CSS Pocket Reference

Most designers of Web pages know the main frustration of HTML code. You can't really use it to control the visual presentation of what appears on screen.

This should not be surprising, because it wasn't designed for that purpose. But now cascading style sheets have come to the rescue. This is the approved method for enriching the appearance of web pages. This is a quick reference guide to the key concepts of style sheets. It contains an alphabetical list of all the properties in the standard CSS2.0 version, plus the CSS2.1 pseudo-elements and pseudo-classes.



Everything in these pocket references from O'Reilly has been pared to the bone. They are literally something you keep in the desk drawer or the front compartment of your brief case for quick solutions. Probably the most useful part of the book is the second half, which is a thoroughly detailed list of browser support for style sheets. It covers Netscape versions 4 and 6, Explorer versions 3, 4, and 5, and Opera versions 3 and 4.

A glance at these tables is slightly depressing. There is still a lot of incompatibility. But they are useful, because the differences are quite plain to see. The good news is that the differences should disappear with the next generation of browsers.

Anyone who wishes to move beyond the confines of HTML will eventually have to confront style sheets [and XHTML]. This is the minimalist reference for anyone who wants to correctly implement CSS2 and CSS2.1. If you need more details, they are all available in Eric Meyer's other book, Cascading Style Sheets: The Definitive Guide.