I work with Web sites every day and will need a reference now and again to get my work done. This book is handy and fits nicely in my pack and acts as my main reference for CSS. The examples are clear and build from the previous chapters. It also has an accompanying Web site that shows you what the CSS script will look like when implemented. I believe this is a good starter book and the price is just right.

No plain English explanation of the reasoning behind the code. Assumes you'll understand what he means by "adjacent sibling selectors" and "document tree". I gleaned some knowledge by copying the examples and trial and error, but it was frustrating and tedious. If you're a programmer you might be able to decipher this book, but if you're a newbie you'll get a clearer introduction, with relevant details, from a book like "HeadFirst HTML" by Elisabeth and Eric Freeman.

A useful book for who wants to begin to develop a styled sheet HTML page from scratch. Non so teaching but more friendly.

Yes, you're not going to become an expert on CSS with this book. But this was my first time working with stylesheets and I was able to get up to speed very quickly - I went through the book in 1 hour WITH running and editing the code (which can be downloaded from SAMS website) to make sure I understood all the examples (disclaimer: I have a PhD in Engineering with 2 minors and I'm proficient in many programming languages). The examples will seem repetitive only if you're not in front of the computer trying the code - else it's nice to see the progression of each section of the chapter and actually see the changes on the screen and it only takes a few mins to go through them. It's cheap and short and sweet. Five stars. I'm now buying a more advanced book on the topic (The Meyer's CSS Definitive guide) just as I'd planned.

Basically -
Advanced and intermediate users: look elsewhere, nothing for you here
Beginners who want to learn CSS before going to bed: yes yes yes (make sure you download the code from the website first)

Yes, you're not going to become an expert on CSS with this book. But this was my first time working with stylesheets and I was able to get up to speed very quickly - I went through the book in 1 hour WITH running and editing the code (which can be downloaded from SAMS website) to make sure I understood all the examples (disclaimer: I have a PhD in Engineering with 2 minors and I'm proficient in many programming languages). The examples will seem repetitive only if you're not in front of the computer trying the code - else it's nice to see the progression of each section of the chapter and actually see the changes on the screen and it only takes a few mins to go through them. It's cheap and short and sweet. Five stars. I'm now buying a more advanced book on the topic (The Meyer's CSS Definitive guide) just as I'd planned.

Basically -
Advanced and intermediate users: look elsewhere, nothing for you here
Beginners who want to learn CSS before going to bed: yes yes yes (make sure you download the code from the website first)

Everything looked to be clearly and simply explained. I've come to use it as a quick reference if I need to jog my memory. This book provides a solid foundation you can build on.

Everything looked to be clearly and simply explained. I've come to use it as a quick reference if I need to jog my memory. This book provides a solid foundation you can build on.

I recently found a need to do a little CSS programming on a website. When I went looking for books what I found were any number of two to six hundred page texts. Then I found this little gem. It fitted my purposes perfectly as it explained the basics of CSS with examples for things I was trying to accomplish.

I will say that I have to agree with the other reviewers that the repetition of code was unnecessary and was the major reason that I didn't give five stars. The important things is that it provided a basis for me to experiment with the examples, accomplish what I needed to do, and allowed me to gain enough knowledge in a few short evenings that I'll be able to get another book on the subject without being totally lost from the first page. That is all I can ask from a cheap book.

If you know nothing about CSS and you can find an inexpensive copy, this book will get you started, but there have to be better "get started" books. Probably good if someone needs a lot of simple, explicit examples though. The one place I had high hopes for the book was near the end where it dealt with using CSS to format "printer friendly" pages. I'm sure the code was OK, but there was no example of how to link a page formatted for the screen to one formatted for the printer. I was expecting some example of loading a second Style Sheet using the same page code.

This is probably the most boring, most uninspiring book I ever bought. And some times codes are not explained at all - you just have to figure out for yourself why you are doing this and that. This is the perfect sleepingpill.

I, like a few other reviewers here, found the overly repetitive code snippets both confusing and, in most cases, utterly pointless.

I have also yet to find any "Tips" which we are told are marked clearly throughout the book offering advice or demonstrating an easier way to do something (excluding the "Tip" that explains what "Tips" are!). Let me know if you find any others... Is this just another example of poor editing?

It is a real pity, as overall the author presents some good examples. I would have liked the book to go a little more in-depth, but I guess there was little room left after the endless identical samples.

2 stars simply because the book still manages to cover the basics, and the author shows plenty of promise for the future...

A web designer/teacher suggested this book as a start. While I could already write a little CSS to get by, this book was good to show things that I hadn't learned yet. However, the book was a bit repetitive. It repeated code over and over in each section and only added a few lines of new code. While that's not completely terrible, I felt it was wasted space on the page!

I respectfully disagree with the reviewer who thought this book was repetitious and needed more editing.

My technique when I need to learn something is to find two good books on the subject: one a really simple one that will give me a good overview of the subject and make me feel like an "expert". Then the second one I use to find out all the little details (which makes me feel like less of an expert but certainly more knowledgeable).

Anyway, in this instance, I read a lot of reviews here and went down to Borders and flipped through all the books on CSS. The two books I selected were this one as my first book and CSS Mastery by Andy Budd as the second. Both I think have proved to be excellent choices.

I didn't find any editing errors at all in this book (not that I was looking for them, but they certainly didn't pop up). And as for being repetitious, that is partly true, but I would rather have an author repeat him/herself than to be told, "As we showed on page 39..." and have to keep flipping back. What the author is repeating is why each line of CSS is written the way it is, and I found it helpful.

Anyway, after a couple of hours with this book, I feel like I have good understanding for CSS and can work with it.

This is hard to write a review for, considering the topic in question was much more limited than I anticipated.

First off, the book itself, had a lot of repetition in it... I think formating types of text was covered about 30 times.

Second, I think it would've been more helpful to the reader if the samples weren't finished and downloadable. People would probably grasp the info much better if the example grafics were supplied, and then forced the reader to write the code themselves. But since it's already done for ya, then a person pretty much reads the book and clicks through pages to see what they look like... not actually doing anything.

On a lighter note, I would say that if you were like me (not knowing one single thing about css), then this really isn't a bad book. You can grasp onto it's purpose really quick, examples are easy to follow, and there are some reference tables.

The only thing that bothers me is... it just seems like there should be much more. At the time of this writing, I'm wondering if thats all there is to css, or if there is much more advanced stuff out there. The author makes no mention of further recomended reading... so one assumes that this is all there is. And if thats the case, W3C has completely wasted everyone's time and money. I read the whole thing in less than a day, and at first glance, it appears that css is nothing more than a fancy way of formating text, and making boxes without tables (which honestly, in the end, the user will not notice an increase in download speed... the bulk code of a table is made up for in the new fancy css file you made)

I am a newbie with regards to html and css. This book is easy to read and understand for someone who is new to coding.

I was so disappointed with this book. The sad fact is that with better editing, it could have been not only a great introduction to CSS, but a handy reference volume as well. Unfortunately that was not realized and the book fails greatly.

The examples are poorly written, with un-necessary duplication of examples. The description of of CSS elements, descriptors, etc could have been made much more clearly with some careful editing. Alas no such editing was done.

I cannot recommend this book to a beginner as the content is not complete enough nor clear enough for learning. I can't really recommend this book to anyone for that matter because someone with more CSS experience would be better off with an O'Reilly book on the subject.

I was so disappointed with this book. The sad fact is that with better editing, it could have been not only a great introduction to CSS, but a handy reference volume as well. Unfortunately that was not realized and the book fails greatly.

The examples are poorly written, with un-necessary duplication of examples. The description of of CSS elements, descriptors, etc could have been made much more clearly with some careful editing. Alas no such editing was done.

I cannot recommend this book to a beginner as the content is not complete enough nor clear enough for learning. I can't really recommend this book to anyone for that matter because someone with more CSS experience would be better off with an O'Reilly book on the subject.

This book is an excellent starting point for those making the leap from styling with html to css. Not only does it break down core principles into easy to digest chunks of information it also teaches some practical methods and techniques you'll actually put into practice.

The thing I like best about it though is that it's organized really well and contains a wealth of information so even after you've learned and mastered the basics of CSS you'll be able to come back to this book later on and it will be a great reference book for things you need quick refreshers on.

If you are new to CSS (Cascading Style Sheets) and want to get up to speed in no time, then Russ Weakley's 'Sams Teach Yourself CSS In 10 Minutes' is the perfect guide to accomplishing that task!! In its simplest form, CSS is a way to quickly style web pages and be able to write HTML quickly and not have to worry about keeping track of fonts, colors, etc. while maintaining a uniform style all throughout your web site. If you need to learn how to use CSS quickly and efficiently, I highly recommend this great time from SAMS, you won't be disappointed!!

Note: This book is for beginners only, any experienced CSS developer will want to go elsewhere as this book is only for newbies.

***** HIGHLY RECOMMENDED

If you are new to CSS (Cascading Style Sheets) and want to get up to speed in no time, then Russ Weakley's 'Sams Teach Yourself CSS In 10 Minutes' is the perfect guide to accomplishing that task!! In its simplest form, CSS is a way to quickly style web pages and be able to write HTML quickly and not have to worry about keeping track of fonts, colors, etc. while maintaining a uniform style all throughout your web site. If you need to learn how to use CSS quickly and efficiently, I highly recommend this great time from SAMS, you won't be disappointed!!

Note: This book is for beginners only, any experienced CSS developer will want to go elsewhere as this book is only for newbies.

***** HIGHLY RECOMMENDED