Best way to learn CSS?

[AnthroAndStargate]

I am getting ready to get back into webdesign and I would like to learn CSS, etc.

Does anyone know of the "must have" book or site that will help? Thanks!

 

[blurredvision]

I just recently taught myself CSS, and I used this book to great effect. IMO, it's a fantastic book that works at a great pace, is easy to understand, and the examples are fantastic. I honestly wouldn't have another book.

CSS is pretty easy to learn to begin with, this book only made it easier.

 

[Markbnj]

Eric Meyer has a lot of good stuff on his blog at http://meyerweb.com/eric/css/

 

[brikis98]

IMO, the best way to learn is by doing. pick a website or two that you want to code - either your own projects, or just try to match the look of an existing website for practice - and go at it. there are plenty of tutorials online (google "css tutorial") to get you started and remember your best friend: view source. actually, i also *highly* recommend getting the firebug plugin for firefox and using its "inspect" and "DOM" tools to really see how CSS works.

 

[Turkish]

CSS is not to be learned from a book. If you had said PHP or something to that effect, yeah, a book would be good but CSS is fairly simple to grasp and can be learned at home by practice. If you insist, I recommend Sitepoint books.

 

[RaiderJ]

A couple of really good CSS template sites are out there, CSS Zen Garden and Open Source Web Design come to mind. I'd say if you can create pages along those lines, you're doing pretty good. And, all of their code is available to look at - which makes things nice for learning.

 

[AnthroAndStargate]

Thanks for all the help - I'll check these out!

 

[blurredvision]

Originally posted by: Turkish
CSS is not to be learned from a book.

A book is definitely a great resource IMO, so I disagree with you. I used the book I linked above to get a lot of CSS info from one place. In addition to the info, there were plenty of pictures and references to many common problems you'll run into, including how to fix said problems. Using a book is no different than googling for syntax, except with a book, most everything you need to know about CSS is in one place. Sometimes it's nice to just sit on the front porch on a nice day and read a couple of chapters in a book instead of being hunkered over a keyboard googling for info when you need it.

Personally, I just prefer to use a book as my tutorial, even with something as simple as CSS. After you learn the language, then you can switch to using search engines to get more indepth knowledge on particular problems.

 

[Turkish]

Originally posted by: blurredvision

Originally posted by: Turkish
CSS is not to be learned from a book.

A book is definitely a great resource IMO, so I disagree with you. I used the book I linked above to get a lot of CSS info from one place. In addition to the info, there were plenty of pictures and references to many common problems you'll run into, including how to fix said problems. Using a book is no different than googling for syntax, except with a book, most everything you need to know about CSS is in one place. Sometimes it's nice to just sit on the front porch on a nice day and read a couple of chapters in a book instead of being hunkered over a keyboard googling for info when you need it.

Personally, I just prefer to use a book as my tutorial, even with something as simple as CSS. After you learn the language, then you can switch to using search engines to get more indepth knowledge on particular problems.

You are right, after rereading what I wrote, I totally missaid what I had in thought. What I was trying to say is that you shouldn't feel that you HAVE to use a book to learn CSS. It can be learned without one as it is much easier to learn than say, a serverside rogramming language like PHP

 

[blurredvision]

Originally posted by: Turkish
What I was trying to say is that you shouldn't feel that you HAVE to use a book to learn CSS. It can be learned without one as it is much easier to learn than say, a serverside rogramming language like PHP

I'll agree with that. When I started teaching myself CSS, I was amazed at how easy it was. The biggest problems you have to deal with is cross-browser compatibility and inheritence, IMO. You can definitely learn all you need to know by using internet tutorials. I'm just a book whore, though . Anytime I set out to learn something, I use a book. Being able to reference almost anything in a well-written book is too valuable to me. Of course, the problem then becomes trying to find a book that is halfway decent, because there's a lot of crap out there.

 

[GundamSonicZeroX]

I bought this book. Even though I already knew the languages, the book was still a good resource. Not only does it teach the three languages really well, it also teaches about good web design.

 

[IronWing]

Originally posted by: Markbnj
Eric Meyer has a lot of good stuff on his blog at http://meyerweb.com/eric/css/

I have Eric Meyer's css book which I read cover to cover. It is dull, pompous, self righteous, and very informative. Everything you hoped never to learn about css containers, boxes, and blocks.

 

[Fullmetal Chocobo]

The CSS section @ w3schools is a great place to start. That site is excellent for many languages.

 

[Salma]

Originally posted by: AnthroAndStargate
I am getting ready to get back into webdesign and I would like to learn CSS, etc.

Does anyone know of the "must have" book or site that will help? Thanks!

well personnaly,i find "google" efficient...You have just to type css courses..
in fact Am from morocco..and i study css in frensh..when i tape" cours de css" i find a lot of courses!!

 

[Cerb]

Originally posted by: GundamSonicZeroX
I bought this book. Even though I already knew the languages, the book was still a good resource. Not only does it teach the three languages really well, it also teaches about good web design.

Watch out with such resources, though (Meyer's isn't bad, but you'll find some following links from there). Changing fonts and their sizes can horribly break things, since MS decided that display: table-cell wasn't worth supporting. Many websites also assume things about fonts, too (and then go and do stupid things like using pixel sizes for them), that end up causing problems. Be pragmatic, and test; not a purist.

My recommendations are to keep the W3Schools CSS reference bookmarked, and get Firebug.

 

[Vogel515]

Tutorials are the best way to learn CSS...

I suggest downloading multiple browsers as well - make sure you have IE 6 because it sucks the most.

CSS is a very easy to learn tool and it has a ton of functionality.

I learned through visiting sites I liked and then I attempted to replicate them using 100% CSS. Whenever I ran into a jam I would look up tutorials on how particular things are done.