Getting StartED with CSS by David Powers (2010)

Knowledge of Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) is essential for developing modern, attractive websites, but many beginners are put off by the need to learn about unfamiliar concepts, such as selectors, properties, and classes, before they can achieve anything.

Getting StartED with CSS takes a practical approach by showing you how to use CSS in simple stages, starting by changing the default appearance of HTML tags to improve the look of text and links. It assumes no prior knowledge of CSS and avoids bombarding you with unnecessary technical details. At the same time, it explains all the main points and acts as a reference that you can come back to when you need to refresh your memory. More advanced concepts are introduced gradually, so that by the end of the book you’ll have a solid understanding of all the main aspects of CSS. Particular attention is paid to avoiding the common pitfalls of beginners, enabling you to create websites that not only look good, but also are easy to maintain.

• Requires no previous knowledge of CSS
• Instant results—starts off by showing how improve the look of a website stage by stage
• Doesn’t bombard you with endless rules and jargon

What you’ll learn

• Immediately improve the look of your entire website by controlling fonts and colors with just a few lines of code.
• Understand how to control the layout of elements on the page without resorting to complex tables.
• Add background images that appear exactly where you want them.
• Create effective style sheets that are easy to maintain by avoiding common mistakes such as overreliance on classes (“classitis”).
• Learn how browsers display page elements and master CSS positioning.
• Experiment with advanced CSS selectors.

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Who is this book for?

This book is aimed at anybody who wants to learn how to style websites using CSS. The primary readership is likely to be independent web developers and serious hobbyists, but knowledge of CSS is essential to anyone planning a career in web development, so it should also find a place in the curriculum of academic courses in media studies.