CSS Instant Results [With CDROM]

This book promises, and it delivers. I was a bit skeptical about the title, because there are so many quick-fix products available, few of which actually work. However, CSS Instant Results is true to its name, offering solutions a variety of common web design situations. Not only does this book address many different problems, it also shows you several distinctive approaches to tackle each one. I especially liked that all the source code came included on a CD. This was a welcome change from the typical "download code at this URL" approach. The author, Richard York also wrote Beginning CSS for Wrox Publishing, so when this guy talks about CSS, you know that he is speaking with authority. Meaning, to be approved to write another book on the same topic, by the same publisher, reflects that one knows a great deal about that particular subject. His explanations are thorough, well written and methodically straight forward. Here is a run-down of each of the topics covered: Tab-based navigation, Multi-column layouts, Dynamic drop-down menus (2 approaches), Web-based slideshow, Custom borders and rounded corners, Webmail interface, Input forms, File viewer, and Web-based calendar. Allow me to expound upon what I liked about each of those chapters. In the tab-based navigation chapter, he describes how to do a two-stated background roll-over using images and CSS. He also shows how to create "liquid" tabs, that expand to fit the size of a word therein. For instance, this would allow you to use a longer phrase like Employment instead of Jobs, and still be able to reuse the same code and graphics. In the multi-column layout chapter, he describes several ways to tackle the liquid 3-column layout. This has been affectionately dubbed the Holy Grail by web designers, because many have lost their lives in search of the perfect layout (okay, maybe not died, but shed tears). This was a great chapter, because it condensed many of the techniques seen at Layout Gala, explaining why a particular method works in a given context, and when to use each. He then moves on to cover pure CSS drop-down menu methods, with a tip of the hat to Eric Meyer for the original ideas. This doesn't work in IE6, so he shows the necessary CSS hacks and JavaScript wizardry in order to trick IE into compliance. Throughout this book, the famous IE7 JavaScript is used and referenced, originally concieved by Dean Edwards. Essentially, it forces IE6 to adhere to web standards roughly the same as Firefox, Safari and other good browsers. It's a shame such a fix doesn't exist for Opera's quirkiness. I digress. The web-based slideshow chapter is really cool, and you may have seen this in use at various web technology conferences. Basically, instead of using a proprietary program like PowerPoint or Keynote, it uses a full-screen browser view to simulate a slide based presentation. Similar implimentation has been done by Eric Meyer, with a later Ajax-ified version by Robert Nyman. The custom borde