HTML

If you want to start blogging fast, but don’t want to get sidetracked by the details, then you need a Visual QuickProject Guide!

Writing in a journal is all well and good, but when you're ready to share your musings with the world (and you think the world is ready to receive them!), a blog is the way to go. For just $12.99, this compact guide shows you how! Using big, bold full-color pictures and streamlined instructions, it covers just the need-to-know essentials that will get you blogging with leading free blog software--Google’s Blogger--in a matter of minutes. Best-selling author Elizabeth Castro takes you through each step of the blogging process--from acquainting you with the interface to setting up your blog, creating your profile, posting email, adding pictures and audio, and more. Occasional sidebars and tips point out other useful blogging tips and tricks.

This book occupies a unique spot in my opinion. It's "the competition." All other HTML/Web page learning or how-to books are trying to knock the crown from this book's head. While it may not be for everyone, it just does such a superb job that it defines the field. Congratulations, Elizabeth.

This is what I could classify as a true intermediate or advanced book. Elizabeth Castro doesn't waste time or steps trying to teach a newbie how to click here or create a text file. In fact, so much is assumed that this really can't be called a beginner book at all. So, if you know what you're doing or what you want, this book will serve you well.

The whole HTML thing is broken down into tasks: formatting, text, layout commands, cascading style sheets--the whole nine yards. Then individual HTML commands or tasks are illustrated one to a page. The steps fall down the outside of the page; illustrations line the page's inside.

While this is all a great way to learn HTML, I can still find room for improvement--though not at the expense of the format. For example, a reference or tear-out card would have been handy. And some topics, especially JavaScript, are glossed over too quickly to be useful. From personal experience, I know that some topics, such as FTP, could use even more hands-on examples.

If you "get it" when it comes to computers, and are ready to do some down-and-dirty HTML coding (and I'm not talking lame-old FrontPage here), this book will teach you the basics in no time. It will provide a firm foundation upon which you can easily build your Web pages for the future. --Dan Gookin

• Offers professional-level instruction in Web page design in a unique visual format, with most tasks demonstrated on self-contained two-page spreads
• Key tasks covered include setting up a Web page, reducing image resolution, creating radio buttons, adding a hit counter, creating an inline frame, and adding an embedded sound
• High-resolution screen shots accompanied by succinct explanations clearly illustrate each task, while "Apply It" and "Extra" sidebars highlight useful tips
• Companion Web site features all the code that appears in the text-ready to plug into the user's Web pages

HTML: The Definitive Guide is aimed at beginners as well as those who have more practice in Web-page creation. The authors assume at least a basic knowledge of computers, including how to use a word processor or text editor and how to deal with files. They teach you that learning HTML is like learning any other language and that reading a book of rules can only take you so far. Readers begin writing what may be their first Web page just two pages into the book's second chapter. From there on, they provide a wide range of HTML coding to allow readers to learn from good examples. The book includes a handy "cheat sheet" of HTML codes for quick reference. --Elizabeth Lewis

Topics covered include how to construct basic HTML pages, how to wisely use images on your pages, how to link HTML pages to each other, how to design attractive and effective pages, how to put your pages on the Web, how to use frames, and how to develop style sheets. Three appendices provide quick reference for HTML tags, special symbols, and cascading style sheet properties and values.

The book's design makes referencing as you work particularly easy--the book is compact, takes up very little desk space, and features a comb-bound spine, allowing it to open flat and remain at your selected page. --Elizabeth Lewis

Authors Pfaffenberger and Gutzman use a helpful problem-and-solution format that provides straightforward answers to common problems--they show you how to build image maps and create attractive forms, to cite two examples.

What's special about the book's approach is that it doesn't get sidetracked by the universe of detail that HTML 4 presents. Rather than choosing to ploddingly document the characteristics of one tag after another, Pfaffenberger and Gutzman explain their subject by describing how it is applied in practice. They explain, for example, how to arrange textual data so that people are more likely to read it.

The downside to this holistic approach is that HTML 4 Bible isn't the absolutely comprehensive HTML reference many readers will expect it to be. Books like that exist, and you may want to supplement HTML 4 Bible with one of them. But if you want a text that provides informed explanations of how to get the results you want with HTML, this book is for you. --David Wall

Because many HTML editors do all the site-building work for you, it's strange the authors chose to wait until appendix C in the back of the book to explain why you must know HTML. Still, their reasons for learning HTML are sound, and the advice they dispense is solid.

Beyond going through the ins and outs of HTML tags, the book does a fine job of explaining what design elements work and how to avoid common mistakes. The section on XHTML ensures that budding site builders have all the latest tools at their disposal.

Whether your goal is to build a simple, text-oriented Web site or one loaded with frames, graphics, and animation, HTML 4 for Dummies will put you on the right track. --John Frederick Moore

Download Description:
"* Now features a full-color, six-panel tear-out Cheat Sheet that's packed with information-an HTML command and syntax reference, a chart of Web-safe colors, and an alphabetical listing of CSS elements
* Despite new Web-authoring technologies, HTML (Hypertext Markup Language) remains the one fundamental building block of the Web
* Updates to this classic guide include a totally revamped description of XHTML syntax, expanded CSS coverage, and a new section on building navigation elements
* Includes an all-new section of example projects-creating an eBay auction page, designing an online product catalog, and adding multimedia elements to an existing site"

Taylor first shows new users what a Web page is, how a browser works, what URLs are, and other basic concepts. He then delves into basic HTML, fonts, and text styles and explains how to make lists, special characters, pointers, and links; add graphics; and create tables and frames. Taylor moves into advanced topics such as background, marquees, image maps, JavaScript, forms, plug-ins, Dynamic HTML, style sheets, and more, using his own award-winning work as tutorial examples. He clearly discusses the HTML coding used to create each page.

Taylor teaches the basics to new users without overwhelming them and gives intermediate users the option to learn more when they are ready. He shows users how to get their Web pages ready for publication and how to publicize them so that people will come to see them. The strong appendices include a primer on building your very first page, a step-by-step planning guide for page and site builders, a resource list on where to publish your pages, a glossary, and an HTML quick reference guide that is linked to various chapters. An accompanying CD-ROM includes Net utilities and Web design shareware for the PC and Mac. --Elizabeth Lewis