Over the past couple of years, web designers and developers have begun taking more care in designing and building web sites. Less readily do they turn to old-fashioned techniques such as GIF spacers, tables for layout, and deprecated HTML elements, which can cause accessibility/usability problems and are just bad practice. There are three main web standards married together to create usable, standards-compliant web designs - XHTML for data structure, JavaScript for dynamic effects, and Cascading Style Sheets for styling your data. Working as a companion to our Web Standards Solutions book, this title covers advanced Cascading Style Sheet techniques, and includes are all the techniques you need to master CSS and craft modern, standards-compliant web page designs. You'll already know why you should be using CSS, so we don't bore you with pages of theory; instead, we jump straight into practical solutions, allowing you to get what you need as quickly as possible. Renowned web designer Andy Budd starts off by introducing the elements of an effective CSS toolkit, including good working practices, the cascade, the box model, relative and absolute positioning, floating, and more. He then delves into advanced techniques like replacing images, styling links and lists, creating navigation menus, making forms look good, debugging and overcoming browser quirks, and hacking and filtering. The book is rounded off with two case studies to give you inspiration for your own designs, written by two more of the world's finest web designers, Simon Collinson and Cameron Moll.
This book is your indispensable guide to cutting-edge CSS development--all you need to work your way up to CSS professional. You'll learn how to: Plan, organize, and maintain your stylesheets more effectively Apply the secrets of liquid, elastic, and hybrid layouts Create flickr?-style image maps, remote rollovers, and other advanced CSS features Lay out forms using pure CSS Recognize common browser bugs, and how to fix them While CSS is a relatively simple technology to learn, it is a difficult one to master. When you first start developing sites using CSS, you will come across all kinds of infuriating browser bugs and inconsistencies. It sometimes feels like there are a million and one different techniques to master, spread across a bewildering array of websites. The range of possibilities seems endless and makes for a steep and daunting learning curve. By bringing all of the latest tips, tricks, and techniques together in one handy reference, this book demystifies the secrets of CSS and makes the journey to CSS mastery as simple and painless as possible.While most books concentrate on basic skills, this one is different, assuming that you already know the basics and why you should be using CSS in your work, and concentrating mainly on advanced techniques.
It begins with a brief recap of CSS fundamentals such as the importance of meaningful markup, how to structure and maintain your code, and how the CSS layout model really works. With the basics out of the way, each subsequent chapter details a particular aspect of CSS-based design. Through a series of easy-to-follow tutorials, you will learn practical CSS techniques you can immediately start using in your daily work. Browser inconsistencies are the thorn in most CSS developers' sides, so we have dedicated two whole chapters to CSS hacks, filters, and bug fixing, as well as looking at image replacement; professional link, form, and list styling; pure CSS layouts; and much more. All of these techniques are then put into practice in two beautifully designed case studies, written by two of the world's best CSS designers, Simon Collison and Cameron Moll.Summary of Contents: Chapter 1: Setting the Foundations Chapter 2: Visual Formatting Model Recap Chapter 3: Background Images and Image Replacement Chapter 4: Styling Links Chapter 5: Styling Lists and Creating Nav Bars Chapter 6: Styling Forms and Data Tables Chapter 7: Layout Chapter 8: Hacks and Filters Chapter 9: Bugs and Bug Fixing Case Study 1: More Than Doodles Case Study 2: Tuscany Luxury Resorts
