Note: A new edition of this book has been released. Please look for "The CSS Anthology, 2nd Edition" (ISBN: 097584198X)

A practical guide on CSS (Cascading Style Sheets) for professionals and novices, that can be used both as a tutorial and read cover-to-cover or as a handy and practical reference book to common problems, solutions and effects.

The Question and Answer format makes it easy for readers to solve their problems and learn more about common pitfalls and workarounds.

CSS has been growing steadily in its adoption as a technology. CSS gives the developer complete control over how an HTML page looks without using cumbersome HTML tags- truly separating content from presentation. Many major organizations have been adopting CSS technology e.g. www.wired.com.

A practical guide on CSS (Cascading Style Sheets) for professionals and novices, that can be used both as a tutorial and read cover-to-cover or as a handy and practical reference book to common problems, solutions and effects.

The Question and Answer format makes it easy for readers to solve their problems and learn more about common pitfalls and workarounds.

CSS has been growing steadily in its adoption as a technology. CSS gives the developer complete control over how an HTML page looks without using cumbersome HTML tags- truly separating content from presentation. Many major organizations have been adopting CSS technology e.g. www.wired.com.

Truly "Essential" If You’ve Not Been Around the Block A Hundred Times
CSS is difficult to master, and most who have have done so over a period of years, through trial and error, and from picking up tips one by one from the community of practitioners. Rachel Andrew’s CSS Anthology doesn’t offer much for the CSS veterans (I found only 1 tip I didn’t know), but it’s is absolutely full of all the good stuff that we CSS authors treasure and, of course, USE on a daily basis. The best part? Most instances in this book follow Web standards--you won’t find that to be true with many other CSS books.

So Far...Not Very Good
After reading two great Sitepoint books* cover to cover and returning to them again and again, I thought "The CSS Anthology" would be another good purchase.

Unfortunately, this book makes learning web design as frustrating as the other two books made it easy. I’m on the verge of returning it.

The writing is not as simple, clever or memorable (important in a How-to) as the other books. Instead, the author tends to complicate rather simple concepts and blur the lines between topics.

I’m at about an intermediate level with CSS. The few solutions here that aren’t too basic are hopelessly complicated by bad writing. It is easy to waste a day trying to get something from this book to work, simply because the subject was not well presented.

Because "The CSS Anthology" is not designed to be read straight through- I find myself using internet tutorials to find the same information. Not only do the Internet solutions tend to work better, they’re easier to find and easier to understand.

I’ll probably try to get my money back. Skip this one from the Sitepoint library.

*"Build Your Own Websites the Right Way Using HTML & CSS" and "The Principles of Beautiful Web Design"- Both excellent for beginners

Great Buy
For those of us who are beginners or intermediate programmers of CSS, I would recommend this book. From beginning use to advanced hints and tips, this book has something for everyone. Any book that helps me to learn even one item more than I already knew is a benefit to my library, and you can’t beat Amazon.com for price!

A Good Guide With Poor Planning
This book has some good examples, and the way that the author describes the code is very well done. I question the overall value of this book, though, because this book is designed with neither the beginner, nor the advanced user in mind.

Ms. Andrews begins her book by making an incredibly quick overview of how CSS works and what it’s for, but by no means explains it in enough detail for a beginner to really catch on. As she progresses through the question and answer format, she will quickly lose whatever intended audience she thought she had: the first half of the book is painfully simple, the second half is too advanced for the beginners, and probably too basic for advanced users.

It is difficult to use the guide as a direct reference because of it’s format...an unfortunate problem that comes of the way she chose to write this book.

While I do feel that this guide increased my knowledge of CSS, I can’t say that the few little tricks I learned were necessarily worth the money I spent on the guide, and that serious users should consider another option.

Very helpful book
I am a web designer by career. And when our company began moving into CSS, I thought I’d better find some good books. This one was fantastic. It’s filled with a lot of examples and tricks that not only taught me about CSS at a level I could quickly grasp, but it also provided examples that I could actually pull and use in my projects.

I own other sitepoint books such as "The Principles of Beautiful Web Design" and "CSS the Ultimate Reference" and they are all fantastic. I’m beginning to think that sitepoint is a great source for knowledge. I recommnend this book highly.

excellent!!!
A great helper book for all those little things that might happen to go wrong.

Great way to learn CSS
I really like the Q&A format of this book. It’s a great way to learn about CSS. I’ve read 80% of the book so far and think the author explains things very well. She makes it easy to understand when and why to use some CSS rules in each task.

very usefull and to the point
This book, on CSS, is written very clearly with very good illustrations of the poblem as well as the solution.
It is oraganized as a sort of an FAQ, and gets to the point very quickly.
Also it pays an equal amount of attention to the most frequently used browsers anno 2007.
It has chapters for novices on CSS, and it has chapters for advanced users.
For me it worked best to read it from cover to cover, and from there on use the index if I’m running into a CSS problem.

All the CSS effects and tricks you want to learn explained clearly
I consider this book a must have.

All the little things you want to know how to accomplish with CSS are explained clearly with pictures and the code included.

The table of contents is unlike most books. Each individual tip or trick is presented in the form of a question, as if the reader were asking it. So instead of "how to position a background image," for instance, you get "How do I position my background image?" instead. It’s an interesting approach that makes the book a little more friendly.

Here are the chapter topics:
1. Getting Started with CSS
2. Text Styling and Other Basics
3. CSS and Images
4. Navigation
5. Tabular Data
6. Forms and User Interfaces
7. Cross-browser Techniques
8. Accessibility and Alternative Devices
9. CSS Positioning and Layout

The chapters on Navigation and CSS Positioning and Layout are worth the cost of the book alone.

As a beginner to CSS recently, this book showed me exactly how to do all the things I wanted to do, quickly. I will keep it on my desk for quick reference in the future.

This book is not meant to teach you CSS but it is meant to show you how to accomplish certain effects using CSS.

Another BIG plus is that you can register your book on the SitePoint site and receive the ENTIRE code file from the book sent to you by email. How great is that?

I highly recommend this book.

Sorta cheesy lookin’ but WOW
This is what I’ve been looking for. It just took me ten books to get here. Simple problem-solution format. With tons of examples and source code online. No pandering to noobs, but not written to exclude them, either.
I’m the kind that likes to go right into a project and learn the technologies as I go. I’ve done a bunch of websites using WYSIWYG editors and got to the point I needed to work the code myself. I checked into current standards and learned about XHTML and CSS. Rather than just modify existing projects, I started fresh and followed standards from the get go.
But since I don’t read books on languages or technologies from cover to cover (does anyone?), I need a book that lists possible problems and real solutions. Not pointers to go back and read half a dozen chapters in some "learn over a weekend or a lifetime" kinda thing. This is that book.
My current project needed non-java menus that gave the web2.0 kinda look. Bingo! Here tis.
If you do CSS, you’ll find this book useful. CSS reminds me of JCL in that there’s no logic involved, just a lot of memorization. This will help when you forget - or never read it in the first place.
Good book - well org’ed.

Any serious college-level computer library needs this.
THE CSS ANTHOLOGY: 101 ESSENTIAL TIPS, TRICKS & HACKS gathers the best practice solutions from the most challenging CSS problems and places them - and their source code - under one cover perfect for any programmer handling the demands of CSS web standards programming. This new edition has been completely revised to cover the latest techniques and newest browsers, with chapters showing how to troubleshoot common problems, use the latest CSS techniques to solve them, and offering up color-coded boxes of CSS recipes and examples to streamline learning. Any serious college-level computer library needs this.

Excellent Source of CSS Information
This book has proven to be an invaluable source of information for CSS and web design! I have used CSS over the past few years, and Rachel Andrew’s is an excellent book that ties concepts together with pratical and well planned examples. I highly recommend this book to any individual wanting to see CSS in action.

Not bad
Not a bad book
Very text heavy though and operates best as a reference book than anything else. CD that comes with it is useful.
You can work through this book over a weekend and get a firm grasp on CSS fundamentals. Not inspiring though, just handy.

Not bad
Not a bad book
Very text heavy though and operates best as a reference book than anything else. CD that comes with it is useful.
You can work through this book over a weekend and get a firm grasp on CSS fundamentals. Not inspiring though, just handy.

I hate coding but this made it easy!
THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU for writing this book RACHEL ANDREW!

After many frustrating attempts looking for a CSS book, this is the only book I’ve found that had me ENJOYING doing the code. I’m a designer at heart and I HATE coding. This book made it very easy for me to get my CSS web pages quickly up and running.

Every section presents a question and an answer on how to do the CSS. For example "How do I create tabbed navigation with CSS?" She would then present the HTML, an image of how the page should look, then the CSS, and briefly explain how it works.

This is great for beginners and intermediate learning. It’s not so heavy on theory that you get lost, she makes it easy to learn. I wish all coding books were like this.

I hate coding but this made it easy!
THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU for writing this book RACHEL ANDREW!



After many frustrating attempts looking for a CSS book, this is the only book I’ve found that had me ENJOYING doing the code. I’m a designer at heart and I HATE coding. This book made it very easy for me to get my CSS web pages quickly up and running.



Every section presents a question and an answer on how to do the CSS. For example "How do I create tabbed navigation with CSS?" She would then present the HTML, an image of how the page should look, then the CSS, and briefly explain how it works.



This is great for beginners and intermediate learning. It’s not so heavy on theory that you get lost, she makes it easy to learn. I wish all coding books were like this.

All in one book about you need to know on CSS
Excellent. Clear, practical and funny.

Very good for the beginner.
After reading this book it has made it a lot simpler to understand the commands and the structure of CSS. If you are new to this read from cover to cover and you will have a better understanding of CSS.

tremendously helpful!
Ms Andrew is not only a compelling and interesting writer, her ability to describe complex situations in a way that’s understandable and easy is truly a gift.

I’ve long been a fan of SitePoint for instructional books and this one is truly well worth twice the price.

The CSS Anthology: 101 Essential Tips
For a few years now I have been maintaining a web site set up by someone else that used a minimum of CSS properties. It is now time to make the site over and I found myself with a lot of questions about how to use more CSS properties to make the site fully compliant with the W3C standards.
The author does a very good job of breaking things down and making it much easier to understand. I’m not someone that likes to just copy someone else’s work so I need to know the why’s, as much as the how’s to getting things done. This book is not my only source, but it definitely helped me to understand CSS properties much more.

Best Tech Book I Own
With a bookshelf of unread and semi-read tech books, this is the first technical book I can honestly say I read from cover to cover, and reference on a very regularly basis.

It’s written in an easy to understand, easy to follow manner, that allows you to "get" what she’s talking about rather than just stare at the page. Everything is example based, and there’s no fluff.

With a little time, you can create a very professional, custom website using the examples in this book, (and you can download the code, so you don’t even have to retype it).

Easy to read if you have any experience with CSS already
This was a great book that helped me learn how to go totally tableless. It teaches how to use divs with positioning. This book teaches by giving solutions to common questions people have about CSS. I recommend that you only get the book if you have some knowledge about CSS already.

Good CSS reference.
My favorite CSS reference to date. Does a nice job of explaining why particular techniques work and the possible future pitfalls of using them. The problem/solution format might not be for everyone, but I have found it to be quite to my liking. Much more useful on a daily basis than the 500+ page tomes I’ve had in the past. Rachel Andrew knows her stuff.

Practical excellence
Thanks to Rachel for an excellent, readable, most practical book. I gained considerable knowledge as this book filled in so many gaps and questions, and was such a compelling read that I was unable to put it down.
Thank you Rachel and Site Point

Waste of money
No good for a beginner and irrelevant for the more experienced.
In the form of a series of questions and answers. It’s neither a tutorial nor a desktop reference.
If you need to learn CSS try Eric Meyer’s "Cascading Style Sheets, the Definitive Guide" and Charlie Wyke-Smith’s "Stylin’ with CSS".

Beginners, Start Here!
After checking out several books from my local library I knew that the subject of CSS could be complicated if not delivered correctly. I came across this book and liked it so much I had to add it to my collection. This book takes a case study perspective of teaching you all that you need to know. But prior to jumping right into the deapth of the material, the author takes a second to explain why CSS has quickly become the industry standard.

This is a must have if you are looking for a launching pad!

An essential book for all CSS users
This book has received countless positive reviews already, and I agree with all the rave reviews. Although I have not time to put all the techniques, tips, tricks, & hacks to use yet, they will all come in handy when time comes for me to use them. I particular like the chapter on the hacks. I learned much from it.

I did read the book cover to cover, and I thought that Rachel Andrew is a good writer for this sort of books. For people who don’t care for excessively technical books and still can learn some valuable things (within the subject matter, of course), this book is an easy read . . . not dry, and boring (and therefore increases the challenge for full comprehension). I will consider buying other tech books Ms. Andrew authors since I like her writing style. I will consider buying other Site Point books too.

Excellent CSS Walkthrough Guide
This book is/has become my guide when something just isn’t functioning properly or when I don’t want to remember some hack. I quickly found myself learning all sorts of best practices, and tips that resulted in many hours shaved off my development time... all of this resulting from this very book.

I have been a long time Sitepoint reader and as always they never disappoint, I look forward to many more books in the future.

Oh and I must not forget the professionalism and quality that comes from Rachel is simply rare to find in the majority of technical books in the market these days.

Tips, tricks and hacks
You have to already know and understand CSS. There is a small introduction, but after that, 101 "How do I..?" Perfect book if you are alredy familiar with the subject.

Good Book
Very objective reference about CSS. The book has a small introduction on CSS’s Structure and part immediately for practical examples.

The subjects are boarded in the book: Positioning CSS, columns in CSS, creation of alternative style, forms presentation, presentation and interaction of tabular data, effects in links, lists effects and image positioning.

I liked a lot of the book structure. It is divided into questions and answers and provides the sensation that you are talking directly with the author. Each question is followed by the solution and some has discussion. The discussion even deepens the subject carrying to the extra reader knowledges as problems with browsers, other properties values, codes optimization and hacks. Most answers own very interesting examples with simple and complex structures

The book chapters are divided by elements HTML and CSS’s special techniques. Each starts with a brief introduction on the subject and then it goes to the questions and solutions about the main needs to webdesigner. The book also owns some JavaScripts who complete the needs to interaction.

Portuguese:
Referência muito objetiva sobre CSS. O livro tem uma pequena introdução sobre a estrutura do CSS e parte imediatamente para exemplos práticos.

Os seguintes assuntos são abordados no livro: posicionamento CSS, colunas em CSS, criação de folhas de estilo alternativas, apresentação de formulários, apresentação e interação de dados tabulares, efeitos em links, listas posicionamento de imagens.

Gostei muito da estrutura do livro. Ele é dividido em perguntas e respostas e proporciona a sensação de que você está falando diretamente com o autor. Cada pergunta é seguida da solução e algumas tem discussão. A discussão aprofunda ainda mais o assunto levando ao leitor conhecimentos extras como problemas com browsers, outras valores de propriedades, otimização de códigos e hacks. A maioria das respostas possuem exemplos bem interessantes com estruturas simples e complexas

Os capítulos do livro são divididos por elementos HTML e técnicas especiais do CSS. Cada começa com uma breve introdução sobre o assunto e depois vai para as perguntas e soluções sobre as principais necessidades do webdesigner. O livro também possui alguns JavaScripts que completam as necessidades de interação.

Clear and Concise; Excellent CSS Resource
I have been dabbling with css for the last couple of years. I have primarily used it with HTML selectors. Now, I want to make a complete transition to CSS. My issues with css are these: navigation aids, browser support, and positioning and layout. My goal is to design web sites without tables that will display properly in all browsers.

This books starts out with basic css. I quickly reviewed the first few chapters. The chapters I got the most from were Forms and User Interfaces, Browser and Device Support, and, my favorite, CSS Positioning and Layout.

This book is set up very nicely. There is a question (for example, "How do I create a fixed-width, centered, two-column layout?") followed by a solution and then a discussion. The code for the css and html files are presented in the discussion section. Better yet, all the files can be downloaded from sitepoint.com. And then the solution section discusses the code point by point. My method was to open the html file in my browser and also in notepad. I also opened the css in notepad. I deleted all the code that I wanted to learn (leaving the html tags and the content). I then recreated the web page by writing the css file and linking it to the html file and modifying the file. For me, this was a good way to learn.

For any web designer that is learning css, relying too much on html tables and wants to transition to css, this is a book you should have.

This should be on your reference shelf
If you know CSS, but aren’t expert yet, this book should be one of the first purchases you make.
Issues such as browser support and accessibility should be important to designers and this book answers a lot of the issues. I’d strongly recommend this book to anyone who wants to develop sites using CSS correctly.

For a pragmatic usage
Let’s be objective, all the books following a "theorical" approach of CSS failed. The website (w3c) is not very clear, the syntax is all but easy to remember and - above all - browsers were designed by integrating their own view of CSS ; view that is sometimes far from the original w3c specs, we have to cope with w3c implementations (centering vertically you said?).

I spent a tremendous time on the net and in various books to find a solution to common problems, hardened by the differences between browsers.

This book always answered my questions ; sometimes it was not exactly the answer I was looking for, but among the 101 recipes, I always found something near enough to guide me towards a correct result.

Initially I was reluctant to purchase a developer book made of recipes. Nevertheless, I must admit this one fits the needs, it deserves all his 5 stars.

Excellent Resource to Keep Around
I’ve been using CSS for about 3 years (heavily for 1 year), and purchased this book to reference the areas of CSS that I don’t use regularly. However, the sections are quick, easy, and informative. A definite must for anyone using CSS. I also just like reference books because they’re quick to use.

A Great Guide to Get You Started in CSS!
Check out the sites I designed using this book as a reference: http://rainiersupply.com and http://tudorwebdesign.com .

Mostly basic info for pure beginners
Unless you are a complete beginner to CSS, you will probably be as disappointed with this book as I was. I am no expert on CSS having done only a few pages with it, but I already felt that I was beyond the level of this book. It does have some useful tips and techniques, but not very many that are beyond what is readily available with free on-line tutorials that can be found by googling. It also frequently takes several pages to explain basic topics that need no more than a page. Except for the few notes I’ve taken from the book, I doubt that I’ll refer to it much.

Great Book
Great book! I immediately began adding these solutions to my websites. This is one of the books I will keep for reference to reuse the code solutions in my websites.

Great Book! I’m a beginner!
This book has opened my eyes to the world of css. 101 has enabled me to update my site and have few problems. 101 has been a great reference and this book will always be near my computer. Now I need to find a great mysql book for beginners.

Some Book ...
Now, this is a book that other authors will envy. There’s no blah-blah - only brief and clear instructions on how to achieve something specific. Aw, if only all books were written like this one. Yes, it’s "only" slightly under 400 pages, but believe me, other authors would have put the same information into 600-700 pages.

On the first day I used this book, it has given me 5 immediate solutions for my own site. So it was well worth the money. Buy this, and you’ll have a quick, readable reference guide for the most common problems.

The CSS Anthology
Very helpful book. It’s great to know the theory, but with all the bugs and hacks involved with getting designs to work properly in all the browsers, web professionals need to get to the nitty gritty of simply making it work. The CSS Anthlogy provides a great "how do I" format that anyone can appreciate when a project is due and sifting through all the online info will takes years. Highly recommended resource!

Plain and Simple
This is an excellent book that covers most of the basic css applications used for websites. Very easy to read and find what you are looking for.

It stays in my breifcase at all times for a reference book.

No more frustration
This is a great book on CSS. I bought it on the strength of the reviews here, and I was not at all disappointed.

I am a developer by trade, and while I’ve had some experience with web design through various past projects, I’ve done very little with CSS. Laying web pages out in tables was what I knew, and so that’s how I did it. Occasionally, I would use CSS to pull some of the markup out of the HTML so I didn’t have to reuse it, but I never really leveraged (or understood) the power of CSS. This book changed a lot of that.

Within days of receiving this book, I started a couple new web projects. The first was a new website, and I got the opportunity to put a lot of the fantastic recipes to work, modifying them to suit my needs. The second web project involved taking a pre-existing web module (built with heavy CSS usage) and using it as a template for a new web system. The two systems were very different (the first was a news/content site and the system being built was a web application), so there were a lot of modifications that needed to be made, while keeping the general look and feel of the original site.

If this book was just recipes, I would have had a hard time with the second task. But because book goes into explanations of why the recipies work, breaking each recipe out into a series of steps with exposition of each, I was able to reuse concepts rather than just recipes.

As I mentioned before, I had a little CSS experience before reading this book. I was familiar with HTML, but I have never been a designer, and it has been a few years since I’ve really built a website. I feel this book got me back up to speed quickly, and I would recommend this book to anyone wanting to familiarize themselves with CSS.

Fills the how-do-I-do-that niche very well
I don’t write alot of reviews, but I need to comment on this book. There are plenty of CSS books available, but I really appreciate this one. Here’s why: This book "breaks down the wall" that you will eventually hit while coding something up and need an answer fast.

You know the feeling, you’re in the zone, and you really don’t want to stop for a half-hour google search and work with someone’s wacky code. No need to do that with this book by your side. Pop open to the TOC and you’ll likely find exactly what you need. My example from this past weekend: I wanted to find some quick code to allow me to highlight form fields as the user is in them, open the book and the author gives you the CSS. She quickly points out that the CSS only works in Firefox (currently), so she gives us the Javascript, too!


As someone who is (much) more of a programmer than a designer, I highly recommend this book. It has saved me several times in the past few days, well worth the cost.

Outstanding CSS Book
I love this book!!!

Bringing a writing style and book layout that is rarely found in computer books, I find Rachel Andrew’s "The CSS Anthology: 101 Essential Tips, Tricks & Hacks" to be required reading by any and all CSS developers.

Broken up into 9 different sections, Rachel goes beyond just the basics of using CSS to set colors, fonts, etc and really delves into the main power of CSS which so many other books only lightly touch upon: positioning of elements on your web page.

Keeping this in mind, Rachel’s book is not meant to be a lecture, but a ’cookbook’ where she outlines different problems and then shows how CSS can be used to solve these problems and produce a solid looking web page.

I would recommend any web developer to pick up a copy of Ms. Andrew’s book. You would be hard pressed to find a book better written then this one and I guarantee you will not be disappointed!

***** HIGHLY RECOMMENDED

This book is essential!
Everything works just like it is supposed to. You will be immediately productive...and learn a few things too.

A good source for burgeoning web page designers.
This is an "how to" for people who can at least write limited HTML and want to improve their skill in using CSS.

To take full advantage of this you should: (1) be able to author an HTML page and have some understanding of CSS - (2) the publisher maintains a page where you download the book’s CSS snippets but you must buy the book from them to get access to it. Typing the HTML in by hand is instructive for those who want to improve their skill. For others, if you value your time, downloading the snippets from the publisher is a time-saver.

In summary, it is one of the top sources for practical info on the craft by one of the leading experts. It is not a book to learn HTML and CSS but more for the intermediate level person. You will be buying very practical, hard won knowledge at a bargain price but it is only valuable if you design or plan to design web pages. Many designers really need this if they want to save time and money in their craft.

excellent reference manual
The book is an excellent reference manual that you will find yourself referring back to time and again. Got a CSS problem? Scan the table of contents for a match, and I’ll bet you’ll find your answer.

I have been writing web applications since the mid nineties, so I am very familiar with HTML. Until recently, I have been using CSS mostly for text formatting. Positioning and layout has been left to tables. We are starting a new project so I started looking into CSS more closely so we could create XHTML 1.1 compliant pages. I started with a few CSS reference books, but they didn’t help. Then I tried CSS Zen Garden. While the book contains interesting web design information, it does really help someone looking for how-to information. The CSS Anthology was my third try and it was just what I was looking for.

Rachel’s book is also a very easy read with a lot of screen captures. I was able to finish the book in a few hours, and I tend not to be a fast reader.