CSS3: The Missing Manual

Bad first:- The index is weak- The chapters are not particularly orderly. (this is part of the problem with the index, actually) By this I mean that the things thrown together under a heading don't always fit logically together. Some things are thoroughly covered multiple times. Others are covered in bits and pieces strewn throughout. Some things are skimmed.- Finding the explanation on the thing you are seeking can be quite troublesome, especially if you don't recall the proper name or spelling.- The exercises waste far too many pages. I don't see why they are even in the book, honestly. The content to play with is online, and the tutorials could be, too. The examples in the main description sections seem fine, so why not offload those tutorials? This would reduce the pages to sift through as well as make the index more concise.- Some useful things are barely covered.Bad out of the way, on to the good:+ Most of the most useful stuff about CSS is covered. (The best explanations are for things changed from 2.1 to 3)+ The explanations are quite good. Even those things only mentioned once in a rather inappropriate section can usually be understood from that. (The trouble in the book is locating the information you want, not using it once you have) A few things require you to hunt down the various pieces related to get the whole picture, but each part is understandable. (at least, so far)If you need to understand CSS3, I know of no better books to explain it.CSS-Tricks has some articles that surpass some of this, but not all and you still need some idea of what terms to search for, there, too. (That's the best website I can recommend for learning CSS; If you are considering this book, you really ought to become familiar with that site.)

Thoroughly covers a wide range of topics in clear language, not overly dense and complex, but not dumbed down and verbose like the "for dummies" series. it contains enough information in it that you're getting you money's worth (which is a complaint I have with many beginner's books -- that they're just an intro but don't give enough room to grow).I think it's a good balance of clarity and conciseness and breadth vs. depth; works well for people who are technically savvy and have a little general background on CSS but no real experience using it. The author mentions in the beginning that he assumes the reader has some HTML knowledge (which I have, from years ago).I'd recommend this to anyone who has a little background on HTML who's looking to get into using CSS, whether you want to go through the book from start to finish and work on all the exercises and experiment until you know it well, or just flip through looking for the topics you're interested in.

I've been in the 'learning' process for HTML5 and CSS3 for about four months now - I'm an old print guy who would like to move projects to the web. So I first bought the Adobe Dreamweaver CS6 Classroom in a Book so that I could find my way around using it as an editor and then I bought the 4th edition of Jennifer Robbins' "Learning Web Design" and she recommends this book for more CSS3 experience - and she was spot-on in the recommendation. I've also purchased the "HTML5 Cookbook" that O'Reilly has and feel that I'm, at least, at an intermediate level now - thanks to all of these treasures (yes, all purchased from Amazon).It may take me another year and one-half to get my website up and running - I wouldn't say that you should expect miracles just by going over the exercises in these books - but I'm able to 'do' more - and 'understand' more about what CSS3 is capable of because of this book.Five stars for being both thorough and easy to understand.

I own a business with an e-commerce website that was designed 5 years ago by a guy that was comfortable with using tables to layout websites instead of CSS. Not knowing any better and needing an affordable solution, we went with it. Fast forward 5 years and the business continues to grow, but the website looks really dated. Time for a makeover.I purchased this book to guide my rebuild of the e-commerce site. It has provided excellent guidance. I am not a web designer, but I do possess strong logic skills. With a little trial and error combined with persistence, the website is on its way to being updated. The book is clear in its instructions and the tutorials are very helpful in making you walk through the steps in creating the layout with CSS. I would recommend this book.

This is one of many of Mr. McFarland's books I own and as usual was on point! For me, in order to truly understand the concepts of CSS3 it is best to practice what you read. This book truly encourages that and that is why I like it so much...read then practice the concepts! If you have the mindset to take the time to learn this information and focus a few nights a week, you can complete this book in no time.For the beginner you will gain a great understanding of how things work. As always I speak from the novice standpoint and if I can understand it then a seasoned professional will also get what they need quickly. He also lets you know about different browser support for CSS3 and what is supported and how to get around different versions of IE.

Have been a JEE developer for years and had some knowledge about CSS. Was tasked with making my company's website "responsive". So had to KNOW CSS. Be the go to guy! KNOW IT!This book was the key that unlocked the black box that was CSS for me. Had spent several months reading other CSS books, and just wasn't "getting it" til this book. From the examples to the end of chapter tutorials to the illustrations - DIS IS DA BOOK FOR ME! Have shared it with other developers on my team. They love it too.Thank you Dave McFarland for not just sharing your knowledge but truly teaching me CSS. I GOT IT! I KNOW IT!BTW: Our site is now responsive.

it's a good idea to be clear what a book has achieved if you're reading this review in order to decide wether to buy it or not.I have to say, i really enjoyed reading (and working through this book) tremendsoulyFirst of all, this book is written with tremendous flair from the point of view of the authorial voice. Dry it is not. David Sawyer Mcfarland (DSM from now on), is very knowledgable and has a really friendly tone of voice. it doesn't hurt at all that he's quite witty. This is no dummies' guide it's not whacky and not going for laughs, but speaking personally, I love it when a technical book can make its points and make me laugh every now and again.Although I haven't read any of the previous editions, it's quite clear that this is a book with history, that has gone through several editions, grown, developed and been refined.The other thing that comes across is that DSM is hugely experienced. This is a good writer who knows of what he speaks. The progression of explaining how to use CSS3 to style your web pages is logical and excellent.Each chapter discusses a specific CSS topic thoroughly and then in the 2nd half EACH chapter has an excellent quality tutorial.The tutorials are really very good and extremely well designed. You download the files (from the Missing Manuals web site, they're very easy to find) and you have a before and after folder for each chapter. I can't stress enough how refreshing and welcome it is when an author takes the trouble to create accurate (easy to find download files) that actually work.In every tutorial (always the second half of the chapter), there is a proper step by step listing with nothing missed of how to achieve what the chapter was about. If the chapter has more than one facet, you have more than one tutorial.There are plenty of interesting sidebars and boxes (in an non-gimmicky way) and whenever there is any deeper discussion of where you might get more info online, there are some choice links to free websites and articles littered all over the book. Things like color pickers, transform previewers and all sorts of handy online apps that people have built to make working with CSS more of a snap.A big part of CSS that can be confusing is how do you say economically and unambiguously to CSS 'work on this and only this' and this is done with Selectors. DSM has a great and very easy to understand chapter on selectors, it was surprisingly clear. The other thing which used to always make me go cross eyed when I read about it was the cascade. This book has a wonderful chapter on the cascade (the points system) and it's really the first time I properly understood it.Everything gets an airing here, text formatting, images, borders, the box model, tables, forms, page layout, floats and the new transitions and animations get a decent chapter. There is even a chapter on the very trendy concept of Responsive Web Design. This chapter could take a whole book all to itself, but it's interesting to have a good introduction into what media queries actually are, having heard the term bandied around a lot recently.Get this book if you want to get on the first stepping stone of really understanding CSS3 and its many quirksbutdon't expect this book to turn you into a serious CSS3 pro. For that you'll need some of the more on-point books that are aimed at pros or experts and not just as a general high quality beginner to intermediate book.Final point: this is half a reference work and half a tutorial. If you're trying to do anything with CSS3 and you turn to this book either the reference or the tutorial, you're more than likely to get answersIf you're reading this DSM, thank you!!

Like most developers my bookshelf is creaking under the weight of far too many expensive books that have barely been touched. The exception is this one - or to be precise, an earlier version of this book - which is now tatty and falling apart, hence why I've invested in the latest version and got the kindle version too.My programming genre (look at me trying to be cool - I'm a developer ffs - the closest I'll get to being cool is winning a contract somewhere cold! Apple's Genius Bar bods should take note!) is databases, but like to dabble occasionally with web development at home. This book is perfect for my needs.

I was looking for an easy to follow manual, with some practical and useful applications of css3 and this book did that for me. I was pleased with this book as it dealt with browser compatibility and responsive web page design. Also I could delve into different chapters without having to read it from cover to cover. There are files online that can be used with the tutorials. I only came across one elementary error so far. As I was so pleased with this book, I bought the html5missing manual but it's not nearly as good IMO. Have ordered the JavaScript missing manual...... Fingers crossed its as useful as this one is!

Despite not having enough time tow work on my CSS3 skills what I have read of this book has satisfied m that I made the right choice. It has all the required information and is laid out in a clear and concise way. the first chapter or so were a little laboured but I kept going and was glad I did not skip parts as I learned something every few pages.

This is the perfect handbook for anyone that needs to learn to use CSS to its full potential. I use it as a reference book, meaning that I haven't read it from cover to cover but I skim through it when I need that particular piece of information, and at least in this way the book is awesome: I find everything I need, easily explained and with detailed examples and explanations.I can't recommend this book enough.