Tip 5

Don't buy a book whose errata list is more than a page or two long. The list is usually available on the publisher's Web site. When it's longer than a page or two, that should raise a red flag. Either it was sloppily written or sloppily edited. You don't want to try to learn from a book whose information is wrong. You'll experience unnecessary frustration.

Recently, I was considering the purchase of a CSS book I'd seen in a bookstore. However, after discovering that its errata list was nine pages long, I scratched the idea.

Tip 4

Start studying CSS. The cheapest way to start (it's free) is with the online Style Master CSS Tutorial, developed by the creators of the Style Master CSS editor. If you prefer reading a book, take a look at Russ Weakley's Sams Teach Yourself CSS in 10 Minutes. Weakley's the creator of the maxdesign Web site, a site you should browse.

Tip 3

Install Mozilla Firefox. It's free, is an excellent browser, and has available two excellent CSS add-ons, Web Developer and Firebug, that can be a big help in fixing Web page problems.

Tip 2

Get a good editor. I've used three and recommend them all. Trial versions of all three are available.

The first one is StyleMaster, a CSS editor. It currently costs $59.99. If you'd like to try before you buy, you can download a StyleMaster demo.

The second is NoteTab Pro. It currently costs $29.95 and is not just a CSS editor. It's also an HTML editor. Its CSS capabilities can't compare with StyleMaster's; however, if you want to do all your editing with one program, this is a good buy. A trial version is available.

The third is CoffeeCup Software's HTML 2008 Editor. It's a decent HTML editor, but takes third place. It now contains CSS Code Completion. It currently costs $49.95. A trial version is available.

Tip 1

Join the CSS Creator discussion board. That's the place to ask any questions you might have after reading something on this site. In particular, the place to ask your newbie questions is the Beginners CSS Questions forum.