With its “The Definitive Guide” books on CSS, HTML and XHTML, and the CSS CookBook, O’Reilly has once again updated its titles on web development to have them include the latest protocols, standards and online gimmicks that are currently used by web designers and developers.

CSS, The Definitive Guide 3rd Edition, was once again written by Eric Meyer. In this updated version of the ultimate CSS guide, he covers not only CSS 1 and 2, but also the extensions that are unique to Internet Explorer 7. The book’s structure hasn’t changed, which is a good thing, as we expect these guides to be real reference works. Meyer discusses styling text and fonts, and how the box model works, but he also delves deeper into the new CSS3 selectors which are currently only supported by Internet Explorer 7, Firefox, and the upcoming version of Safari. Every CSS designer should have this book in his/her library.

Another book that’s indispensable for web designers, is HTML and XHTML, The Definitive Guide. This book is already in its 6th edition. The new edition covers not only web browser code anymore. It also covers mobile phones, PDAs and more. This is a very complete reference guide. It even has a whole chapter dedicated to the DTD of HTML 4.01 and that of XHTML 1.0! There’s a chapter on XML and on dynamic documents and executable files as well. Again a book that is indispensable to have, and which every web designer absolutely must keep up-to-date.

Finally, my personal favourite, is Crhistopher Schmitt’s CSS Cookbook. Its in its 2nd edition and on the front cover it says it gives quick solutions to common CSS problems. Well, don’t believe a word of what they’re saying on that cover! This book is a lot more than an answer to some common problems. It’s a reference work in its own right, updated to include Internet Explorer 7 and Firefox 1.5. It offers advise on some very un-common problems such as showing an image in a half-transparent window floating above the browser window, or creating forms with Safari CSS extensions.

The CSS Cookbook might not be a must-have for designers who are in the forefront of CSS design, but I’m sure that even the most skilled designer will learn something from the CSS Cookbook.