The Bottom Line
If you're looking for a CSS book you can carry with you all the time, this is the perfect book, but don't rely on it as your only CSS reference unless you're Eric A. Meyers yourself.
Pros
- Great introductory section explains the basics of CSS quickly and easily
- Clear descriptions of every item listed including examples for use
Cons
- Most of the properties are alphabetical, but the ones that aren't were confusing
- Very few pictures or visual representations of the styles
Description
- The first section describes how to use CSS including basics like rule structure and precendence.
- The second section describes the selectors and how to use each one.
- The third section is the meat of the book describing all the active properties in CSS.
- The final section includes a description of properties that were removed from CSS2.1.
Guide Review - CSS Pocket Reference by Eric A. Meyer
I really like this book as a quick reference for looking up specifics about CSS properties. But it relies on the fact that I already know CSS fairly well, and so I can remember that white-space is the property for getting pre-formatted text, but I might not remember the exact format. It doesn't help for those situations where I'm thinking "I just know there's a property to do XYZ..." but I can't think of what it might be. The book is short enough that I could skim it and find the answer, however.
This is not meant to be a book that you use to learn CSS, but once you know CSS this is a great book to have around for just quick checks of what correct form for the property is or whether or not that property is suppored in CSS2 and so on.
