Sitepoint has released another great book. Firefox Secrets – A Need-To-Know Guide is written by Cheah Chu Yeow and is a comprehensive book for both developers and regular surfers on how to get the most out of this increasingly popular browser.

The book covers several important sides of the browser, such as:

• How you can make the jump from Internet Explorer to Firefox
• Reading RSS feeds
• The ever-increasing amount of really useful extensions
• The list of really important tools for web developers

With this book also comes a CD with all the great Mozilla projects: the Firefox web browser, Thunderbird (email client), and a handy selection of Firefox extensions and themes.

As far as I know you can only get this book at O’Reilly ($29.95), Sitepoint ($29.95) and at Amazon for $19.77 (!).

From Sitepoints Press Release:

"Until now, web users have had to adapt their expectations and behavior to the limitations of the web," noted SitePoint CEO and Co-founder Mark Harbottle. "'Firefox Secrets' puts the control back into the hands of individual users, allowing them to customize the online experience using the Firefox browser. Thanks to "Firefox Secrets," web professionals can have the web perform exactly as they want it to," he added.

"Firefox Secrets" lifts the lid on many of the browser's handy, but lesser-known options and technical configurations. Among the many invaluable customizations that are explored in this 292-page title, readers will tap the secrets of smart keywords, cookie and password management, Firefox extensions and about:config.

"The focus of 'Firefox Secrets' is to provide readers with the detailed information they need to make the Web work for them," Harbottle added. "By customizing the Firefox web experience, readers will surf more efficiently, more effectively, and with greater ease. That's something every web professional needs."

The Semantic Web is a current project under the direction of Tim Berners-Lee of the World Wide Web Consortium to extend the ability of the World Wide Web by developing standards and tools that allow meaning to be added to the content of webpages. The goal of the semantic web is to create a universal medium for the exchange of data by allowing meaning to be given, using tools and tags, to the content within webpages. (more…)

Introduction to CSS shorthand properties

Shorthand properties?

Note:
Since the original version of this article was first released by Sitepoint in 2002, much has happened in the browser world.
Support for CSS2 shorthand properties among current browsers is superior. It almost renders the support charts for CSS shorthand elements irrelevant, and these will most likely be removed in future revisions.

One of the many great possibilities in CSS is the use of shorthand properties. It lets you specify several similar properties by using only one. If you know some CSS and used it on your web pages, you’ll immediately see the benefit while reading this article. It will make you a much more efficient CSS coder by making edits faster and your CSS code shorter. (more…)

There are many ways of customizing your form elements. One thing to keep in mind is that web users are used to the form elements that their browsers gives them by default, so for usability reasons, I recommend leaving the form elements alone in their default state. (more…)

Sizing of form elements should be fairly supported by now. All it takes for width is to include a width property with CSS. (more…)