JavaScript + CSS + Dom Magic [With CDROM]

?`People who give this book 1 star ratings because it's not a beginner's book are missing the point. I picked this up because it fills a gaping gap between the Dummies or Teach Yourself in 24 Hours types of books, and the doorstop reference tomes. Like other Magic series books, this is entirely project oriented. While following each project I picked up a bunch of useful tips to get us working stiff web designers over the roadblocks that can prevent us from using CSS or JavaScript effectively. It's?`?` clear that the author has actually spent time working on real websites, and is not just a theoretician. I have already benefitted from the techniques and hints in the book in my paying projects.I also appreciated the non-preachy tone: I know that I should be using CSS and XHTML and trying to wean myself away from tables, but there aren't that many books out there that actually show you how to do that without hitting me over the head with the "You Must Follow Standards" hammer. The?`?` clean, non-fussy designs appeal too. My favorite sections are the CSS section (Part 1) and the last section, which shows what a little imagination using JavaScript, CSS and browsers that support the W3C-DOM specs can produce.

This book is targeted towards experienced graphics designers that wish to enhance their web skills. The author has extensive experience and a background from this arena. She has a very impressive bio, in addition her pages look great. The book is a tutorial on using the three technologies in the title to create interesting and effective web pages. Using the techniques covered one can develop pages that have eye appeal, that interact with the user, and that have an intuitive feel. Although I have a programming background instead of graphics, I have gotten a great deal out of the book.The book is organized as a tutorial of fourteen projects with increasing complexity. While hypertext markup language (html), cascading style sheets (CSS), and the document object model (DOM) are topics worthy of volumes of their own, the author assumes a working knowledge of html and an understanding of CSS by the reader. JavaScript is introduced on a "need to know basis". The techniques are taught in the context of the Project. The use of the DOM is explained as it is used. The quirks, tips, and variations in support for these technologies within various browsers are given as tips throughout the book.I feel that the book is very readable and useful. I have already employed some of the things that I have learned, but there are some annoying issues with it. Since the examples are done in a progressive fashion, it would be helpful if the steps in text where related to the source code in a consistent manner. The Project 9 final version crashed MSIE 6.0 and hung Opera 6.0 in an endless reload cycle on my computer. Finally, I would suggest that the reader refer to the code on the included CD-ROM or from the website since the there is a difference between the code snippets in the text and the provided code.

You wanna know what I like about this book? It's going to get you excited about the great things that can be done with the latest browsers. And do yourself a favor, type the code in by hand instead of copy/paste using the CD-ROM.I started with DHTML like just about everyone else: I found something cool and I put it in my web page. But then I wanted to change it a little, so I had to figure out the code. Given time I was just writing the code by hand--straight out of my head.This book explains how to use the code it shows you. If you type it in yourself as you're reading the book, you're going to start to understand it. There's something about the physical process (of typing) that helps seal in this new knowledge.Other reviews here will tell you WHAT is in this book. Still others will tell you HOW well the author explains it. Some of the reviews will even explain WHERE this good stuff can be used. What impresses me the most about this book is that the author answers the question that so many books of this type do not: WHY?I tell my students not to go out and find a script to design a web page around...rather go make a great web page and use this book to make it better.

First let me say that I'm not a programmer, I'm a designer (I run my own web design business). This book is perfect for someone like me who learns from visual examples. I browsed through this book and decided to buy it when I found an answer to a problem that had me banging my head against a wall with Netscape 6 and image slices getting messed up! (The solution was on page 148.) Once I sat down to read the book I was very glad I got it. It's really not a reference book like so many books about CSS seem to be, but it it shows you many of the pitfalls that you face on _real_ web pages...and better yet, the workarounds for them. I haven't seen any other book like this that really shows you the problems that show up in browsers. It's a refreshing change from the books that say CSS "should" work a certain way - this one shows you how it actually _does_ work, right now. I would recommend this book just for the CSS hints alone which are scattered through the whole book, not just the CSS chapters. Oh, and now I finally "get" what the DOM is!

Although there are some gems among the projects in this book for any Web professional, the ones who will surely get the most from this book are those who were trained in the old Photoshop "slice and dice" school. Adept in turning a page into an assembly of graphics-laden table cells, they are a bit threatened by all this CSS furor and wonder why the experts say tables are so bad.If you are one of those people, this book is definitely for you. The author seems to be a former practitioner of Photoshop Phascism herself (one of the book's 14 projects has 71 graphics!) so she knows where you're coming from.She also knows where you have to get to create modern, clean, easily-maintained code. Most of the projects are interesting in themselves and with copious illustrations, easy steps, and thoughtful side notes, you should have no trouble following along.I also really liked the way the code in the accompanying CD was presented. Each directory had an index file with a separate link to each important step. Note: There was often a disconnect between the label in this index and the label used in the book but this did not present an obstacle.There was a bit of a lapse in testing some of the files before publication. The finished files for projects 3 and 9 did not open in IE6/Windows. The problem was infinite looping caused by the script meant to deal with an infirmity in decrepit old Netscape 4...another reason why this browser should be left behind.There was another odd lapse for a book that is very free of errors: No, there is no CURSOR property value of ARROW. One further warning to more advanced Web workers: the reference to DOM in the title may give you the impression that the scripting is the new W3C DOM "node-speak." It is not. Neither is it missed here, because script is not the focus of this fine book. The focus is on good HTML structure and artful styling. If that is your focus too, then this book is for you.