More proof that good things come in small--and sometimes even inexpensive--packages: the CSS Pocket Reference has been completely revised and updated to reflect the latest Cascading Style Sheet specifications, CSS2 and CSS2.1.

An indispensable reference for web designers and developers, this slim little book covers the essential information needed to effectively implement CSS, with an introduction to the key concepts of CSS and a complete alphabetical reference to the CSS2 and CSS 2.1 properties. And since browser incompatibility is the biggest CSS headache for most developers, it also includes an invaluable chart displaying detailed information about CSS support for every style element across all browsers. For anyone who wants to correctly implement CSS, this book condenses all the details in its companion volume, Cascading Style Sheets: The Definitive Guide, into one easy-to-use cheat-sheet.

The CSS Pocket Reference delivers just the CSS details that you need to complete the task at hand. When you’re stuck and want an answer quickly, the tiny CSS Pocket Reference is the book you’ll want by your keyboard or in your back pocket. (Yes, it really does fit in a back pocket, but it’s too useful to stay there long.)

CSS (Cascading Style Sheets) is the W3C-approved method for enriching the visual presentation of web pages. CSS allows web pages to become more structural, and at the same time promises that they can have a more sophisticated look than ever before. With good implementations in Internet Explorer 5.0 and Opera 3.6, and 100% CSS1 support expected in Netscapes’s Mozilla browser, signs are that CSS is rapidly becoming a useful, reliable, and powerful tool for web authors.

The CSS Pocket Reference briefly introduces CSS and then lists all CSS1 properties, plus the CSS1 pseudo-elements and pseudo-classes. Since browser incompatibility is the biggest obstacle to CSS adoption, we’ve also included a comprehensive guide to how the browsers have implemented support for CSS1. For anyone who wants to correctly implement CSS, this is a handy condensed reference to all the details in the larger volume, Cascading Style Sheets: The Definitive Guide.

Two Thumbs Up!
Small, Informative, and easy to use. It does everything it needs to do.

I would very quickly buy this book again.

It’s definitely a decent guide...but takes me too long to find stuff
I’m doing a lot of CSS work these days and figured this guide would be a good book to have on hand to quickly pull out when I can’t remember a selector or how to write a certain pseudo-class, etc. And it *is* a decent little guide for the most part. It gives a short description of each element and what browsers support it (although no version information included) and even has a basic CSS tutorial included. Certainly not substitute for the full length book, but okay to quickly refer to.

The thing I didn’t like about the book is that it just often seems to take a little time for me to find things in it. There are just so many different ways a "pocket guide" could be done that would make it a matter of seconds to find the element you need information on...with this one I’m often resorting to using the index to find what page it is on. Since the entire book is black-and-white and there’s no page separation of element from element, it all just kinds of blends together and just visually is not very pleasing to use. If you are familiar with Visibone web developer cards/sheets I find those much more useful as a quick-reference due to how well the information is presented. While the material is not as comprehensive as what this book includes, I find myself pulling it out more often than this book simply because I can literally get the information I need in a second versus spending time just trying to locate it in this book.

So final score...it’s a decent book and worth considering. If you’ve used other O-Reilly pocket books and like them, you’ll probably like this as well. But I personally think there are easier "pocket guides" available.

Such a great reference.
I used this book as a reference to take a certification exam without ever touching CSS and scored in the 96th percentile... enough said.

Indispensable Reference
Large books, by their very nature, can have good points and bad points. After all, if you have a couple or several hundred pages worth of material, you are bound to get some things right and some things wrong.
But these pocket reference books from O’Reilly are great. They aren’t for learning, rather they are what they say they are: a pocket reference. (Nice to see some truth in advertising for a change.)
If you buy this book you will use it. A lot. Period.

Exactly what it is supposed to be ..
Great little reference book. It is not intended to be a learning tool. If you want that, try the Head First book on HTML/XHTML/CSS that O’Reilly also publishes.

It’s a super little time-saver, and also makes for a quick read when designing a new page or project, to see if something you haven’t used previously could benefit your work.

Works like expected.
I’ve used this pocket reference for a long time now and I love it. It’s a great way to refresh your memory when you can’t seem to remember a property and/or its value.

Although I must say that I refer to it much less now than I did when I first got it. Mostly because I know most of the properties and values by heart at this point and so I can use IDEs "IntelliSense" features.

Consequently, I must add that this is not a teaching aid. You will not learn how to style with CSS from this book! There are much better books on the topic! (For example: "Eric Meyer on CSS: Mastering the Language of Web Design")

Fits in your pocket - 2nd Edition
This small, handy book is packed with CSS references perfect for grabbing and flipping through when looking for that one piece of code to add to your site. It is not a book about learning CSS. This reference book is a alphabetical listing of CSS selectors and properties. As I was learning CSS I found this book very helpful in locating quickly the code I was looking for.

CSS Pocket Reference 2nd Ed. Does the job very well for me
As a Perl and PHP programmer who does a lot of web-based pages, I use this pocket reference very often when designing page styles. It helps immensely that I have syntax and samples in front of me for each of the items I expect to be able to use in today’s modern browser. As the title indicates, it is a pocket reference and is not designed to teach people how to get started using CSS. There are plenty of good books out there to help users do that. My favorite is Elizabeth Castro’s HTML For The World Wide Web (5th Ed.). Once users have a basic understanding of the rules for creating CSS, this book is an invaluable tool to jog the memory and sits next to my desk anytime I’m doing HTML or XML page layout. Because nearly all the properties covered in this book are supported by Internet Explorer, Mozilla and Firefox, I chose not to ding the book for failing to cover what features were not supported by the major browsers.

Target audience: Web site developers, HTML, XHTML, XML authors with a basic understanding of CSS

Hits: Excellent property reference, good examples, explanations. Well organized.
Misses: Could have done a better job explaining which items are supported in which (of the most popular) browsers.

Short Review of "CSS Pocket Reference" (2nd Edition)
This is a well laid-out, concise reference for CSS. I use it a lot to quickly look up things I don’t recall. If you are using CSS successfully and would like a quick reference to properties and such, this small book should fit the bill.

This book is not a tutorial and it’s not a good choice for learning the basics of CSS.

Ideally you should have a more complete guide available for when you want more detail.

Want more? See my Somewhat Longer Review.

George Woolley of Oakland.pm and Camelot.pm

Handy reference, but not for everyone
This is a good book, but certain types of user may find it a little frustrating.

Regular or advanced users of CSS will find it very convenient. It contains a lot of useful information and, when you need to check the syntax of a particular property, the information is easy to find, clearly written and very comprehensive.

The problem arises when you don’t remember all the basics. The index structure contains references to property names, but not applications. For example, suppose you want to put some text in italics and justify the paragraph, there is no entry in the index that says "italic" or "justify". You need to know which properties to use, or scan the index until you see properties that might be relevant (in this case, the properties you need are ’font-style’ for italics and ’text-align’ for justify).

So, it is a good book, but I would like to echo the message of Joshua Cogliati’s review: it would be a much better reference with the addition of some basic information in the index.

Indispensable reference
I am a big fan of O’Reilly’s "Pocket Reference" books and this one was no disappointment. In fact, this guide by Eric Meyer is exceptionally well written with clear explanations of CSS terminology. The first few sections on rules, precedence, positioning, layouts, etc. helped me - fairly new to CSS - grasp the gist of CSS better than more extensive tutorials because of Meyer’s concise explanations and well-conceived illustrations. Of course, the long-term value of these reference books is the alphabetical list of terms with definitions, applications, syntax and examples.

As with the other Pocket Reference books, a beginner should not come to this book for an introduction to CSS. There are many great books (some by Meyer) and web sites that get you up and running quickly. But even the beginner will find this invaluable as a quick reference book throughout the learning process. I keep it right next to my screen when doing any web work. Highly recommended.

Missing a vital part
The majority of the book consists of an alphabetical guide to CSS properties. If you need to look up what a particular property does this would be quite useful. However, if you are trying to find a property to use and you do not know the name, this does not help. The book is entirely lacking any catagorical index to the CSS properties. Had CSS Pocket Reference 2nd Edition contained a two to four page index of the properties grouped by catagories such as text, layout, borders and so forth, I would have rated it better, but alas, it does not.