CSS: The Missing Manual

CSS: The Missing Manual
David Sawyer McFarland
O’Reilly
ISBN: 0-596-52687-3
Non-Fiction, Computer, Websites
Reviewed by Dr. Tami Brady

Creating websites using html can be very time consuming and somewhat limiting. Making editing changes over multiple pages is downright maddening. Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) is the answer.
CSS enables the webmaster to set standards such as selecting a particular font size and color for all headings, subheadings, or texts without having to rewrite the html each time. This system also allows editing changes that carry over from one page to another to be changed automatically with a single change. For those trying to manage websites with hundreds of pages, CSS is an obvious must have.
CSS can be undertaken in two ways: manually or in association with various website design programs. Webmasters can manually insert CSS into their existing html code. Doing so is pretty simple, especially for those used to writing their own html. Alternately, Dreamweaver 8 comes automatically equipped with CSS and is simply a matter of choosing formatting options.
Webmasters using either option will definitely find this book valuable. This text includes step by step instructions so that the reader can learn by doing. Actually working with the code is probably the best way to understand the capabilities and time saving abilities of CSS. Even those using the automatic CSS systems will benefit from this aspect while troubleshooting or just realizing the extents of what CSS can do.