There are plenty of excellent books and articles out there, including many written by the contributors to this publication. While most of those works gracefully walk the inexperienced developer through challenging layouts and teach by literal example, few of them acknowledge that using CSS to create standards-friendly sites requires a mindset that is alien to many experienced developers.

• Lesson No. 1: Everything you know is wrong… sort of
• Lesson No. 2: It’s not going to look exactly the same everywhere unless you’re willing to face some grief… and possibly not even then
• Lesson No. 3: You will be forced to choose between the ideal and the practicable
• Lesson No. 4 (with thanks to Antoine de Saint-Exupéry): Perfection is not when there’s nothing to add, but when there’s nothing to take away
• Lesson No. 5: Some sites are steaming heaps of edge cases
• Lesson No. 6: Longer lead times are inevitable
• Lesson No. 7: Coherent and sensible source order is the best of Good Things
• Lesson No. 8: Descendant selectors are the beginning and end of genuinely powerful CSS rules
• Lesson No. 9: In the real world, stylesheet hacks will get your project across the finish line
• Lesson No. 10: Working around rendering bugs is like playing Whack-a-Mole
• Lesson No. 11: When you’re drowning in CSS layout problems, make sure of the width and height of the water, float without putting up a struggle, and get clear of the problems
• Lesson No. 12: Background images will make the difference between the plain and the tastefully embellished