Rating: 
Summary: Excellent Example Based Reference
Review: I'm the type of person who can read page after page of history, theory, and reasoning and in the end get absolutely nothing out of it. However, give me just one concrete example and I can recreate that a hundred times as well as modify that to my specific needs.That's where this book succeeds - the examples are precise and to the point. I get more knowledge out of this book that I would in say a "for dummies" book that's triple the size; that's how effective it is for beginners, as well as a very handy reference for those more experienced programmers.
Rating: 
Summary: Very Good, Up To A Point
Review: Jason Teague does a nice job of introducing CSS and its use with Java to create DHTML pages. Teague is stronger on design than programming, however, and that's where the book falls short. JavaScript is the engine that makes DHTML work, but there is very little coverage of JavaScript basics in this book. Teague apparently assumes the reader knows basic JavaScript. So, he focuses his efforts on explaining the Document Object Model (DOM) that allows JavaScript to interact with web pages, and how to use the DOM to accomplish various tasks. One shortcoming of the book is that it devotes inordinate attention to legacy web browser issues. At one time, there were three different DOMs (Microsoft, Netscape, and W3C, a standards organization). The current generation of browswers have fallen in line behind the W3C, and its DOM has emerged as the dominant model for DHTML pages. Teague spends many pages explaining how to address these legagy DOMs, which makes the discussion longer and more complicated than it really needs to be. Be aware that Teague misuses the term 'DOM'. He talks of 'creating a DOM' every time one gets a reference to an object on an HTML page. The DOM is actually created by the browser when it loads the page. We access the DOM to get an object reference. I personally found Teague's use of the term very confusing, and that steepened the DHTML learning curve for me. Teague's JavaScript code is very difficult to decipher, which is surprising in a book that is apparently targeted to web designers. One would expect simple, clear code that non-programmers could follow. Instead, the code violates a number of good programming practices--variable names are generally not descptive, and program logic is often knotted up in a tangle of nested 'if' statements. The drop-down menu code in Chapter 24 provides a good example of these problems. But the biggest problem stems from a simple lack of formatting of the code. Teague prefers the older style of packing as many statements as possible on a single line--the code reads like a 'C' program from twenty years ago. In order to decipher the code, one must first unpack the lines to spread out the code, then apply proper indentation to figure out which 'else' statements are nested within which 'if' statements. That's a tedious, time-consuming, and very avoidable exercise. I'd recommend this book for its exposition of CSS, and I'd give it a 'pretty good' rating for its handling of the DOM. But if you are diving into DHTML, use this book to get your feet wet. Then find a good JavaScript book to learn the ins and outs of manipulating the DOM and adding client-side interaction to your web pages.
Rating:
Summary: Engaging, concise, and very useful!
Review: Like another reviewer, I too found the examples quite engaging (Alice in Wonderland!). This is a required text book for my advanced Web-authoring course and it's easy to see why. The section on building the cross-browswer DOM is by itself worth the price of admission. My web authoring skills and knowledge have been greatly enhanced in a very short time period. Scoop-a-rific!
Rating:
Summary: Refreshingly Inspirational
Review: Looking for cool ways to build a website without having to spend too much time learning? Then this is the book for you! I was impressed with the example website, "Sandman Film", for ways to use DHTML. Very easy to understand and implement. Thank you, Jason!
Rating:
Summary: DHTML and CSS: Clearly written, no fluff, good basic book.
Review: Not a comprehensive book, but really easy to read. The information is organized and presented clearly from both the architectural and visual standpoints. Good reference, and good learning tool. It could be improved by adding some summary table "cheatsheets" on browser rendering differences, bugs, etc., and a few more examples, but I recommend it for begining and intermediate designers.
Rating: 
Summary: This book is teaching you W3C DOM compliant Dynamic HTML
Review: Second Edition (June 2001) of this book is very good, and is - at the time of writing - the only DHTML book I've seen which teaches you W3C standard DOM based Dynamic HTML. This is a very important point in my opinion, and it really makes it the one and only book to choose until other books gets updated or new titles emerges. W3C standard based DHTML are supported by browsers like Internet Explorer 5+, Netscape 6+, Opera 4+, Konqueror 2.1+, Mozilla and other Mozilla/Gecko-based browsers, and is _the_ standard "all" browser will support in the future. But the IE4 and NS4.x browsers are not forgotten, the book teaches you how to make your code compatible with these browsers too, even though they don't support the W3C standard DOM. The book has support and bug-information about various Netscape and Microsoft browser versions, but do not go into deeper details with the alternative browsers like Opera and Konqueror. Actually Opera is the only "alternative" browser which is briefly mentioned in the book. However the coding style used in the book always favours "feature sensing" over "browser sensing" when ever possible, so most code should work with the lesser known W3C DOM compliant browsers too. The book is split into two parts, a CSS-part and a DHTML-part. It seems like a wise idea to teach CSS before starting DHTML, since most people starting on DHTML problably haven't used CSS that much yet. It is a book for beginners in CSS and DHTML, not an advanced book. The style is typical of the "Visual Quickstart Guide". This means the book is designed to be a combined reference and a teaching-book. In my opinion the book can be a little boring reading from start to the end, because it has a tendensy to repeat things. For example when you have learned the basic CSS syntax for defining styles you don't really have to get it spelled out how the syntax is for every style-property in the rest of the book. Just mentioning the name of the property and the possible values should be enough, and you can always check the code-examples if in dought. This is problably a matter of taste, but it is the reason I can "only" give this generally very good book 4 stars.
Rating: 
Summary: outdated and needlessly complex
Review: Teague is thorough in his coverage of CSS, but there's nothing here that Castro's HTML book doesn't cover better, and the CSS appendix doesn't reference the relevant pages so it's harder to use. Teague appears to favor a hard-coded positioning approach over a more semantic style to achieve the same layout, so it's already behind the prevailing trend in design. The DHTML section is short on foundations and uses object-oriented code without explaining how or why that aspect works. It embodies the worst of the Visual Quickstart Guide format: cursory descriptions (at best) for the first appearance of a bit of code, then it glosses over every subsequent use with not even a reminder. Thus it's not a good choice for someone new to Javascript or programming, and those who are familiar with Javascript and web design would probably choose another method over the bloated, API-style programming in this book. If you're mostly interested in using Javascript's styles object in concert with CSS, this is a poor choice. Peachpit's Javascript book is easier to use and more in tune with web standards.
Rating:
Summary: Good CSS and DOM coverage, Lousy JavaScript Coverage
Review: Teague knows his CSS well. This book provides one of the best introductions to CSS on the market. And Teague's coverage of the DOM is easy to grasp, too.
But in the second half of the book, devoted to JavaScript, Teague's head starts to revolve ever so slightly. Based on what I read in the book, Teague doesn't know JavaScript well enough to write clean, modern scripts, and he has trouble explaining what little he does seem to know.
I'm not sure why the publisher felt it necessary to bloat this book by including JavaScript in it. One of their other QuickStart Guides is devoted entirely to JavaScript, and it's a great book, written by an author (Tom Negrino) who knows his stuff. This book should have stuck to CSS, period. Then the publisher would have had an invaluable trilogy of Web books, starting with Castro's XHTML, followed by Teague's CSS and Negrino's JavaScript.
Rating:
Summary: Really Good Book!
Review: The books conversational style helped me follow the writers concepts much more easily than the overtly verbose yet impersonal books that used to clutter my desk and bookshelves. I think anyone with prior knkowledge of HTML and Javascript who really wants a QuickStart {pun unintended} to DHTML and CSS should snap up this book. It not only shows you what to do but actually takes the time to illustrate what not to do! I have found that really tie breaking and refer to it's companion website http://www.webbedenvironments.com/dhtml for it samples, updates and new tips. The site also has tips on other topics that i've found very interestiing.
Rating: 
Summary: Full of errors and typos
Review: The editing and proofreading processes in publishing this book seem to have been bypassed altogether. This book is ripe with errors and typos that will confuse the unfortunate CSS neophyte. It appears to be another example of a web-development book that was rushed to press well before it was ready. I plan on returning the book for a refund.
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