Found On My Desk
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If you were to walk into my office right now, you would find a very well used copy of Eric Meyers’, Cascading Style Sheets: The Definitive Guide, 2nd Edition
Over the years, CSS has become essential to good web design. Using CSS is an easy way to make your web design flexible, easy to maintain, and quick to load. Anyone who has played with their WordPress or Blogger templates can see that you can quickly change the font size on your page throughout your site by changing one item in your main CSS file.
I use Eric Meyer’s book for reference. A lot. There are dog-eared pages and highlighter marks throughout. Even though Dreamweaver has CSS controls built in, I can often find what I need or get a little more information using the book. And since much of my blog design work is done using Notepad (i.e. hand coding), I am constantly looking things up.
Other great CSS books include:
- The Zen of CSS Design: Visual Enlightenment for the Web (Voices That Matter)
Stylin’ with CSS: A Designer’s Guide (VOICES)
- Bulletproof Web Design: Improving flexibility and protecting against worst-case scenarios with XHTML and CSS
Is there a reference source on your desk that is equally loved? Please share!!
9 Comments
February 25th, 2007 at 8:40 am
Wow do I wish I had a reference book like that. It must take me double the time to code up a site just because I make it up as I go along!
I have books on Java and databases from my degree, but all they do at the moment is make me look smart as I’ve got books on my shelf! Sadly, there are so many web design books that I want them all and don’t know where to start (including Bulletproof web design too).
February 25th, 2007 at 10:25 am
CSS is the best language in web designing I haven’t actually got any books on it I now know most of it off by heart, When I was learning I did use dreamweaver for creasing external sheet styles because as I was typing it came down with a box giving you a list of them which was brilliant.
If you use notepad to code I would recommend Notepad ++ brilliant for web development.
The only book I own on web dev is PHP in easy steps, which is brilliant.
February 25th, 2007 at 1:24 pm
Phil – The CSS book is the only one on my desk at the moment – the rest are all packed away in the cabinet. There is a pocket reference version of the book too – its pretty inexpensive.
Mike – I may check out that PHP book. I can alter PHP code just fine, but I don’t know enough to code it from scratch. I’ll look into Notepad ++ too.
February 28th, 2007 at 3:29 am
I have a 3-ring binder that is full of different notes on CSS that I have printed from the web, things that were said by others, etc. CSS is so great and I really love it. I have been using little pieces for a while but am starting to use it for the whole design.
Thanks for your resource!
February 28th, 2007 at 3:39 am
Brooke – thanks for stopping in. The notebook is a good idea too. Sometimes paper is still the most efficient way to organize info.
April 10th, 2007 at 11:51 am
I use dreamweaver because it means all my files are there and I can check everything – but I may as well be writing in notepad too, I bought a couple of books that I seem to be always referring back to:
html, xhtml & css by Elizabeth Castro
the css anthology: 101 essential tips tricks and hacks by Rachel Andrew
I may have to check out the ones you’ve mentioned *sigh* if only they weren’t all so damned expensive eh?!
April 10th, 2007 at 11:54 am
Vics – thanks for sharing your favorites. The one that I think is by far the best investment is Bulletproof Web Design – it is a must.
April 28th, 2007 at 4:01 pm
Hi, Thanks for the tips on the book I might get that one, is it good for a beginner? I am a complete CSS newbie and have bought “Build your site the right way using HTML and CSS” and theoretically it makes sense, I just don’t quite know where to start. How did you start, books, jumping in and making a small site with code only?
April 29th, 2007 at 12:54 am
The best one I have read to date is “Bulletproof Web Design”. It is a great resource for all levels. It is written in a way that you do not need to be a techie to really understand it and the examples are very relevant.