CSS: The Definitive Guide, 3rd Edition

Preface

If you are a web designer or document author interested in sophisticated page styling, improved accessibility, and saving time and effort, this book is for you. All you really need before starting the book is a decent knowledge of HTML 4.0. The better you know HTML, of course, the better prepared you’ll be. You will need to know very little else to follow this book.

This third edition of CSS: The Definitive Guide covers CSS2 and CSS2.1 (up through the 11 April 2006 Working Draft), the latter of which is, in many ways, a clarification of the first. While some CSS3 modules have reached Candidate Recommendation status as of this writing, I have chosen not to cover them in this edition (with the exception of some CSS3 selectors). I made this decision because implementation of these modules is still incomplete or nonexistent. I feel it’s important to keep the book focused on currently supported and well-understood levels of CSS, and to leave any future capabilities for future editions.

Conventions Used in This Book

The following typographical conventions are used in this book:

Italic

Indicates new terms, URLs, variables in text, user-defined files and directories, commands, file extensions, filenames, directory or folder names, and UNC pathnames.

Constant width

Indicates command-line computer output, code examples, Registry keys, and keyboard accelerators.

Constant width bold

Indicates user input in examples.

Constant width italic

Indicates variables in examples and in Registry ...