*Sits down with CSS for Dummies book*

[iGary]

OK, so recently, a friend of mine started working on my photography site (not done yet) and I was amazed by how mice he was making everything look.

Example: (Still needs tweaking):

Linky (http://www.garyianreich.com/mike/aerial/aerial.html)

So I got CSS for Dummies, CSS The Definitive Guide by Meyer and The Zen of CSS Design.

I also got demo versions of BBEdit, CSSEdit and Style Master to work with so I can do my other site, which I use to promote my writing.

Anything else recommended - I have a few good sites I bookmarked, but wanted to see if there was anything I missed.

Thanks in advance.

[whocares]

W3C CSS Validator (http://jigsaw.w3.org/css-validator/validator-uri.html) ;)

W3C CSS 2.1 Specs (http://www.w3.org/TR/CSS21/)

And a very useful full property table (http://www.w3.org/TR/CSS21/propidx.html) :)

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[Edit:] I also recommend Smultron (http://smultron.sourceforge.net/), a free text editor from SourceForge, with syntax colouring for many programming languages (including CSS). Enjoy.

[iGary]

W3C CSS Validator (http://jigsaw.w3.org/css-validator/validator-uri.html) ;)

W3C CSS 2.1 Specs (http://www.w3.org/TR/CSS21/)

And a very useful full property table (http://www.w3.org/TR/CSS21/propidx.html) :)

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[Edit:] I also recommend Smultron (http://smultron.sourceforge.net/), a free text editor from SourceForge, with syntax colouring for many programming languages (including CSS). Enjoy.

All wickedly helpful, thank you VERY much. :D

[munkle]

The link you gave uses Flash though, so you're going to be limited on how much you can tweak beyond the customisation options they give you (unless you shell out for the source code). Have you checked out SimpleViewer Admin (http://www.redsplash.de/projects/simplevieweradmin/)?

[iGary]

The link you gave uses Flash though, so you're going to be limited on how much you can tweak beyond the customisation options they give you (unless you shell out for the source code). Have you checked out SimpleViewer Admin (http://www.redsplash.de/projects/simplevieweradmin/)?

That's just for the galleries - the rest of the site is shaping up to look like this. (http://garyianreich.com/mike/gallery.html)

[jsw]

OK, so recently, a friend of mine started working on my photography site (not done yet) and I was amazed by how mice he was making everything look.
Great shots! I have no additional recommendations for books. However, even though I carefully scanned the pictures, I saw no mice whatsoever. Is this a photography term? "Dude, those shots are so mice!" I'm so out of it when it comes to new terms....

Edit: seriously, though... nice work (the photos and the site).

[Mitthrawnuruodo]

Instead of BBEdit, you could use the free version: TextWrangler (http://www.barebones.com/products/textwrangler/).

Other than that, I just got a printed version of the CSS2 standard (http://www.w3.org/TR/CSS21/) (good for flipping through and use as reference).

I have a tendency to use the style attributes way too much in the php/xhtml pages. I always have a good intention to put all those style attributes away and into css classes, but there's always a few that "survives". Bad habit, I guess... :o

[munkle]

Nice, I like it and some really nice shots as well!

I like the 'blog' layout style of your site. As for CSS resources, you can't beat CSS Zen Garden (http://www.csszengarden.com/) or CSS Vault (http://cssvault.com/), lots of nice designs to peruse and links to learn more. I've always quite like this site (http://www.julesarthur.com/) as well, though I would definitely say stick with CSS/XHTML rather than go with Flash :)

[iGary]

Nice, I like it and some really nice shots as well!

I like the 'blog' layout style of your site. As for CSS resources, you can't beat CSS Zen Garden (http://www.csszengarden.com/) or CSS Vault (http://cssvault.com/), lots of nice designs to peruse and links to learn more. I've always quite like this site (http://www.julesarthur.com/) as well, though I would definitely say stick with CSS/XHTML rather than go with Flash :)

Thanks for the resources (and nice comments).

I'm looking forward to learning this stuff (I have to, my friend can't build and run the site..).

[whocares]

(...)

I have a tendency to use the style tags way too much in the php/xhtml pages. I always have a good intention to put all those style tags away and into css classes, but there's always a few that "survives". Bad habit, I guess... :o

It's good to use the full array of HTML tags (<div>, <b>, <strong>, <em>, headers, <td> & <th>, <thead> <tbody>, etc, etc) as it makes it so much easier afterwoods to use CSS to its full extent.

Get a complete list of HTML 4.01 standard compliant tags here (http://www.w3.org/TR/html4/index/elements.html). Boy do I love W3C's website :cool:

[Mitthrawnuruodo]

It's good to use the full array of HTML tags (<div>, <b>, <strong>, <em>, headers, <td> & <th>, <thead> <tbody>, etc, etc) as it makes it so much easier afterwoods to use CSS to its full extent.

Get a complete list of HTML 4.01 standard compliant tags here (http://www.w3.org/TR/html4/index/elements.html). Boy do I love W3C's website :cool:Style attributes, not tags... of course... :o

Gonna go edit the post above in shame... :p

[munkle]

Was just thinking iGary, with your site, is it going to be something that you're going to update fairly frequently, with news as well as photos?

If so, you might want to think about building your site upon an existing content management platform (basically blogging app), such as WordPress (http://wordpress.org/). Might sound intimidating at first but it's really not and will make the site a lot easier for you to run and update. Here's an example (http://stevepsharpe.co.uk/) of a design that isn't a million miles away from yours.

[iGary]

Was just thinking iGary, with your site, is it going to be something that you're going to update fairly frequently, with news as well as photos?

If so, you might want to think about building your site upon an existing content management platform (basically blogging app), such as WordPress (http://wordpress.org/). Might sound intimidating at first but it's really not and will make the site a lot easier for you to run and update. Here's an example (http://stevepsharpe.co.uk/) of a design that isn't a million miles away from yours.

The main page is going to be update frequently, in blog style to keep people (hopefully) coming back, yes. And thank you for the link. :D

[iGary]

Thanks all, I'll dig into this tonight or tomorrow, very helpful - I appreciate it.

Unfortunately (or fotunately, depending on how you look at it), I got some framing orders, so I had to break off the book. I'll definitely post questioins soon as it looks like you guys are CSS geniouses. :D

[pepeleuepe]

I second the suggestion of Wordpress (http://www.wordpress.org). If you will be updating the site often, this will make your life a lot easier. You should be able to get it to display just as the design you have, or darn close. I haven't tinkered too much with editing the apperance, but its a very powerful content managment system.

I know Wordpress is based on CSS, so learning CSS will be helpful in getting the site looking how you want it to.