all for novice CSS writers, and I would not highly recommend the book for intermediate users as there are other books that handle the subject better.

I really wanted to learn about CSS, besides from changing fonts in dreamweaver. I read the whole book, hoping to find some good lessons or examples, the book has examples but it just showed "the holy grail" of the three-columned layout, and other examples that that wasn't enough for me to grasp. I still have questions lingering on my mind. The rest of the book has a long Appendix, that takes up the reminder with some pages of resources. I still have mixed feelings about the book, I know I can probably use it when I have solid grasp on this CSS. The title to me was misleading, and I wish the book could focus on the trends that developers use in their css design, plus give lessons that goes step by step and break it down for you. I guess I was hoping for a hands-on ----> but I guess I have keep looking and stick to tables for now...

The book has some value, but precise communication is not one of its strengths. Perhaps that is why the author is so profilic (50+ books) - little time is spent on the details. Even the publisher's errata page contains multiple typos. The confusing errors I found (and the edition I'm reading has already been followed by three reprints) were not corrected in the errata.

For example, on p. 124 (first edition), it says "It is important to understand that when we talk about the width of a box, we are referring to its *content width*; we do not include margins, padding, or borders." This didn't seem to jive with an example given in the previous two paragraphs, as it would imply that it's normal for text in horizontally-adjacent boxes to butt up against each other. The book says this issue is discussed in Chapter 12, so I went searching through Ch. 12 for a while but couldn't find it. I then checked the CSS1 spec, and found that it explicitly shows (section 4) that "box width" *does* include margins and so on. What the book is referring to is the width property of an element, not the width of a box. Checking the errata web page, I saw that the issue is not discussed in Chapter 12 but in Appendix C under "width". Looking in Appendix C I see a description more in line with the CSS1 spec. However, even armed with this correction, the statements on p. 124 about the width of a box do not jive with the previous two paragraphs. No correction for the "width of a box" vs. "width of an element" error is given in the errata. The whole confusing episode took about 30 minutes to sort out. I now know more about the issue than I used to, thanks to reading the spec. But generally the purpose of reading a book is to save time vs. having to do the research yourself.

If you're a CSS beginner and only want an overview of CSS, with a passable explanation of the reasons for adopting it, this book is OK. If you want to get the details right, you're better off with the W3C CSS specification.

I finally finished a book I had been very excited to read: HTML Utopia: Designing Without Tables Using CSS by Dan Shafer, published by SitePoint. It is a good book depending on what your expectations are of the content.

For my part, I had expected the book to focus on layout. The book is nearly 500 pages, so I had expected an examination of many different kinds of table-based layouts with a look at how to recreate those layouts through the use of CSS, particularly what layouts were possible with creative uses of positioning, box properties, and background images.

However, this topic only occupies 80 pages, and only one kind of layout (three column plus header and footer) is examined in detail, with some variations being mentioned. So, I was disappointed in this regard, as I had expected the book to be predominantly focused on the subject of replacing various table-based layout methods with CSS-based layout methods, and this actually is only a small part of the book, and not nearly addressed in the variation and detail I would have liked or found useful as a developer. There are certain table-based techniques that are particularly challenging, if not seemingly impossible, to do with CSS, and a book specifically focused on that topic would have been (and still would be) immensely useful to me. That is not this book.

Having said that, this book does have a ton of useful information. It addresses many common design tasks, and it also is painstakingly clear each step of the way on which browsers support which techniques. This dovetails nicely with the complete CSS reference in the back. The book (including the reference) also deals with CSS3 properties and how they can be used now as well as what to look forward to.

The first part of the book is, unfortunately, the most superfluous. It seems like every CSS book out there, no matter how advanced, feels like there should be a introduction to CSS in case someone picks it up who doesn't really know what CSS is all about. In a book dealing with this particular topic, though, this seems like a waste of space. CSS beginners are not going to buy this particular book to learn CSS - they'll get a book about learning CSS. I would really like it if we could stem the tide of "CSS is great" generalist books and start seeing CSS books that focus on specific complexities and topics, leaving the ground work for other books. If I bought a book on the use of .NET Reflectors, I wouldn't expect there to be a "What is .NET" chapter or an introduction to C#. As it is, the inclusion of this overview of CSS doesn't really work out - it's not enough information to teach a beginner, and it's almost completely unnecessary for the intermediate or expert level. Having said that, this section is very thorough, and you might find yourself picking up some info on rarely-seen selectors or pseudo-classes or snags in the cascade that you didn't know.

The next part focuses on layout, and this comes the closest to why I wanted the book in the first place. It continues the hallmark of the book being very thorough in covering all the relevant properties, tricks, CSS levels, and browser compatibilities. It revolves around the CSS creation of a three-column layout with header and footer, and discusses various ways the layout could be done and the issues with both. Although other kinds of layout are not specifically addressed, you can easily use this information to create other kinds of layouts - the techniques and issues will be similar. I would have liked to have seen more integration of the graphical/design parts of a CSS based layout - tricks and creative uses of images, etc. Even so, this is good stuff, and it will give you all the pertinent information for converting your general table-based layouts to CSS-based layouts. The site that is used as an example involves some tricky areas which the book addresses. My major complaint about this section is the length - far too short, especially for a section that essentially gives the book its title.

The third section deals with colors, fonts, and some graphics. Once again, for most CSS designers at a level for whom this book would be useful, a lot of this information is old hat. However, due to the extreme thoroughness of the book, you will still learn something - obscure uses of certain properties, CSS 3 properties, etc. It is here that one gets the sense that the author is getting tired of writing the book. There's lots of information, but when it comes to application or demonstration, we begin to see an increased number of "I'll leave this to you" or "If you're interested, you can look here for more information." It starts occasionally, but these instances really begin to pick up speed until we get to the last section, which almost entirely refers everything back to the reader or some other source.

The final section (before the reference) deals with CSS miscellany than can be used to enhance the user experience as well as validation and backwards-compatibility. This section almost exclusively follows the pattern of: raise issue - summarize issue - tell reader to go somewhere else to learn about issue. It was annoying. I found myself wondering why the author even mentioned the issues if he wasn't going to give any helpful information on them. Obviously, this is a generalization, but it applies to nearly every topic discussed in this section. Very few helpful techniques are given. It gives the impression that the author was just getting tired and was trying to discharge these topics with as little effort as possible. It stands in stark contrast to the other sections where the author has been painstaking in detail and scope of information.

The reference section in the back is worth being on every developer's bookshelf. It details some very obscure portions of the spec, including the various at-rules. It also contains a thorough index of all CSS properties from levels 1 and 2, proprietary properties, and even includes the proprietary Mozilla versions of some CSS 3. The properties are defined, possible values are listed and explained, code samples are given, and browser compatibility issues are addressed. This happens with each property, making for a long, but amazingly useful, reference.

All in all, I do recommend this book. Its thoroughness gets into some nooks and crannies of CSS that may be dark even for those familiar with the standard. Also, if you're wanting to make the leap into CSS-based layouts, this book will generally show you everything you need to know for basic CSS layout work. However, the book is certainly not a "cookbook" for various layouts, nor does it really explore how images can affect layout issues. It's a good book; just check the table of contents to make sure that it meets your expectations for content.

I purchased this book after a 3-year hiatus from web design and without any CSS knowledge. This book provided an easy understanding to start using CSS. Other books I tried seemed to target people who already had a grasp on the basics and lost me from the beginning. This book also has one of the best reference selections I have seen. If you already know CSS and have a desk reference book then this book is NOT for you. But If you were like me and totally clueless as to where to begin then pick this book up. After reading this book you may need to buy another CSS book that targets a more advanced crowd.

I'm not going to state that this particular book is useless alltogether, but, I would like to warn you about sitepoint.com which to me seems to be a book publisher's equivalent of the Scientology Church. Once you download sample chapters from their website (which is actually a pretty nice thing byitself) they follow up with a relentless marketing sequence which is almost semi-spammic, while treating you like some fool who's ready to accept anything they claim, and they always claim that their books are extraordinary, great, the best, i.e. next to, or just that, perfect, and sort of show off the customer feedbacks they receive etc, basically this is about very old types of sales gimmicks that most people should be able to recognize. (Scientology? well, it seems like from reading at their website and their emails, that sitepoint is the one and the only soloution to your problems)


These books are also hideously expensive. Once after I replied to one of their marketing emails which comes as constant followups, as if you're an idiot and don't comprehend where to buy your books if it wasn't for them, the dude tried to lure me into buying their book of close to $50, with a silly 10% discount, and he used an aggressive tele-marketing style approach, like he was trying to sell just to increase his comission. Now I go there only to download free sample chapters, and encourage you to do the same. Then if you like what you see you're simply free to buy it, but if you don't, well then at least you managed to parasite one chunck of merchandize for free. Particularily in this case, with CSS, you can get SAM'S for $24.99, and there are plenty of CSS books that are much cheaper and possibly much better than this one. And there IS not that much to talk about in CSS. It's not a programming language and much tend to be overkill that's there to fill out the pages. I have to add that CSS, the basic webdesign part of the syntax, is very easy to learn. In fact you could use some online tutorial to grasp most of it. The few principles involved can't possibly occupy hundreds of pages unless the author fills half of the book with nonsensical boredom.

I have been developing software for over 18 yrs. In that time I have bought hundreds of computer books. This book is by far the worst computer book that I have ever purchased. After reading this book, I had to look at its cover again to make sure I had the correct title. This book claims to be a practical step-by-step guide to teach you how to design web sites without tables using CSS, but it doesn't even come close. This book should be called "An overview of CSS with a special 200 pages of Reference Filler". I don't need another overview of CSS and I already have several good reference books. I made the mistake of buying this book off the Sitepoint web site before it became available on amazon. The marketing hype and false reviews on that site fooled me. Trick me once Sitepoint, shame on you, trick me twice, shame on me.

I got this book hoping it would provide me with an overview of CSS and how to practically use it to design a site using only CSS. While it did provide a good overview of CSS in general and the syntaxt I was disapointed because the book did not provide a hands on guide to practically using CSS to design a site. There is an example site mentioned throughout the book and one chapter is devoted to all the CSS used on that site. However instead of providing a detailed explanation on how to think about design and layout using CSS and the example site like I was hoping the author simply showed the CSS code for each major component of the example site and then simply introduced the new syntax. No explanation of why that code was used and how it fit into the overall CSS design/layout strategy. After reading this book and then many websites to get up and running I finally rebuilt one page of my site. As it turns out it is actually a tiny bit larger (file size) than my all tables site. I'm now looking for another book that teaches how to use CSS in a practical web design environment.

The book was a useful introduction and suitable for offline reading.
I was able to learn CSS without a PC nearby (at lunch, bedtime, etc.) -- and then get good results at the office.

For someone who is new to CSS, it was a worthwhile purchase.

All the books offered by SitePoint are excellent. This particular book lives on my desk and has become my 'Bible' for CSS/Accessibility!

Easy to read, follow and use whether you are experienced or novice, SitePoint books are written in an understandable and concise style.

I am constantly watching out for new books that deal with the subjects relevant to my work and would purchase more books from SitePoint without hesitation. I have also recommended all the Sitepoint books to friends and colleagues as a first point of call when looking for literature of this nature.

Keep up the excellent work!

I purchased both PHP Anthologies; Designing without Tables using CSS; Build
your own Database Driven Website using PHP and MYSQL and Build Your Own
Website Using ASP.NET. The only thing missing from all these books is a
firewire port that I could some-how connect to a new futuristic device that
would transmit all the information into my brain quickly and painlessly.
Now there's an idea! :D

This is a great book for understanding CSS. I'd studied quite a bit online but could never get a decent concept of how to use CSS for positioning. This book in less than an hour has already increased my knowledge ten-fold. It also really helped me understand more fully the concepts I already understood pertaining to applying styles to elements. It reads well, not overly techie. If you are looking to learn CSS, and practical applications of it, I strongly recommend this book.

This is one of the worst books on the subject of building tableless web sites with CSS that you are likely to find. As many of the negative reviews have already mentioned, this book is mostly filler with little content at all about the subject.

And if no content weren't enough of a deterrent, it is overpriced to boot. Way overpriced!

Forget this book, it is a huge waste of money and of your time. Buy a book by the preminent CSS guru, Eric Meyer. You'll be much better off in the long run and you'll have money left over.

To put it simply, this book sucks. I have many books on CSS and this is by far the worst. I will never buy a book from Sitepoint again. It has to much filler and very little info on what the title says it is (Designing Without Tables). Forget this book.

This book is the one thing that my web site ( http://foxfirestudios.us ) sorely needed. I made an previous attempt of using CSS instead of the infamous >table< tag, but this book really helped me take the design of my site to all new dimensions. In fact, I directly took one of the Style Sheet files from the book and cranked it up several notches. If you want to learn how to do web page design after you found out what HTML does, go get this book!