- Clear and understandable explanation of CSS tables properties
- Good solutions for some common problems
- Exciting new way to look at CSS design
- Many designers will find this hard to implement
- Focuses on a technique that is not supported by IE 7 and lower
- Title is deliberately inflamatory
- Price is fairly high
- Chapter 1: The Problem with CSS
- Chapter 2: CSS Table Layout
- Chapter 3: CSS Table Solution
- Chapter 4: Considering Older Browsers
- Chapter 5: The Road Ahead
In some ways I was very intrigued by this book and in others I was very annoyed. The title, while technically correct, seems deliberately inflamatory once you realize that the book is about CSS properties that are not supported in the browsers with the largest market share: IE 7 and IE 6. In fact, this book felt more like a few Sitepoint articles about CSS tables with a lot of justifications about why we should adopt them. And at only 116 pages, it didn't seem worth the $30 price tag.
Don't get me wrong. The book is useful. Once IE8 does become popular, Web designers will have a much easier time creating pages that look how we want them to look. And learning about CSS tables ahead of time is important to stay current in the field.
But it is naive to think that a Web designer will be able to convince a business owner that switching to a technique that IE 6 and 7 can't view correctly is a good solution. At best, you'll be stuck doing your design twice: once as CSS floats or absoute positioning for IE 6 and 7, and once as CSS tables for the rest.
I would say that everything you know about CSS is not wrong, just no longer complete. This book should have been called CSS Table Properties - How They'll Change the Web. But that's not nearly as enticing a title, and wouldn't sell as many books.
