Introduction
Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) help you define a website’s presentation and special effects. Because of this capability, most books about CSS on the market are written for designers. They get into the artistic elements of CSS and make you create everything from scratch. CSS3 for Dummies is different. It was written with the developer in mind. It may not seem as if a developer necessarily would need to know about presentation and design-related issues, but users want applications that are pleasant to use, so developers need to know about both topics. This book assumes that you’re a developer, and that you’re busy — that you really need to get a great-looking application out yesterday because the boss is breathing down your neck. You don’t need to be an artist to produce spectacular sites — you just need a helping hand. Most of the artwork’s already done for you — you just need to know where to find it.
About This Book
Your time is valuable. This book helps you understand quickly how to use tools to create great-looking applications that provide all the right user prompts in a fraction of the time it would take you to write the application from scratch. In fact, once you know the secrets in this book, you may wonder why other people think working with CSS3 is hard. By the time you complete this book, you’ll be able to dazzle the user and make your boss think you spent days working on the page that only took a few hours to write this morning. Even though complete applications will take longer, you can create usable mockups of what your application will look like in an incredibly short time.
However, this book isn’t all about tools. When necessary, you see how things work at a much lower level so that you can maintain the code you create with the same ease that you experienced when putting it together. Instead of covering absolutely every nuance of CSS3 development, though, CSS3 For Dummies concentrates on the CSS3 features you use most often and examines them in a real-world functional environment.
No, this book won’t turn you into a designer, but that’s the point. You’ll become a developer who can compete with the best designers out there, on your own terms, by using tools that designers generally don’t rely upon. The difference is that your sites won’t be unique one-offs — they’ll rely on the huge base of predefined templates and tools that already exist for everyone to use. Even so, everyone will think your offerings are unique because of the way you can use these various tools together to create results that look unique.
The chapters were written for everyday developers, but note that a portion of most chapters contains advanced material, mostly in sidebars, that will interest only some readers. When you see one of these specialized topics, feel free to skip it.
You can also skip any material marked with a Technical Stuff icon. This material is helpful, but you don’t have to know it to work with CSS3, HTML, or JavaScript. I include this material because I find it helpful in my programming efforts and believe that you will, too.
This book uses special typefaces to emphasize some information. For example, entries that you need to type appear in bold. All code, website URLs, and onscreen messages appear in monofont type. When I define a new word, you see that word in italics.
Because you use multiple applications when you're working with CSS3, I always point out when to move from one application to the next. Note, however, that the testers for this book tried out the code with the Internet Explorer, Firefox, and Chrome browsers on the Macintosh, Linux, and Windows platforms. One tester also checked at least some of the code using a Windows 8 phone. In most cases, you shouldn't experience any problem working with your application unless specifically noted in the application description. Please let me know (at John@JohnMuellerBooks.com) if you ever experience a problem with one of the examples.
Foolish Assumptions
You might find it difficult to believe that I’ve assumed anything about you — after all, I haven’t even met you yet! Although most assumptions are indeed foolish, I made these assumptions to provide a starting point for the book.
It’s important that you’re familiar with the platform and browser you want to use because the book doesn’t provide any handholding in this regard. To focus on CSS3 (and HTML5 and JavaScript when needed) as fully as possible, the book covers browsers marginally and platform requirements not at all. You really do need to know how to install applications, use the browser, and generally work with your chosen platform before you begin working with this book.
Knowing a little about both HTML5 and JavaScript is helpful but not essential. Any experience you have with programming will be helpful as well. The book doesn’t assume you have any knowledge of CSS3.
Icons Used in This Book
As you read this book, you’ll see icons in the margins that indicate material of interest (or not, as the case may be).This section briefly describes each icon in this book.
Tips are nice because they help you save time or perform some task without a lot of extra work. The tips in this book are timesaving techniques or pointers to resources that you should try to get the maximum benefit from CSS3 (or HTML5 or JavaScript in some cases).
I don’t want to sound like an angry parent or some kind of maniac, but you should avoid doing anything marked with a Warning icon. Otherwise you could find that your program only serves to confuse users who will then refuse to work with it.
Whenever you see this icon, think advanced tip or technique. You might find these tidbits of useful information just too boring for words, or they could contain the solution you need to get a program running. Skip these bits of information whenever you like.
If you don’t get anything else out of a particular chapter or section, remember the material marked by this icon. This text usually contains an essential process or a bit of information that you must know to write CSS3 programs successfully.
Beyond the Book
A lot of extra content that you won’t find in this book is available at www.dummies.com. Go online to find the following:
Source code for the examples in this book at
This book contains a lot of code, and you might not want to type it. In fact, it's probably better if you don't type this code manually. Fortunately, you can find the source code for this book on the Dummies.com website at www.dummies.com/extras/css3. The source code is organized by chapter, and I always tell you about the example files in the text. The best way to work with a chapter is to download all the source code for it at one time.
Online articles covering additional topics at
Here you’ll find out how to access multiple Google API libraries and use them in a single app, how to use Komodo Edit to create CSS files, and how to create table-like effects using CSS3 and HTML5 tags, among other details to aid you in your CSS3 journey.
The Cheat Sheet for this book is at
www.dummies.com/cheatsheet/css3
Here you’ll find a roadmap to common CSS3 properties and selectors.
Updates to this book, if we have any, are also available at
Where to Go from Here
It’s time to start your CSS3 adventure! If you’re a complete CSS3 novice, start with Chapter 1 and progress through the book at a pace that allows you to absorb as much of the material as possible. If you’re in an absolute rush to get going with CSS3 as quickly as possible, you could possibly skip to Chapter 2 with the understanding that you may find some topics a bit confusing later.
Advanced readers, those who already have a basic understanding of CSS3, can save time by moving directly to Chapter 6. You can always go back to earlier chapters as necessary when you have questions. However, it’s important that you understand how each example works before moving to the next one. Every example has important lessons for you, and you could miss vital content if you start skipping too much information.