About This Book
The World Wide Web is really easy to use. After all, grandmothers in Boise and first graders in Tallahassee log onto the Web every day. Unfortunately, the rules that govern how the Web works aren't so easy to understand. The computer scientists and other techie types who write the official documentation aren't interested in explaining their concepts to the average Joe (or Joanne). Just check out http://www.w3.org/TR/CSS21/ to get a taste of the technical mumbo-jumbo these geeks speak.
There's no manual for Cascading Style Sheets. People just learning CSS often don't know where to begin. And the finer points regarding CSS can trip up even seasoned Web pros. The purpose of this book, then, is to serve as the manual that should have come with CSS. In this book's pages, you'll find step-by-step instructions for using CSS to create beautiful Web pages.
CSS: The Missing Manual is designed to help readers at every technical level. To get the most out of this book, you should know a sampling of HTML and maybe even CSS. So if you've never built a Web page before, then check out the tutorial that starts in Section 2.5. The primary discussions in these chapters are written for advanced-beginners or intermediates. But if you're new to building Web pages, special boxes called "Up to Speed" provide the introductory information you need to understand the topic at hand. If you're an advanced Web page jockey, on the other hand, then keep your eye out for similar shaded boxes called ...