By Eric A. Meyer
Review by: Alex
It should be noted that "More Eric Meyer on CSS" is the sequel to the wizard of CSS's instant web design classic, "Eric Meyer on CSS". This book is also laid out in the same fashion as the original book as well which means those who enter the Eric Meyer collection straight from his original works will feel immediately at home. For those people who have not read Meyer's original book and wish to purchase this title it should be noted that it would be worthwhile having the other edition of the book as they both cover totally different and unique areas of CSS design from each other and between them support a fantastic selection of tutorials on how to make the most out of your CSS design. If you know nothing about CSS it should be noted that this book is not a reference manual and it works on the assumption that you have a working knowledge of CSS (otherwise this book would be much thicker in volume). For those people however who do have a good knowledge of CSS the Eric Meyer series shines above most other books on the topic of CSS with the possible exceptions of "CSS Mastery" and the "Zen of CSS Design". It should also be noted that those who have not read the original book do not have to buy the original (though I can recommend it as the two seamlessly blend together to cover everything you need to know). Well what is different about this book I hear you cry? Well this sequel book carries on from where the last book left off. The book explains in simple terms how to convert existing designs, add and use styles successfully and how to skin menus and other popular website features. If you look through the pages in the side rulers you will find helpful hints and tips which will allow you to get things done that much easier and the final chapter actually shows you how to design sites for the CSS Zen Garden, a beautiful place which shows how CSS based design can be just as beautiful as layouts which use tables. The book is unusual that it is laid out as projects which you can attempt in the step by step manner where as many other books focus more on the code or giving Do's and Don'ts on website design. However don't be fooled as this book has been weaved together by one of the webs most established CSS masters and is a fantastic addition to any web development (or designers) collection.
The chapters (Projects) in this book carry on from where its predecessor left off and are as follows... Chapter 1 contains information on converting old sites to new ones but unlike in the origional book which covered moving style embedded in the page to a seperate CSS powered file, this book covers moving away from table and frame based layouts to div and boxed layouts making your sites positioning be more customisable and accessible for those visiting your site, Chapter 2 contains information on how to style a photo collection, Chapter 3 contains details on how to style a financial report, Chapter 4 explains positioning in the background, Chapter 5 advises you through its project to generate list based menus which work effectivly (this is a very good lesson to learn for website developers), Chapter 6 explains how to create CSS driven dropdown menu's for those people who enjoy more dynamic content, Chapter 7 shows you in Meyer's own words how attractive tab based navigation can be created, Chapter 8 details how a weblog can be effectivly styled, Chapter 9 shows you how to design the overall homepage and how to bring the whole design together and the final chapter shows how CSS design can be used to generate templates for the CSS Zen Garden (a place on the internet which shows how CSS design can be beautiful and contains useful examples for CSS developers).
This book is suitable for the following types of people interested in website development:
- People who have a working knowledge of CSS who wish to be shown how to use it more effectively.
- Website designers who want to understand how to seperate design from content.
- Developers of websites who wish to know how to convert old designs into new ones.