Rating: 
Summary: Good if you already know CSS..
Review: This book does a great job on what it says it does. But do you know what it does? Just be sure you do before you buy it. This book is intended not to teach you CSS, it presumes you already know CSS2. Instead of teaching you the actual language this book shows you how to apply it. Each chapter is a detailed 'case study' if you want to call it that. Meyer does a great job at walking you through various real life scenarios you might encounter such as converting a normal web template to a CSS one. So don't get me wrong this book is a 5 star book in that regard but the problem is I don't think most people realize that's all this book is really for.Simply put, if you don't already know how to write complex CSS2 stylesheets then BUY ANOTHER BOOK first. Fortunately for myself I've been a professional designer / developer for 5 years now, so when I picked up this book (not knowing how to write complex CSS prior to reading it) I was able to figure out the code and learn CSS2 on the fly. However this is not a good way to learn for many people so if you don't know CSS yet or not really familar with it try another book before picking this one up. Otherwise BUY THIS BOOK becuase YES, it is really really good!
Rating:
Summary: Good CSS
Review: I marvel any author these days who can produce a pratical and readable book on software. Eric does a good job at making us want to read and learn the gems in CSS. I like it because the examples are relevant and you can see how you can apply them. This book is more a learning by doing book then many others that I have read on the same subject. Eric will not bore you with explanations, but instead uses examples to demonstrate the fine points. Good book to have.
Rating: 
Summary: Precisely Control Text & Image Placements In Web Pages
Review: "Eric Meyer on CSS: Mastering the Language of Web Design" is an instructional book written for those who have been disappointed with Web browser display results from using various brands of popular "drag & drop" website creation software. The author, Eric Meyer, is an expert with Cascading Style Sheets (CSS). By using CSS computer coding instructions, more precision can be brought to bear in a website layout. Top, bottom, and side-to-side distances between Web page objects can be better controlled with CSS commands rather then using just HTML (Hyper-Text Markup Language) code. IT'S NOT ALL ABOUT DRAG & DROP
Seven years ago I purchased a thick book about HTML 2 and developed my first commercial website. The hand-coding involved not just the placement and formatting of text, it also required typing specific positioning instructions for the placement of the numerous JPEG images. It wasn't a precise exercise, and after going through this labor-intensive hand-coding process I anticipated with enthusiasm the development and arrival of drag & drop website development applications that would presumably end the need for typing code. I purchased Adobe's PageMill drag & drop Web creation application when it was first available, but found myself frequently going to the HTML source code to make changes and better position the text and graphics elements. After PageMill, Adobe's GoLive proved a much better and more capable website creation product, and I believed the era of frequent involvement with typing HTML source code was behind me. However, some website layouts were not satisfactory enough when viewed in a browser. Spacing between text and images would sometimes be too wide or narrow. Reviewing the HTML source code would reveal nothing out of whack. So how to cure the problem? Cascading Style Sheets, as it turns out. I've known about Cascading Style Sheets for a couple of years, but was unable to understand their real value from previous explanations I read. "Eric Meyer on CSS: Mastering the Language of Web Design" solved the mystery for me. The knowledge and new skills I've gained from this book provided the learning breakthroughs I needed. I now get much better results positioning text and picture elements in a Web browser. Yes, it's back to some hand-coding, but I better understand and accept that CSS code is the best method for achieving the results I need and my clients require. Helping the learning process are practice files for each of the thirteen chapters in this book that are downloaded from the website location provided by the author. Each tutorial file is identical to an example being explained in a particular chapter. "Eric Meyer on CSS: Mastering the Language of Web Design" is an excellent way to learn the creation of Cascading Style Sheets. There's only one improvement I can recommend for this book--spiral binding. With the typical glued binding I found myself needing weighted objects (including my elbow) to keep the book from slapping shut. Spiral binding would allow the pages to lay flat and make the process much easier with reading a paragraph and then performing the instructional tasks from the tutorial files while referring back to the book. Tom Shackle is a multimedia producer and a member of the Alaskan Apple Users Group.
Rating:
Summary: Real world CSS and great design made simple
Review: Last year, I watched "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" and I was amazed at the swordsmanship on display. Swords were no longer weapons, but extensions of arms - as if they were new appendages grown especially for the task. Eric Meyer can wield CSS (Cascading Style Sheets) in just the same way as those actors could wield swords. His level of understanding is exceptional and is only matched by perhaps half a dozen others. What sets Eric apart from others is his ability to convey his magic to almost anyone. Authors with a decent knowledge of HTML will be completely comfortable with this book. Eric demonstrates how to take exsiting designs and make them look professional and sophisticated, without resorting to bloated markup packed with font tags and spacer images. I got "Eric Meyer on CSS" for Christmas and spent much of the Christmas period reading it. I tackled the whole book initially without using a computer. Eric's writing style is conversational and amusing, putting the reader at ease immediately. I could follow each project without difficulty, eyes widening with every page. I am already pretty good at using CSS, but with each page I learned more. After finishing it, I went back and worked through the book with the computer, following each example and going through the various end-of-chapter experiments. Gaps in my knowledge were filled in and my understanding grew with each project. Having finished the book completely, I am eager to begin experimenting on my own projects. "Eric Meyer on CSS" has left me excited about what can be achieved and I strongly recommend it to those that want to further enhance any existing knowledge of basic CSS.
Rating:
Summary: A pleasure to work through!
Review: Books in Australia are hideously expensive, particularly technical ones - so I generally spend a great deal of time researching which one is going to be the best value. I can honestly say this is one of the best book buys I've made, and is certainly not gathering any dust - rather it's getting tattered way too soon from overuse! Being busy, it's a case of working through each project when I can but find that I actually look forward to doing so ahead of time. I've dabbled in CSS for some time now, and even though this is not a definitive reference book, Eric makes it so easy to follow each step, tossing in useful information along the way. It's easy enough to supplement this by looking up CSS references online. The extensive list of project files means you can pick up a project at any stage or skip ahead to compare how you are doing. Eric's pleasant and easy writing style makes for an enjoyable read. I love this book!
Rating: 
Summary: Enough five star reviews. It's not that good
Review: The problem with CSS books is that they always take two tracks: They're either a rote reference of the specification, or they're random "projects" that the author either thinks are interesting or, more likely, just happened to complete himself at work, so he feels qualified to write about it. Eric Meyer on CSS is the latter, and it suffers greatly for it, especially if you don't just happen to need exactly the kind of site he likes to create. Which, quite frankly, are unexciting, especially when you consider some of the impressive CSS on the Web today. But the big problem is that core CSS topics are only mentioned--often in passing--when they solve a problem for a project. You'll get no run-down of the importance between various positioning styles, for example, until the CSS he uses throughout the whole book suddenly doesn't work and he has to try something different. Don't get me wrong, this book isn't worthless, but everyone here is acting like this book is a cure-all, and it's not. If you want to master CSS, you will still need several books, none of which are perfect.
Rating:
Summary: CSS: (C)ompletely (S)ane (S)ystem
Review: Eric has made CSS sane. It is now finally safe to go back to those old designs you did, and re-write them safely; logically and with minimal chances of drowning. I had a wonderful time with this book; using it to clean up and modernize many old web designs I've done over the years. You'll find it straight forward and very readable. Plenty of code, explanations, suggestions, color photos and design concepts. But the real action is the project-approach that this book takes. Work through them and then tackle your own stuff. If you're serious about using the power of CSS, make the investment in Mr. Meyer's 300+ pages of clarity. Thanks Eric! Keep 'em coming.
Rating:
Summary: Extend you capabilities
Review: I've utilized CSS for quite a while (being an early adopter on my personal site) and had a strong grasp of the language. This book proved to be a great surprise as I learned some great tips and tricks for Cascading Style Sheets and expanded my understanding of some of the fundamental intricacies within pure CSS (as opposed to browser-mangled support). I leant this book to a friend of mine who is familiar, though not an expert with CSS and she found it just as useful (if not more so) than I do. This isn't a CSS manual, if you don't have a decent CSS reference, I highly recommend that you pick one up. Even better if it is by Eric too. ;) Eric is a great source of CSS information and I hope he continues to produce such great material.
Rating:
Summary: I've recommended this book to 5 people a day since I got it!
Review: I was personally disappointed in this book, being the tech geek that I am. And yet I still end up recommending it to about 5 people a day since I got it. This book is project-based, and walks the reader through several designs using CSS. I remember thinking at first glance at this book "Not what I was looking for, but WOW! this would be very useful for . . .". And with that, I began evangelizing. I kept the book for a couple of days, reading through it, and showing it to several web site designers who after a quick glance would write down the title so they could get their own copy. Then I left the book with our two web developers, who were last seen wrestling over who got to use the book first (my company paid for the book, so I felt no loss). Now, as I mentioned, I'm a tech geek. I read the specs on the W3C website to find most of the info I want to know. I really liked Eric Meyer's "CSS: The Definitive Guide" and frequently visit the author's website ... for pointers and tips on using CSS (not to mention his fun little articles about life in general). But I realize for most people, they need a little more guidance - this book offers just that. This book is just one step down from having Eric Meyer come in and walk you through CSS. If you've been interested in using CSS, but have felt like it's a little out of reach, this book will put CSS firmly in your grasp. I have never seen a book that has generated this kind of excitement among our designers & developers. Buy it now before it's out-of-stock again!
Rating:
Summary: A great way to learn real-world CSS!
Review: "Eric Meyer on CSS" is one of the first and only books on CSS to take a real world and hands-on-teaching approach to CSS. You will learn CSS and how to apply it to real world situations, which helps to re-enforce what you are learning. This book will guide you through a series of well thought out projects that show you how CSS and can be used to solve problems. The book is in full-color, which makes it fun to read. Eric's writing style is very approachable and conversational, which makes you feel comfortable. His tips on browser bugs and gotchas are worth the price of the book alone! You should have a solid understand of basic HTML and web design principles before you read this book. But once you are ready to learn CSS - make sure this is a book you don't pass up! In a market flooded with technical regurgitations and theoretical pontifications, it is so refreshing to see this kind of approach taken with a subject like CSS. There is just no better way to teach CSS! As a fellow author and Web developer, reading this book was not only informative but very engaging and entertaining! This book should be part of every Web designer/developers curriculum. Do I have any complaints? Nope, I just wish there was MORE of it!
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