HTML, XHTML, and CSS, Sixth Edition (Visual Quickstart Guide)
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Somewhat Disappointing: Good information, bad format.
2004-01-09 28 of 34 found this review helpfulI was very interested in getting the Visual Quickstart Guide for XHTML. I have been a fan of the VQS series since I first encounterd the DHTML Visual Quickstart Guide.
I must admit, though, that I was somewhat disappointed in this book. It was not as well constructed as many other books in the series.
As with all VQS guides it has a companion web site. This is a very good site, especially with the examples and the Q&A section. Ms. Castro provides plenty of good information and the examples can explain many things that are not described well in the book.
I suggest that more benefit would be had from these examples were the readers to have access to multiple browsers. The way the pages appear in each browser are very informative.
The problem I had was, well, approach. The first part of the book dealt primarily with the HTML aspects of web design. While this is useful to a point, it seems overbearing, especially if your primary focus of reading is to gain a greater knowledge of XHTML.
In addition to this, the format seems more geared toward a web base than a paper base. Many times, she wrote that a topic would be discussed more completely on page such and such. While I understand that this is a good way to avoid repetiveness, as well as to cut down on the size of the manuscript. But the constant reference to other pages became wearing. For the most part, I felt that these references would have been better as a hotlink on a web page, than as a page to turn to in a book.
This approach turned me off, as I would have much preferred a slow design-up style of writing, from the beginning steps to the actual coding. For others it may not seem as irritating.
A great deal of information was presented in the book. Many tags were discussed, though not all. Much of ths was not presented in an entertaining way, and after some time, I had to rest from the book because it seemed dry. This is not something I had encountered in other Visual Quick Start guides I had read.
I also feel too much time was spent discussing deprecated tags. These tags are an important part of HTML, though I was more interested in the XHTML and CSS portions of the book. I would also have poreferred a discussion of transitional strategies.
If you are experienced at coding HTML, you are likely to find less value in this book than one new to HTML. If you are interested in XHTML and have HTML experience this is not the best resource, though some of the information provided is valuable.
Based on the format, I would have given this book one star. Based on the overall HTML content, I would probably have given the book three and a half stars. Based on XHTML content I could only give this book two stars. However, bearing in mind the utility of the VQS guides to novice HTML coders, I have to give this 3 stars.
I cannot recommend this for experienced Web Developers as there is little information that is particularly advanced.
A bit confusing for beginners...
2003-05-24 22 of 22 found this review helpfulI just finished teaching an introductory HTML course using this textbook. I wanted to choose a book that taught proper (X)HTML syntax, and the choice ended up being between this book and the O'Reilly HTML & XHTML: The Definitive Guide. I selected this one due to this book's more "visual" approach, its brevity, and its cost (about half the cost of the O'Reilly one).
However, many of the students were confused and frustrated by the layout of the text. The material is more or less presented in a "step by step" fashion, and in most cases the text the student is to change is highlighted in pink to make it easy to spot. However, there are many instances where one area of the code is highlighted, yet more than that area of the text needs to be changed in order for the page to look like the example. Additionally, the author will periodically go off on "side bars" about other things that can be done with a particular topic (table borders, frames, etc.) without notifying the reader that this doesn't have anything to do with the exercise they're trying to work through. Many students were thrown off by this because they didn't see the stuff they just typed in referenced on the next page. There were also several instances where parts of the source code were left off, trusting the reader to infer where it should be placed. This is something that is relatively easy for someone who already knows HTML already to do, but can be frustrating for beginners.
On the brighter side, the content of the book is very comprehensive for such a small text (it even includes a chapter about writing web pages for wireless devices), and it contains helpful (X)HTML tags, CSS properties, special characters, and hex color references in the appendices. The source code in the 5th Edition is also a HUGE improvement over the previous... everything is kept pretty consistent throughout, and it's nice to see a book geared towards beginners pushing readers toward writing valid (X)HTML.
Hmmm..Not That Great
2006-02-01 21 of 23 found this review helpfulI decided that I wanted to learn Web Design and so logically, I am starting out with HTML. This book had rave reviews as most of the VQS books, so I was anxious to get started with it.
Just so you know, the approach that I took with this book is since it is set up in a step by step format, I decided to build a page along with the examples so that 1) I could practice, which would help me remember better and 2) to make sure that everything worked. Well, at first things were going great. Then I ran into a section of code that did not work. I spent at least a 1/2 hour of my study time trying to figure out what in the heck I did wrong, only to find out that if I had read a little further that IE does not support this code. Why in the heck wasn't that said at the outset before I starting inputting the code??!!
Then don't even get me started on Chapter 8 on CSS. I spent so much time on this getting really frustrated because the code did not work on selectors. I started even doing searches on the net to find out what I was doing wrong. Apparently, additional code is needed. Keep in mind there is nothing in the examples on the page to show that this code is needed. I feel this is pretty much NEED TO KNOW information especially since this book is targeting the beginner. If you are anything like me, time is a commodity and I don't have time to waste on trying to figure out information that should already be in the book. I am still in Ch 8 and sitting here debating if I want to continue to use this book to learn HTML/CSS. It's hard now to continue because I have lost interest feeling that I may possibly be wasting valuable time typing useless or depracated code.
From what I have read, I do not understand why there are 5 stars all over the place for this book. If you are an absolute beginner, you may be confused and frustrated. I understand that confusion and frustration may be a part of learning anything, but I think it is a little too much. I may skim through a few more chapters to see if it improves, since everyone is raving about it, but ultimately I think I am going to try another source for learning HTML/XHTML/CSS.
Something else I learned new though ~~ Just because people rave about a book here, no matter how many raves, the book can still really stink.
Great "How To" and "WHY"
2006-03-02 15 of 19 found this review helpfulI am one of the most impatient programmers on the face of the earth. In fact, I have been in professional services for years because it takes to long to realize results with traditional programming. Web development has sucked me back into the fray, and I enjoy the immediacy of the langugages involved. Code it -- look at it! Works perfectly for me! However, I am now a senior analyst, and nothing in my job description calls for these skills.
As the new director of technology (website guru) for my professional association, I found myself at a loss. I know HTML, and a smattering of java, but knew nothing about PHP, CSS, real JAVA programming or MySQL, which are the basis for our group's website. I took over in January of 2006, with a major symposium scheduled for March 2006. Everything and it's grandmother needed to be released on that site, which had been neglected over the past year (the old DOT was sent to Iraq!). In short order, I needed to know it all and do it all. This same review will be used for the Java and PHP/MySQL books. THESE BOOKS ARE A LIFESAVER! From building forms in HTML (I had never had to do this before), to creating style sheets, to writing java code to manipulating the MySQL database with PHP files, I have found the instructions so clear and easy to use that when I am in a hurry, I can just do stuff. Later, I can go back to the book to understand what I did, how it was actually done, and why it was successfully. When I really take my time, the tutorials are invaluable.
Obviously, I recommend this book. Novices will be led gently by the hand; the more experienced will find better ways of doiing things, and the impatient can get it done quickly. Excellent deal.
Didn't quite get there.
2006-05-20 13 of 20 found this review helpfulThis book was perscribed text for my university class "Introduction to Web Design" and I found it a frustrating experience. Whist Castro gives "how to" instructions they are not always clear, and examples are not given for everything. Unfortuantely a lot of my class mates shared my frustrations, and I am not looking forward to the next class on advanced web design simply because this is the perscribed text for that one too.
There are much better books on the market, specifically "The Complete Reference to HTML & XHTML" published by Osbourne.
Informative and well organized
2004-11-20 12 of 14 found this review helpfulThis book is significantly better than it's sister book, DHTML and CSS for the World Wide Web. The book lays the foundation, step by step, for understanding HTML tags and how to use HTML and CSS to lay out your pages and to get them formatted the way you want. The examples are practical and based in the real world. The text is very easy to follow and is easy enough for beginners to use. And the reference portions at the end of the book are excellent.
Good but hard for students to follow
2004-09-30 12 of 13 found this review helpfulI read the excellent reviews of this book, ordered it then adopted it for college level course as an intro to HTML after my other book went out of print. After 2 semester now I find the book is very difficult for students to follow to build their own web sites. Examples are not complete enought and I have to fill in a lot of things for my students. My students range from Junior and Seniors at a University to Grad students from a wide range of disciplines.
I now realize this book is not clear enough to really help those new to HTML.
Not for the beginner
2008-01-08 11 of 12 found this review helpfulIt staggers me that this book has received high ratings from so many people. Good luck if you're a beginner trying to learn HTML and CSS from this book. Before you even see so much as one HTML tag, the author leaps in to talking about the W3C, cross browser issues, HTML extensions, the web standards project, CSS workarounds, XML, markup languages, is XHTML dangerous, the difference between serving a page as XML or XHTML, text content, the identical properties of XHTML and HTML (just in case you're wondering, no, we still haven't seen a working example of a HTML tag yet, and we are now on page 27), elements, attributes, values, elements containing other elements, empty elements, tags, hex colors...
OK! Now we have seen our first few tags. But oops.. rather than receiving a proper introduction, the tags shown are merely displayed in side columns, to assist in making points about "attribute pair values" and layout.
And so on we go hearing about Uniform Resource Locators, block vs inline, parents and children (still no proper introduction to our first tag), plug ins, helper applications, file names, absolute and relative urls, web accessibility... and on to page 40 which gives theory about DOCTYPES, standards and quirks mode.. now here's some theory about building web pages for an intended audience, saving web pages, creating default pages, editing and organisng files (page 52, still haven't seen our first tag), how to get web design inspiration, more on DOCTYPEs, character encoding, the HTML and HEAD tags.. what's this?! Oh my gosh! Page 58 and finally the HTML tags start getting introduced!
I'm sorry, but this is garbage. If I don't have a solid, working understanding of HTML (which I don't, hence why I bought this so called guide to "learn" XHTML and CSS), then there is NO WAY I am going to have the *FAINTEST CLUE* what the author is talking about in those first 58 pages. NONE.
Here is something along the lines of what I was hoping to see, perhaps no later than about page 3:
Type this in to your text editor, and save it as myfirstpage.html:
Hey! This is my first web page!
Now view it in your web browser. Now put some
tags around it (explain what a tag is, and what h1 means), now save again, and view in your web browser. See how the text has now become more enlarged and prominent? That's because the web browser can see the tags around your text, so is now displaying your text as a heading.
THAT is how you introduce someone to HTML.
In summary:
If you're a beginner, stay as far away as you possibly can from this book. It will probably turn you off trying to learn HTML and CSS.
For the intermediates, the best this book will do is act as an occasional reference for ideas you already have some knowledge of. It is only for this reason that the book was saved from receiving a 1 star rating from me. Too easy!
2005-12-10 11 of 12 found this review helpful
THAT is how you introduce someone to HTML.
In summary:
If you're a beginner, stay as far away as you possibly can from this book. It will probably turn you off trying to learn HTML and CSS.
For the intermediates, the best this book will do is act as an occasional reference for ideas you already have some knowledge of. It is only for this reason that the book was saved from receiving a 1 star rating from me.
Too easy!
2005-12-10 11 of 12 found this review helpfulSome book authors are subject matter experts; others are writing experts; still others are teachers.
The best instructional books come from folks who are all three. Enter Elizabeth Castro.
This book was a breeze to follow and understand. I have three successful web sites now.
I also recommend her Perl and CGI book for the same reason.
This Book is Excellent
2005-10-21 11 of 11 found this review helpfulI've been wanting to learn HTML for a long time now. I stumbled on Elizabeth Castro's 127 page Visual QuickProject guide, "Creating a Web Page with HTML" in a book store and bought it. It was a really good introduction, but didn't go into the level of detail that would make someone really able to use HTML, so I purchased this book. This is an excellent book that gives details in a clear manner with lots of easy to follow examples. I also liked the order in which she presents things. I never felt like I needed to get to the end of the book to understand what I read in the beginning (which happens frequently with technical manuals). I really feel that I now have a good grasp on (X)HTML and CSS.
I would recommend that if you have absolutely no experience with HTML or CSS that you also get the QuickProjet Guide and go through that one first. I think having that as a foundation helped in a few places where I might have been a little lost with the detailed reference otherwise.
This is not a beginner's book, I know I am a programmer.
2004-05-02 11 of 37 found this review helpfulI wasted my money on this book. It says it is a beginner book;
but it is definitly not!!! Sorry, but I would like to give it
a good rating, but I just can't. In the first few pages it
jumps in to complexity. I read more to see if it was getting
better, but it got worse. I did find a good book for begginer's.
They are out there. I am surprised that the preface for this says
it is for beginner's. Number 1 best seller? Maybe I should write
a book then!! This book is a reference book, not a beginner's!
Trust me. I could go on and on, but if you are a beginner, all I can say is do not get it.
Very hard to understand.
2004-03-08 11 of 22 found this review helpfulThe book jumps all over the place with references to pages throughout the book from the 1st chapter on. I did not find it easy to understand. It actually make creating a web page/site a lot harder than it actually is.
Ref. Book
2006-03-04 10 of 11 found this review helpfulI have never dove deep into HTML, but I have done some basic modifications to existing HTML AND I have a lot of programming experience. This is a good "reference" book with very good basic examples that can be applied to what you are doing. If you're somewhat comfortable coding then I would suggest it. It's not a "teach all concepts" type of book but it does touch base on many HTML of the basic capabilities.
Just like the web
2005-03-05 10 of 10 found this review helpfulIt works just like the links in the web, eg: forgot about how to add an image in a page, then go to page xxx. the instructions are short and precise. there are also useful tables that I look up a lot when creating a page. So there's no need to flip pages when I forgot the css or html tags. There's also pictures that accompony the instructions, which is quite useful.
Excellent reference for beginners & advanced users
2005-02-04 10 of 10 found this review helpful
I have an honest confession, I'm a programmer, but I had no idea how to code HTML for some time. I first tried HTML for Dummies, but it was of no use. Then after reading the reviews, I tried this book and now I'm glad I did. This book has helped me to get up to speed in my web development projects. It's a great book to start with and also an excellent quick reference for those who already know HTML.
It's Absolutely One Of The Best HTML Guides!
2002-12-27 10 of 10 found this review helpfulThere are millions of Websites up and running on the Internet today. Although they vary significantly in their content, design, and use of technology, they all have one thing in common - they are dependent upon programming languages such as HTML to communicate with viewers. It's the HTML "coding" that presents text, graphics, photographs, sounds, video, and other programming options. A good understanding of HTML is necessary to produce an operational and effective online presence.
Elizabeth Castro has written HTML for the World Wide Web to provide Website designers of all skill levels with the latest ground-breaking HTML, XHTML, and Style Sheet tags. She presents a variety of sample scripts and illustrations to assist designers to create dynamic Websites. Whether the designer uses a commercially available HTML editor or works from scratch, this book will provide new and exciting programming options that can be put to immediate use!
The book is written in a clean, concise, and straightforward manner, cutting through the mountains of writing that weigh down most other books. After providing some brief Website design tips, Castro moves to the heart of the book, programming tags. Available programming tags are clearly presented and discussed, and accompanied by sample scripts and illustrations of their actual use on the same page. No need for page flipping here to see what each tag can accomplish.
Are you interested in putting some exciting programming features to work? Elizabeth Castro suggests that beginners read through the entire book and follow strict HTML guidelines when at all possible. Although her book is intended to be a strict HTML resource tool, it can also serve as a Website design guide that will offer quick design solutions to meet the growing demands of online publishing for a variety of users.
Castro recommends that Websites be designed simply, fast-loading, and accessible to those using a variety of browsers, platforms, and monitor settings. According to Castro universality is key. Her pet peeves are overpowering backgrounds and unwanted, unsolicited, self-loading obnoxious sounds! A convenient fold-out color chart at the back of the book identifies a selection of available Website colors. Other charts include listings of tags, special characters, and helpful Web development tools.
This is a top-rated book. Keep it within easy reach of your computer while designing Websites. It's extremely easy to read and thumb through to find the tag scripting and other information you need when you need it. Feel free to highlight text on pages, to fold the corners, and to insert bookmarks. Have it on hand. It's absolutely one of the best HTML guides available. Highly recommended!
Best of its type under US$40
2006-05-31 9 of 9 found this review helpfulI use this book for classes and workshops that I teach. It is quite simply the best book of its type for under US$40. There are a couple of excellent titles from Wrox that deliver similar information, but they miss this price point.
Castro's book comes in at just under 500 pages, which is as succinct as one could hope to get with the level of detail that she reaches.
It does an excellent job of not only covering the most basic material but of touching on questions that will arise for intermediate web development students exploring logical "next steps" of web technology learning.
Perfect Introduction To HTML & CSS
2006-04-27 9 of 10 found this review helpfulPerfect book for beginners that want to learn HTML and CSS!!!
Elizabeth Castro writes her books (this book has been re-released many a times so you know they are good) in a style that is quick to pick up, hard to put down, and easy easy easy for newbies to learn from! With bold fonts, a great layout, and a snazzy size that fits perfectly in your hands, you simply CANNOT go wrong picking up this book if you want to learn HTML like you are in a classroom and the instructor is right in front of you. HTML experts need not pick up this book, but most others will find this extremely useful.
***** HIGHEST POSSIBLE RECCOMENDATION
CSS rocks!
2005-09-23 9 of 9 found this review helpfulThis is a great book for getting your coding skills up to speed! If you don't know the difference between html, xhtml, xml, sgml,& css then this is the book for you. Gives current standards throughout, and is clear and easy to use. It is a required textbook for a class I am taking, and has become my new favorite web-coding/design reference. Contains many clear and well-explained examples, and will allow you to hand-code like a pro.
the phone book of (X)HTML
2004-10-19 9 of 9 found this review helpfulI purchased the book for one specific reason. To learn a bit about (X)HTML and CSS. This book did exactly that.
If you are looking for a book that will hold your hand step by step to create a website from start to finish THIS IS NOT THE BOOK FOR YOU.
This book is a learning tool for you to process yourself and apply as need be. If you are a programmer, like another review author found herein, you may be used to finding HOW-TO articles to execute specific tasks. You may find them here, but not in a specific order that will plainly walk you through any sort of step-by-step. The book is exactly what it states. A visual quick start guide that will help you understand what HTML and CSS are and how to use it.
THIS IS NOT A BOOK ABOUT WEB DESIGN, THIS IS A BOOK ABOUT MARKUP LANGUAGE! AND A GREAT BOOK AT THAT!
badly organized
2003-01-10 9 of 11 found this review helpfulThis, the 5th edition, is badly organized compared to the 4th. You often cant try things as you read about them. This is especially true for the chapters on style sheets. I think the trouble is that the book tries to cover HTML and XHTML simultaneously. While there is obviously alot of overlap, there are enough ideosynracies to scramble the natural order of presentation. Compounding that is the small size and format of the book. Many of the examples are incomplete or not well connected to the text just because they wouldn't fit otherwise.
I'm going back to the 4th edition. XHTML can wait.
Highly recommended
2005-08-02 8 of 8 found this review helpfulI have just been building a website for my workplace, an educational agency for people with disabilities, and I've done it from the ground-up using this book. Elizabeth Castro's HTML book has been my bible, and never again will I automatically turn to FrontPage, or any other wysiwyg web design software. I am not a natural coding person, but this book has made it possible for me. Highly recommended. (...)
This book is head and shoulders above the rest!
2005-06-15 8 of 8 found this review helpfulI attended college back in 1998 after deciding to embark on a second career. The HTML/CSS texts I had then and the one's I read recently have NOTHING on Ms. Castro's brilliant work.
I re-wrote my code and it validated! The beauty of this book is the straight-to-the-point method Ms. Castro employs. All the other $50 dollar plus books are so crammed with useless and confusing filler text that it would give me blistering headaches. This one is less expensive and succinctly written. You just can't go wrong.
I recommend this book as an essential must have web programming reference guide. Get it now. You won't regret it.
GREAT AAAA++++
2005-04-28 8 of 8 found this review helpfulI've recently started doing HTML and I have to say this book is impressive. It's great for a beginner and it would probably be great for advanced HTML as well, if that is indeed possible.
And if you have the book check out the author's website www.cookwood.com, which inludes many handy refrences, examples from the book and even a Q+A forum.
Truly a great book!!!
Great for Working with Transitional XHTML and CSS
2004-01-17 8 of 8 found this review helpfulPrior to reading this book I was HTML-proficient, but minimally familiar with CSS and not familiar with XHTML at all. Now, while I'm no kung-fu master, I have been able to design a simple set of webpages for my church using the techniques described in this book, and will soon retrofit some older HTML-only sites.
I like this book's approach of starting with simple projects and then developing more complex ones as the things progress. Chapters usually begin with simple (frequently deprecated) HTML coding techniques and then show a better way to gain control of a document with XHTML and style sheets. Thankfully, Castro points out that the deprecated tags are not only admissible with Transitional XHTML, they frequently provide a quick (albeit dirty) solution to your coding needs - if your page needs only one instance of a tag, go for it, don't overcomplicate your style sheet unneccesarily. I very much like the style sheet projects; they really bring into focus their power and potential (my previous CSS experience had been more textbook-oriented, so these were eye-openers.) This is not to say there aren't problems with the book. Frequently Castro begins describing a handy element or attribute only to conclude the section with: "no browser currently supports this." If all of these had been grouped into an appendix called "An Eye to the Future" I'd have no complaint, but to build up these vapor features in the main text was frustrating, if not cruel. Also, I feel the "Formatting: The Old Way" and "Layout: The Old Way" would have worked better at the beginning of the book rather than the end, simply because if you're relatively new to HTML it would give you a better understanding of what is discussed later when Castro presents the New/Better/Right way. The book has a basic one-page-per-idea format, which works about 80% of the time: 10% of the time the topic should have been expanded to two or three pages (and *occasionally* things are); 10% of the time things have been obviously padded. Finally, at the end of the introduction, a Q&A forum is mentioned, but the URL provided is dead; at first I was disappointed since I looked forward to the possibility of peer assistance, but I later found that it had been moved to the "Help" section of the site (hopefully the defunct URL will be redirected, but if not, that's where the forum is). This book is not for everyone: novices may be overwhelmed; more experienced developers may be bored. It's a fairly good introduction for the intermediate user, which made it great for me. Take advantage of the sample pages here at Amazon to get a feel for whether it's for you or not. If the excerpts make sense to you, but don't induce coma, you're a good candidate for getting a lot out of this book. Ok... this book is the last thing I would've bought if I had just browsed around the web (that's the I-already-know-everything talking).
As a man of 70 years with no clue as to how to create a web page, I purchased this book along with its primer, "Creating a Web Page with HTML" by the same author, and in no time I was able to structure a web page for an architect friend of mine which received rave reviews. Castro's ability to walk you through the process of the protocols with ease made the project a cakewalk. I had previously purchased Dreamweaver thinking it would be easier to not have to learn the html language. However, I got frustrated with the software which is what precipitated my going out to try to find a simple, easy but complete book on how to build a site. After building my first website, I now feel quite comfortable with the html language and with the ability to create more sites. Covers HTML layout, forms, controls, text, graphics manipulation, stylesheets, and basic Javascript. Clear, easy to browse and search as a reference, and surprisingly short for the breadth of subjects covered, this is a very useful book. It is full of great tips about each subject, including how different browsers react to different HTML details, bugs in browsers, tips, tricks, and workarounds. I have found after hundreds and stacks of computer books that the quickstart are certainly the most inexpensive and knowledgeable for the size of these books. It is amazing how much helpful information can be found on these pages. Not perfect but pretty darn complete and a wonderful beginning. The chapters represent categories, and there is a great appendix that lists all the tags with brief helpful descriptions! This book lays a great foundation of solid XHTML and CSS. With the most complete and readable introduction into the world of web design. Because of the authors ability to get the information across without going over your head I would highly recommend this book to either the beginner or the intermediate user. It is a book well worth you money! All in all this book is great if you want to learn how to do something quick and dirty. But if you are serious get this book and a reference book. This book does a great job of showing you the wrong way to do something, then it says "Oh by the way that was the wrong way to do it, now we will show you the right way". (same for her javascript book, for instance the rollovers) I almost pulled my hair out when I was trying to read chapter #8 on creating Style Rules and the author didn't even bother telling me where to put the rules. When I went to the website the example of page #34 it wasn't even on the website. This is a kidde book for quick information, not to be taken serious for power users. Here is the story of my life:- Once I get an assignment, I have one month to figure out how to design the application. With plethora of web languages and tools out there, getting overwhelmed is an understatement. No wonder there are so many spaghetti codes out there when it comes to web programming. Also, another dilemma arrives; if you need to design a JSP application, where do you start? Do you learn Java first and start writing the java servlets first, followed by the JSP tags? Or do you learn html/xhtml first, or XML etc? I honestly think there are no right or wrong answers. It depends on the individual. If you already know java, more power to you. Hence, learning how to write java servlets would be a breeze. Or if you already know VB, you would cut 1/2 of the time understanding VBScript. The truth is; web programming is so difficult to comprehend. You just don't know where to start. However, Henry Ford once said, "Nothing is too difficult if you break them into smaller pieces." Therefore, when it's too complicated, stick with the obvious(the basic) - XHTML! After 6 years of writing client-server applications, I finally have a chance to write my first web application. This book taught me how to write XHTML syntax in one week! My mind was beleagured with questions before I read this book. Upon finished reading this book, I began to understand how to approach the application. It came with intuition! To reiterate, this book will give you the solid foundation before you dip your feet into the web environment and start using the other languages, i.e. asp, jsp, xml etc. XHTML or HTML is compulsory. There are no shortcut... This was my first intro book to HTML and CSS. The writing by Elizabeth Castro is actually very clear and pleasant to read, but the style of writing is not conducive to learning the material in my opinion. Every page is like this: a brief intro paragraph at the top, then a list of steps for writing the HTML laid out in nauseating detail, then another list of "tips" that didn't fit anywhere else. The steps for writing the HTML are so wordy, it destroys your train of thought and makes me want to put the book away for another day. For example, and this is just a small example among countless others, she feels the need to write this, and I quote:
This book is the most poorly written book on CSS/HTML/the web that I have EVER read. I learned more in 1 chapter of a for dummies book than I learned reading this entire book five times over. She couldn't keep a coherant thought if she was given a diagram. Crap book. Not worthy to use as toilet paper even. The material is explained well and has many examples. The problem is the examples are printed so small you often need a magnifying glass to read them. Well written, concise, easily understood text on writing web pages. Includes a supportive web site. This book is the #1 best-selling book on HTML and I can see why. I started with no knowledge of HTML whatsoever two months ago and was able to build my site 'website-traffic-resources' with the help of Elisabeth Castro's visual quickstart guide. I use the book all the time as a reference book to quickly look up HTML elements. "HTML For The World Wide Web" is clearly structured and the combination of the text guides with HTML code and website 'screenshots' make it particularly useful. The Table of Content and the Index make it easy to find the items you are looking for and the book is built so that you can read only the sections you need for now. Time saving and highly recommended!
While not for the complete beginner, it's an excellent resource for HTML programmers.
About four years ago I taught myself HTML with some guidance from a roommate who knew HTML. After I had built a small and sparse webpage I was given HTML for the World Wide Web (a predecessor to this book) as a christmas gift. I brushed it off since I learn better by doing and generally don't find manuals useful.
It is a rare find to have a book that works well both as a learning tool and a reference. Elizabeth Castro's HTML for the World Wide Web with XHTML and CSS is one of them.
I was just asked what was the most interesting tech-related book I've read in the last year and I had to say it was the 5th edition of Elizabeth Castro's Visual QuickStart Guide to HTML. It might not seem inspiring in and of itself, but it's so good I have a copy at home and at work always within arm's reach of my keyboard. It's brilliantly designed (the format of the Visual Quickstart Guides is excellent), extensively indexed, succinct, readable, reliable about warning of browser quirks and incompatibilities, and best of all, so far as I have seen in the 5th edition, error-free. Sometimes simple usability and reliability is better than all the flashy stuff in the world, especially when it makes it easy for you to understand and apply the really huge potential of XHTML and CSS. I recommend it to anyone who writes HTML, particularly those making the transition from HTML 4.0 to XHTML and those learning CSS. What's best about it? You can pick it up, get the answer you need and get on with your web design fast. If you're getting a reference book everything rests on your ability to find the answer and quickly undestand the answer so you can apply it. This book is a stellar example of just that principle. For those just learning HTML and CSS you may wish to also use another more wordy guide to get you started, but I suspect this is the one you'll still be using (and continually buying the new edition of) years down the road. When I took over the responsibility for our church website, I knew nothing about HTML or web design. After one on one instrucion from 2 other people who had some experience, and after trying 3 other books on the subject,all to little avail, I came upon Ms. Castro's "HTML For The World Wide Web". In very little time, I began to feel more comfortable working with HTML. It is well written, easy to understand and follow, and not written above the average person's head. I can't believe this book has been getting such great reviews....I am a smart person, but this book is so frustrating to get through! There is so much excess information -- the layout is terrible and the chapters poorly organized. I just want to know the basics about HTML and Ms. Castro doesn't seem to ever get there. In the beginning chapters of the book she refers to concepts we haven't even learned yet. It was terribly frustrating to read and I just simply gave up! The book is obviously for beginners and does have a lot of information that can be useful. The author uses a contradictory style of presentation in the book - easy to read with visual examples; however nearly every page I read had references to other pages in the book. This is a real nightmare having to flip all around the book and try to stay with the flow of learning.
Being a professional web designer you can never know too much and theres always new information that you have to learn because website standards and techniques change almost overnight. What use to work yesterday will no longer work today. But being a professional designer, you don't have time to read through tons of useless and boring information. You need clear and concise imformation that gets to the point and explains in detail without getting too complicated to get the job done.
This book is a great book for beginners. I am graphic designer who has succumbed to the overwhelming need of web design and I bought this book to guide me from start to finish. It is a guide that helps you through the whole process. From HTML/XHTML to CSS and some JavaScript. I purchased this book after using the previous (5th) edition which was borrowed from the library. The fifth edition was so excellent for a beginner that I wanted a permanent copy. I find the 6th edition excellently written with well-thought-out examples. The accompanying website to the book is a powerful resource. The only downside I found is that this edition started at a slightly higher level than the previous edition and I couldn't reference some of the simpler concepts. The book instructs you to go to the website, but afterall, this is a BOOK--to be read away from a computer--so I had to have internet nearby to get the complete experience I found in the earlier edition. My advice? Add back some very-beginner material and keep the excellent material added and this will be a great resource from beginner through novice. Still--it's a five star resource. This is simply the best HTML and CSS book. It has basically everything you need to know, with easy-to-find, easy-to-understand, and concise descriptions. It it not "web for dummies," rather, it is a very sophisticated and realistic approach to HTML and CSS, without a lot of hype or self-promotion. If you want to hear people wax poetical about the "EM" unit, you can get the book by Lie & Bos, but I think Castro's book is far more useful. She gives links to many web sites to help with more advanced stuff (Javascript, etc.), which is nice, but the book itself is incredibly comprehensive. And the layout of the book is a model for all instructional texts. A winner! She actually speaks in English and explains step by step exactly how to create, design, and write in HTML and XHTML. I will use this book as a constant reference to guide me in making web pages. Computer texts have improved greatly in recent years, but I've had a particularly good experience with the Visual QuickStart series. Elizabeth Castro's book helped me learn the HTML script in a matter of days. The learning curve was short and painless.
This book is extremely helpful for those who, like myself, are easily confused and boggled by web help books that assume genius level readers. Using this book as a reference is its most valuable assest to me...it's so easy to look a topic up and find info on it. And the website they give you to see the examples from the book posted live is a big help as well. The book by Elizabeth Castro, HTML 5 with XHTML $ CSS is as easy as it gets. It explains the basics of web design with pictures, examples while giving her prospective on a number of issues concerning the www. This is a great book. I have a lot of programming experience, In particular, the tradeoffs between older HTML, XHTML and using I don't own any other HTML books (yet), but did look through I have been a fan of peachpit press for years, and this book has a lot going for it. As a beginner, I was quickly able to establish a foundation that I am building on. I strongly recommend this book to anyone BEFORE they buy a Dreamweaver book. In other words, get comfortable with handcoding html and css before you even think about dreamweaver. There are also excellent sections on organizing a website, attracting visitors, etc.
This book is so badly edited and so riddled with errors, it is almost unusable. The section on adding media shows code to use for one scenario and code for another scenario, then in the examples using those scenarios, the code is reversed. I cannot possible tell which is right for which scenario now! On page 323, for setting a new window's size, it says how to enter the height, width, and scrollbar code and says "No spaces!" but then the example clearly has spaces!! I followed the example, couldn't get it to work, then actually read the text and removed the spaces. (I still don't have it working right.) I've found others but can't recall them now. What a massive waste of my money!! I have actually bought this book from Amazon twice because of all of the good reviews. I bought the 4th edition a few years ago and thought there was some great reference for the HTML I already knew, but wasn't able to understand or learn CSS from it. They don't give you an examples to work through. I bought the 6th edition recently not realizing that it was the same book. It still doesn't teach you anything. I think it is a good book to look up some syntax if you're a hack. Buy something else if you actually want to learn CSS. (You might be able to learn basic HTML from it.) This book was a real help to me when I first became addicted to coding. The pictures are quite helpful, or at least more helpful than long explanations, and Elizabeth Castro is a fabulous writer. I learned so much that I went on to learn many other programming and coding languages with ease. You don't need to have any experience to use this book, it explains everything. Visual QuickStart Guide's are the best type in the market, cheap and easy to understand. So if you are itching to learn another computer language, I suggest checking them out! This book was used as the textbook for a weekend warrior HTML class I took in college.
When I bought this book I didn't know anything about html and very little about css. I'm a graphics person, not a programmer, and I wanted to create some web pages for my employer (who knows less about it all than I did). This book what just what I needed--it's clear, well-organized, easy to read and understand.
This book lays down easy to follow examples, and specifies what CSS and (X)HTML tags will and won't work in older browers. The naming of elements and classes could use a little more emphasis. It's there, but you can't run by fast. I would have given this book Five Stars but the author's companion website is so poorly designed and formatted that you can barely read it. It's so bad that it is a credibility issue to the book. Standing on its own, the book is excellent. I bought this book because it is the #1 best-selling book on HTML and it seemed to contain all of the content that I am looking for. In reading through the book,I find that 1) the explanations are not always clear or concise 2) I find myself skipping sections because it is annoying to read because the text-figure layout is poor and 3) the author consistently refers to other book sections 50+ pages ahead of the current reading as explanation. This book is probably best as a reference, not as a manual. This is my all time favorite reference/learning guide. I purchased the 4th edition and it was the most used guide of my collection of over 50 various tech books. The 4th edition of HTML, touched on CSS which I wished there was more information on this topic. Ah, but my wish came through. With CSS on the 5th edition, I'm pretty sure this book would be used even more than the previous edition. If I can give out guarantee's, I would guarantee you will not find a better HTML book, hands down. Now if only she'd write a XSLT book..... I'm a reasonably computer savvy person. However, I've been wanting to develop more marketable skills in design... so, recently I've started taking classes in FLASH, ILLUSTRATOR, etc. Then I was told that it would be very beneficial for me to learn HTML and CSS, so, after reading many reviews on Amazon, I bought this book. In a matter of hours, I was designing an XHTML website for myself. I HIGHLY RECOMMEND this book to entry-level web designers. It is extremely well written and clear. It gives some good foundational background for web design, the differences and purposes of HTML, XHTML, and CSS, and it's a great resource for all aspects of designing web pages! If you want to break into web design, BUY THIS BOOK! This is the class text for my Intro to Web Design at the University of Louisville and it's really a good tool to have when trying to learn the basics of building websites. I use it as a reference between class meetings when I get stuck on a topic. Very easy to understand and pretty straight forward. The language of web design was like Greek to me and this book is helping me understand things a little better.
The author "breaks-down" what (x)html is and what it isn't--in a manner that an absolute beginner would appreciate and for those that was poorly introduced to it (you know some, but it's sloppy) this book is for you.
The book is an excellent guide. It is written so that anyone can understand it. Unusual for technical writing because it is humorous,also.
This book couldn't describe anymore clearer on how html code is written and used. I have dreamweaver 8 and done a few websites but with this book I saw how sloppy my code was and now I'm able to improve dramatically with all the work I'm doing now. This book is a must have if your a beginner to html Sure, maybe this book was helpful a few years ago, but now it's too out-dated and doesn't cover enough topics. I can't speak for the more updated version of this text, but I'd advise getting a book from sitepoint (like the CSS Anthology) instead. It was straight foward and a good reference. I had the binding cut off at Kinko's, and then had it spiral bound so it would lay open flat on a desk. If you know nothing about HTML you can start at the beginning and try one thing at a time. Otherwise, you can just look up what you want to do and get it done quickly. The book is in full color which is really nice, and has screen shots on every page. I liked the way the book was laid out b/c it had actual screen images and explanations below them. It broke things down into steps. However, sometimes the mix of CSS and XHTML got to be too much within the same pages. This bought this book because of the rave reviews it received from so many others. However I thought this book fell short on providing practical examples for creating web pages. This book does make html a little less challenging. A person that has never done it before can practically pick it up and get started. Highly recommended for beginners. Let's face it, HTML isn't exactly rocket science. And this book gave it exactly the treatment it deserves: clear, easy to understand examples that show you what to do and what the results will be. If you are looking for a handy reference that won't break the bank or the bookshelf, this is the one. The coverage of CSS and XHTML standards was excellent, allowing me to go from absolutely no knowledge of CSS to writing my websites using style sheets rather than old-school formatting. If you are into the old-school stuff, it's in there for you, as well as a chapter on WML, for all you early adopters out there. I was forced to buy this book for a class and I learned so much. The format is very easy to understand and follows a logical path. Things get more complex but it is always explained in plain english (which is more than I can say about my instructor). I had some previous knowledge of HTML but not nearly enough to be described as competent. The best part of this book is that the HTML code for whatever you are trying to learn is included in it's entirety in its own column on every page. Thanks for making an easy to follow HTML book, Elizabeth Castro! Pro: Direct & to the point. Clean code as far as I could tell. A fast read. I really appreciate that. Con: It is not complete but does not claim to be complete. The printed examples are reduced so far that a magnifying glass was needed (All in the VQG series are like that.) There are no tutorial examples to work through. Unlike Patrick Carey's book, this one is worth your time and money if you want to start learning HTML/XHTML. Elizabeth has done an amazing job of bringing the World Wide Web into the reach of Every Tom Dick and Harry that's looking to build a website. Just about the only thing she can't help you with, is exactly how you choose to design it. If you want to learn HTML: I'd definately suggest this book. I have owned every one of the HTML for the world wide web books she's written and like the others, this one is better than all the books before. As the web moves more toward CSS, Castro focuses on helping readers get a good solid understanding of how to utilize CSS features but doesn't leave anyone behind. Why do I like this book and the rest of the series so much? When I'm writing code, I don't have time to read lots of stuff to understand how to do what I need to have done. Castro's books are very to-the-point teaching users what's needed to get the job done now. Other reviewers have given her a 4/5 for not covering things as well as possible, but in my view, this is still an excellent reference. I keep this book along with others handy any time I'm writing PHP, HTML, CSS, or Perl. It's been worn quite well as well as the rest of her HTML books in my library. I actually teach HTML from this book and my students rave about it too. I use only one book for HTML and this is it. This book will teach you everything about designing good web pages and will become your one and only desktop reference. Everything written by Elizabeth Castro is great and this book is the best I have read so far on the subject of web design. This book pays for itself -- buy it now! This book is totally the bible of HTML books. I use it as a reference guide whenever I need it...there probably hasn't been a page i havent used. The author makes it so easy to understand the often confusing world of HTML with plenty of examples and well written explanations. A must-buy for beginner-intermediate web designers. ...someone without any experience of HTML or web design might find this successor to Castro's HTML 4 overwhelming. I'm teaching an introduction to web design course & using it as a textbook, but have decided to skip over Chapter 1 because of the barrage of jargon...not a good way to ease students into the subject! Does a complete novice need to know in Chapter 1 the distinctions between inherited CSS styles, selectors, specificity, class, id, etc., when CSS aren't even dealt with until Chapter 8? "HTML 4" was easier to get into & better-paced, I think. However, that said, this is probably the best book available for getting a grip on XHTML & CSS, generally clear and thorough. La 5ta edición de este libro cubre HTML 4.01, XHTML 1.0 y CSS. Es excelente! El libro tiene una excelente metodología de enseñanza y a la vez funciona como un libro de referencias. Introduce poco a poco las etiquetas HTML. Es ideal para principiantes y expertos en HTML. Además, presenta de una forma sencilla las diferencias entre XHTML 1.0 y HTML 4.01. Describe con imágenes la forma en que se presenta cada etiqueta HTML en los diferentes navegadores Web. Resalta cada problema posible y las soluciones a los mismos. Gracias a este libro se pueden diseñar páginas que se vean bien en cualquier navegador de Internet! Luego de leer este libro, lo tengo siempre a mano para cualquier consulta. En resumen, es una magnifica inversión! If you're looking to teach yourself HTML/CSS, I would NOT suggest this book.
I had to buy this book for a class, so had no choice. I do not like the way this book presents information, it is too difficult to find the bits of information you need to code and style html. I have also found contradictions in information presented in this book and the correct coding needed to pass xhtml strict. This book presents information that is poorly organized, and the author is too chatty about his own opinions and thinking in a way that has nothing to do with learning html. You will use this book as a constant reference. The Appendices alone are worth the purchase price, making Elizabeth Castro's straight-forward, practical lessons complete bonus. A great book for coding upstarts as well as seasoned pros looking for a day-to-day reference. I'm sure that Ms. Castro had the best of intentions when she wrote this book, however, she apparently wrote it from the point of view of a person already experienced in HTML and XHTML and CSS. I get the sense that some of the important instructions have been left out. Very good book. Offers very detailed examples which you can write and will work as described. Its divided in sections so you know what to look for. Very great examples which is good for beginners which I am and it seems relatively easy. Would definitely recommend this book to anyone who is interested in learnign HTML, XHTML and CSS. This book was "recommended" for a class I was taking at the local JC called web page tips and tricks. It has a few interesting ideas however it condones using deprecated tags such as blockquote, Liz Castro makes it as easy as it can be to learn how to code and control your own web site. You don't need expensive WYSIWYG design applications. In fact, you probably own text editors that will do the job nicely. Purchasing this book in tandem with "Creating a Web Page with HTML" by Liz Castro will have you up and running in, literally, a few hours. *Clear, concise writing, easy to understand
This is a great reference book written in a clear and concise manner. The author has an excellent grasp on subject and a very user friendly writing style. The book teaches you a very solid fundamentals on XHTML/CSS and prepares you for the next level, advanced web based development. Each topic is backed with appropriate example for better understanding. Back in 1996, while pursuing my master in an electrical engineering major, I learned very basic html code by taking an optional class in computer science department. But then I got into a job and spent last 10 years working on writing code in c/c++ for embedded controls as a Software Engineer. Recently then I took a class on basic web site development at a local community college (MATC Madison, WI). Even though this book was not a text book, I ended up using this book mostly throught the length of class and it helped immensely over the official text book. I used an earlier edition of this book to learn HTML at a vo-tech school years ago and have been getting each new edition as it comes out. The author has really kept up with the times and I couldn't do without it. If you want to learn to create web sites, I can't think of a better book. When you first see HTML and CSS they look pretty arcane and scary. Ms. Castro quickly makes you comfortable with the task you are about to undertake. (Well, OK, she does use a considerable amount of space in her Introduction concerning the "Browser Wars" and the various reactions to the new standards that are trying to be imposed on the browser makers. You'll probably do well to skip this initially, and get back to it when you're more knowledgeable about HTML and CSS.)
I'm sure much of this can be found online - but that having been said, this is far more convenient than finding disparate and incoherent guides on HTML, XHTML, and CSS, along with the reasoning behind many of the features as well. HTML, XHTML are explained in a basic way. Fails to provide clear CSS examples. I have been learning a little about web building over the past several years, just on my own using Dreamweaver and designing by "look" instead of coding, creating lots of unneeded CSS styles and HTML. After getting sucked in to her book I basically learned HTML overnight and more about CSS than in the 3 years of fiddling with it. Good job, Elizabeth, I've never read a clearer nor more easily navigable computer manual. What Elizabeth Castro writes in her introduction:
By far, one of the best web design books on the market. I use this book
After many years of working with web sites and building pages of all kinds, I realized that I needed to get a firmer grip on the basics of HTML, XHTML and CSS. A thorough search of Amazon kept pointing to this book, so I bought it and I am so glad I did. First of all the first review from 2000 can throw you off a bit because the sixth edition is just out and completely up-to-date. The author does not provide step-by-step tutorials, but she does provide an A-Z guide for how to use the tools to create the results. She also provides excellent references to outside resources that are cutting edge and quite informative. I highly recommend this book and will continue to use it as a refence for some time to come. Elizabeth Castro is one of the best tech writers on the market. This book is very easy to read with tons of illustrations that compliment her clean, unpretentious writing style. I highly recommend any of the Visual Quickstart Books (I haven't come across a bad one yet) but Castro's are among the best. In her XML book, she even made XSLT easy to understand!
I took an HTML class last semester, and though my teacher was top notch, the assigned text book was beyond lame. This book rocks. Every assignment was a breeze. I couldn't believe how much I understood at the end of the class. Don't even try stylesheets without if you be a novice. I've had othe Visual QuickStart Books, and I will continue to use them (the javascript one was great), but without a doubt Elizebeth Castro's is the best. You can trust me because I think that I know what I'm talking about. This was an excellent book. I already am a very proficient HTML programmer and wanted to update my skills with XHTML & CSS. This was just what I needed. I don't know how someone who has no experience would view it, but I found the relating of the XHTML & CSS to HTML most helpful. This book lays a great foundation of solid (X)HTML and CSS which are standards compliant. The greatness of this book though lies in what it's aim is, in a bout a weekend you can have the most thorough and readable introduction into the world of web design. However, this book is not exhaustive and I would append it with a follow up book on advanced (X)HTML and CSS. The ease of reading this book coupled with a wonderful appendix makes it a great retainer on your bookshelf that can be used as quick refrence. The values of doing all code by hand instilled by this book are great and serve only to make pages faster, leaner, and easier to update. As a 6 year veteran of HTML I found this book refreshing and somewhat of a reality check, I now code all my pages mostly with CSS markups and it has cut most of my page sizes down by 60% and left them looking better than ever. That is the reason why I must recommend this book to anyone who has been, wants to, or is ever thinking about making any sort of web pages. This book was a positive surprise for me. To be honest, I didn't expect much of a quickstart book. But, the book learns you most important about HTML and CSS, plus gives you a good (small) introduction to JavaSript. I knew basic about HTML and needed to learn more HTML and CSS within a few days. After a few days I could build a professional homepage using JavaScript (from the book and from the internet) and of course write HTML and CSS. Let's avoid misunderstandings. The JavaScript chapter DO NOT learn you to write JavaScript - it learns you the basic, so you can use the examples from the book or from the internet and mayby modify them if needed. So don't expect to write your own JavaScripts after reading this book. Another positive element is, that Elizabeth Castro everytime she presents a new tag comments the difference between different browsers. The only negative I have to say about the book is, that sometimes it is a little confusing to read the examples, since the book is printed in only greyscale and red. Often changes are written with red to emphasize it, but it can be confusing (on the other hand, the book is cheap). Since it is a quickstart book it does not cover in depth HTML - there exist big references book for that purpose. But as a quickstart book you can't get a better HTML book than this one. I have read a variety of books on HTML and web publishing, and they have generally fallen into one of two extremes. Some of the books were overly technical, dealing with the minutiae of syntax and neglecting practical application of the concepts. Other books were overly practical, suggesting solutions to design problems that were not entirely compliant with the details, and were not all that sound syntactically. Castro's book isn't too technical or too practical; she strides confidently down a nearly perfect balance between detail and application. And the resultant text is easy to read and understandable. Highly recommended. The approach of this book is disappointing. It begins with mostly HTML. While this is useful to a point, it seems kind of a waste of time -- since most people's primary goal is to learn XHTML. There was also too much emphasis on discussing deprecated tags. The focus on coding disappointed and disengaged me as a reader. I would prefer more focus on design. I do not recomend this book. This is the perfect book to start with - very clear instructions and explanations, the layout with the examples in the middle is very helpful and the book is written in a conversational and very readable manner.
I am relatively new to coding and this book was just what I needed to get going!! Several of the topics are somewhat beyond me at this time, so I think it would be helpful to non-beginners too! Well written, easy to understand with great examples! This is an excellent, step by step guide for anyone learning HTML! I use it all the time, great index and easy to follow language. Highly recommend. Its really excellent book on HTML, XML. People who dont know any thing about the HTML can easyly understand it. Elizabeth Castro explain everthing very deeply in that book. We can recognize this book as perfect book for students. I purchased this book I believe about two years ago when I decided that I wanted to learn about web design. I had good previous experiences with Peachpit Press in particular their Visual Quickstart books so I naturally looked for an HTML book from this series. Fast forward till now and I've been able to create a few interesting web pages from what I've learned and certainly HTML For the World Wide Web was certainly a good start. My impression of Ms. Castro is that she is one of those rare people who are not only good at their subject matter but also very competent in effectively teaching it to people from different levels of experience.
My NEW book fell apart! I was studying it flat on the table, and it split right down the binding, top to bottom. Now the pages are falling out! Arggghhhhhhh.
Great reference book jam packed with all the information you will need to hand code a web page. This book should be in your library if you plan to hand code & create your own Web Page! This book is exactly what it says it is: namely a quickstart to reference when writting x/html. I use it all the time. I have bought numerous editions and keep giving my current copy away to friends as the new editions get better and better. I am making a school of design in Milano. This book is more than a teacher, it seems like this book is talking to you! I love it and I think every beginner like me should have it because it explain everything you need to know to make up a site. I love it ! I'm a visual guy and find the Visual Quick Start Guides perfect for learning fast without getting lost in long boring chapters. It's great for beginners but if you're looking for something comprehensive this isn't the one. A must have for those getting thier feet wet. I purchased the 6th edition of this book recently and I read it from cover to cover. Overall I liked the presentation style of the author. With this book you will certainly feel that HTML is easy to learn and even to master. Numerous pictures in the book made understanding concepts much easier than otherwise would be. I also liked the way the chapters are organized in a progressive fashion. Another nice thing is that all examples from the book are on the author's web site where you test them online or you can download to your computer. The author also discusses nitty gritty details of how different browsers handle same code (i.e. cross browser compatibility is given enough importance in this book). Some of the professional web developers I know use this book on a regular basis in their jobs and have recommended it highly - I can see why after reading through the book. You can find pretty much what you need in this book. I have no reservations in recommending this book to anyone interested in learning HTML. I bought this book to start getting into web design and blogging. After I had ordered it, I realized that most blog hosting sites have a built-in template system, so very little web development skills are necessary. I found this book to be a great reference, however, whenever I wanted to tweak my site. The code snippets in each chapter are great to see the application of what's being taught. After flipping through the beginning chapters, I could see this being a great book to learn how to use HTML...and serving as a terrific reference for users like myself. If you know basically what you want this book is invaluable at getting there. This is an excellent tool to learn HTML, XHTML, and CSS-for visual learners, it gives excellent pictorial step-by-steps! I had to buy it for a graduate course, but I keep it on my desk to help all the time! I am not a professional webmaster but thanks to this book I learned a lot how to use xhtml to improve my website. The examples are great help and the book will be on my desk for a long time. If someone asks me for a book about xhtml I will recommend this one but I will not lend my copy to them :)
This book is an excellent companion to any educational course you might be taking in XHTML or CSS. It's nice for looking up little bits of information like tags or syntax structure. Castro does a nice job of giving alternative solutions, some based on Transitional XHTML, some based on the Strict form. I believe there is a newer edition available that is modernized with a few more rules and bits of advice that are more suitable for today's web designer. I would recommend that, but there's not a huge difference between the newest version and this one. Elizabeth Castro has been writing Visual Quickstart Guides to HTML and web design in an easy to understand manner. Now she provides resources for those who would be interested in web design that will create sites that are usable for years to come. Since I first picked up the fourth edition of this book, I have been hooked on the series, because its explanations are written on a level for the average person. The organization allows the reader to move at their own pace and easily refer back to topics that they want to refresh.
Castro's book is well written with an easy to follow format with just enough examples to illustrate key features. If you're after a complete reference for HTML, this may not the book for you. But it is a good reference for the tags and HTML features it covers. This book is extremely helpful to learn XHTML code. The color reference section in the back is fabulous. There is a quick reference for plain XHTML and CSS code in the back as well. The instructions are easy to follow in each chapter. This is a great book for beginners helping you to easily see what the code does for your webpage. I purchased this book to learn a little more about CSS. I use it more as a reference book than anything but it has been very helpful in my learning process. I can't recommend this book enough. I ended up getting as a few local colleges use it as a text for their courses. I did a self study using the book alone and I found it very clear in its explanations as well as very knowledgeable on HTML standards. The author refers to lots of resources for validating her explanations and providing greater detail. The standardization was a big issue for me. I appreciated that she used Windows, Mac, IE and Netscape examples. I was amazed how different browsers can do different things and how following standards can give the web creator control regardless of browser used. A bit of an eye opener for me to say the least. HTML can be more than what works in IE! I am a professional graphic designer, and have been buying the Visual Quickstart Guide books to learn programs since I was first assigned one in a college design class 7 years ago. Since then, I have used one these books to learn every program I have needed (quark, photoshop, dreamweaver, director, flash...), and still reference them continuosly. I highly recommend every one in the series, because of the straightforward way the information is organized and presented. You can read them straight through, or easily look up questions along the way. They have become an extrememly valuable resource, especially in web design. This book, HTML for the world wide web, is no exception. I recently took an online course through Macromedia, and was left confused. This book is so easy to understand, and includes essentials to web development such as XHTML, CSS and CGI. And the price is great!! This book has all of the CSS information that I've been looking for for the past couple of years, plus the added bonus of explaining what exactly XHTML is and how it differs from HTML. Everything is explained and demonstrated in a way that makes sense the first time, without having to test and/or re-read the text. I have already begun advising my fellow web developers to get a copy of this book for themselves. When I went looking for books on CSS, I first passed on this book and picked up one of those "24 hour" books. By the next day I went looking again and this time I picked it up. Glad I did. I learned a lot on (X)HTML AND CSS! Plenty of pictures and examples, beginning to end. The color, HTML Elements and CSS Property charts are useful tools for this personal web designer. And the Tips help is great. If you're a pro maybe this is too basic. But for a beginner or part-time web designer, it's great. Highly recommended. This is an amazingly well written book with lots of meat. It gives you all you need for creating excellent web sites using the current transitional markup language and style sheets plus introducing the upcoming XHTML. It's great for beginners and those with experience. I keep mine on my desk and am always dragging it from room to room. It has lots of information you'll need again and again. It won't have everything you want. As you progress, you'll want more information on CSS and certainly on XHTML. But for most people at this time, this is the book to have. Susanna K. Hutcheson This book really gave me a lot of insight on the fundamentals of Web design. It takes you step by step through the processes of hand writing the Web code. It was a lot of help for me, and I plan on keeping this book for future reference. This book is really well written and gave me confidence that I could build a web site for myself. Ms. Castro has taken each building block carefully and walked the reader through the steps with examples at each level. What I really liked was that she continually provides reminders of previously covered details and notes places later in the text where more details will emerge. Also, she provides a continuous example that matures slowly with the text. That way the reader can concentrate on the new information at each phase of the site construction. This is a very useful text and even written in a personable style. Give it a try if you're a complete novice as I was. I bought this book as a required reading for my web design level 1 class. My teacher likes it as a reference and I like the way it is written. Easy to follow with gotcha's and tips well laid out. I would recommend it for anyone trying to learn how to build a website with CSS. Even the least experienced web layout designer could learn a lot from this book. The font is large, the layout is easy to read and understand. The book goes into GREAT depth in each field. I recommend this book. I am using it for a class, but will hold onto this book for ever. Great transaction as well, here in about a week.
This book is A-ma-ZING...... It teaches you everything that you need to know to get started building, the whole process. It just breaks everything down into smaller bits of information. I know that with time, because of this book, my Web site skills will be all that I hoped for. It's definitely a go-to book for how to do anything. When I got this book I was looking for a short indept introduction to HTML & CSS. That is not what this book is. If your looking for brief example then this is your book but if you looking to want to really learn HTML & CSS then you might want to look at another book. HTML, XHTML & CSS, Sixth Edition is a Visual QuickStart Guide, written by Elizabeth Castro , this book is simply the great HTML and CSS book. It has basically everything you need to know, with easy-to-find what you want, easy-to-understand, and clear descriptions.
If you want to learn HTML, XHTML, & CSS this is the book to get. It is easy to understand. You can use the book to actually do something useful. The book gives information on what to use to make your pages work in different browsers and also recommendations on the best way to accomplish a task. I have been using the book to update my web pages. This is a practical approach combing the elements of HTML, XHTML, and CSS. By using the information in this book, your web pages will load fast, be easy to maintain, and work on several browsers. I don't like to use a wysiwyg application so this book has been very helpful in that it presents it in a hand coded example. Perfect for what I wanted. Sometimes the format seemed to jump around a bit but overall good examples. I wish it was a little more in depth in explanation or examples. I especially loved the quick reference sections at the back of the book as to reminders of tag usage and color codes. Maybe in a future edition tear out quick reference cards could be included. I recommend this book if you are looking for quick refernce for web page creationHTML, XHTML, and CSS, Sixth Edition (Visual Quickstart Guide) Elizabeth Castro has written yet another good book. This book is easy to follow,clear and is printed in full colour, something you don't often come across in other books. I'd recommend this book to anyone who wants to learn the ins and outs of css and xhtml.This is a Great book.
This book was easy to follow for a beginner and gave me a good basis to start writing code. It's also a great go-to guide for when I have questions on a specific topic. I find the book very interesting and will come in handy when I start to build my web site. I feel the book is very useful and easy to read. Thank you for selling such a book. Thank you. Ok, I must admit I haven't even cracked this book. I am relying on everyone else's reviews that say that it is easy to follow this book. I am not a computer junkie, although I'm not terrible with basic commands on the computer, and I'm not a complete dummy. But boy do I feel like one sometimes, and I'm hoping that when I get a chance, I will learn to do HTML finally. I'd like to create a webpage in the
2008-03-08 7 of 7 found this review helpful The way web design should be taught.
My roomate bought it and the second I started turning the pages I actually told my students to get a copy for class. I got one for myself and even though I have 8 flaming years of experience in web design (note the sarcasm please) I really found every single bit of information extremely valuable.
Elizabeth restructured the way I work in the web and the I-already-know-everything guy recieved his lesson as in the old days.
Simply get a copy. I can't say much more.
2007-07-17 7 of 7 found this review helpful Easy and Surefire Way to Create a Great Website
2006-04-08 7 of 9 found this review helpful Excellent reference for HTML, XHTML, and CSS.
2003-06-17 7 of 7 found this review helpful Excellent!
2003-05-07 7 of 10 found this review helpful HTML For the World Wide Web
2002-11-09 7 of 9 found this review helpful You have to start with XHTML before using other languages!
2007-06-12 6 of 7 found this review helpful Verbose instructions, the format is irritating, I question the value of the CSS chapters in this book
7. To add the final parentheses, type ")".
That's nothing. Unnecessary details and wordiness like this abound in this book. It is definitely clear enough, but it borders on sounding like it's written for the mentally challenged at times. Personally I would prefer well written paragraphs integrating any info from the "tips" sections, and to do away with the verbose steps, which probably take up half of the book's content.
To make matters worse, the format of the book, like all the Peachpit Quickstart books, breaks the page into two columns, one for text and the other for pictures. This is just poor typography in my opinion, with an average of 6-7 words / line, and it makes actually trying to read what is written very irritating, and it will try your patience. Maybe it's just me, but I really don't like the format of this book at all.
Now, for the actual content of the book. It advocates some things I find questionable in this day and age. For example, in the chapter on Tables, it actually advocates that you use tables for the structure of your website, and CSS for everything else, suggesting that this would be easier than jumping fully into CSS right off the bat. Tables are NOT easier to use than CSS, first of all. Personally, and I think most people would agree with me, tables are not the way to go at all for website structure these days. Yet she uses most of the chapter on tables to explain how to use them for exactly this purpose. Granted I'm sure this is just carried over from older editions of the book when CSS had not taken root yet. But for a 2007 edition book to continue down this path is just bad advice. This is but one example of several where the book advocates using outdated techniques in making websites.
As this book gave me my first formal intro to CSS, I think it actually does a disservice to those wishing to learn to use CSS effectively. It explains the basics such as selectors, properties, and values (although that takes only a page or two to cover). And it tells you how classes and ID's work at a basic level, which is simple. But it doesn't do nearly enough to show you how to write neat and concise markup, so that you don't find yourself adding extra div's, classes, and even style attributes in your markup.
HTML is incredibly simple, but this book treats writing it like a difficult proposition. How many times do you have to be told how to type an element and close it properly? Do we have to constantly be reminded that attributes should be in lower-case and be enclosed in quotations? An HTML book should serve as a reference of HTML elements and common attributes. But many CSS books already include that stuff!
So, what I'm saying is, if you want to learn CSS, just skip this book and get Simon Collison's "Beginning CSS Web Development: From Novice to Professional", an excellent intro to CSS, which I think includes enough HTML that you probably don't even need to get an HTML book. It will tell you everything you need to know about creating a great looking website that is easy to style using concise markup and CSS. That's my opinion. If you feel you need more grounding on some basic concepts of HTML, you can probably find what you're looking for on the web and save yourself the cost of this book.
I'm still giving this book a 3 out of 5 though, because I think it's well-written and does contain a lot of useful, factual information, and it can serve as a good reference. It's just not the best way to go if you really want to learn how to make great websites. If you get it, read the first six chapters, and bits and pieces of some of the others, and then go get a good CSS book!
2006-01-09 6 of 17 found this review helpful Poor organization, overall not great book.
2005-11-08 6 of 7 found this review helpful Good Content - Needs Better Layout
2005-09-21 6 of 7 found this review helpful HTML and XHTML with CSS
2005-08-04 6 of 6 found this review helpful Review for very useful HTML reference book
2005-02-20 6 of 7 found this review helpful Lots of information
Many techniques and pitfalls are discussed, along with reasonably clear step-by-step instructions.
While highly detailed for the most part, some places are surprisingly lean. For example, the very important "class" attribute has only 2 references in the index, and is given very short shrift in the text. This will have some beginners scratching their heads, no doubt.
But overall, this book contains many valuable insights and is worth having in your collection.
2004-11-12 6 of 6 found this review helpful The best HTML guide available
Later I started using it as a reference, because it has a really great index and the layout is such that it is easy to find what I want on the page. The descriptions of how to implement this and that are very easy to follow. So later when I started tutoring others in HTML I recommended this book to them. I am on my third copy now, the others having been loaned and drifted away.
If you want to learn HTML and are just beginning then buy this book. This is the only book you will need for a long time even after you have mastered HTML.
2004-08-06 6 of 6 found this review helpful Great for learning and a great reference...
The book is organized by the way people think about web design. There are chapters on basic structure, tags, and formatting. There are chapters on images, links, and styles. Lists, tables, frames, forms, multimedia, and scripts are also well covered. The author not only covers the syntax, but also provides tips on what works well and what does not.
Every page is organized in two columns. One column includes the "how to" text, and the other is an example. Tips are provided to identify differences between browsers, changes in standards, etc. The updated (5th) edition includes how to create web pages using CSS without tables. There is also a chapter on using tables for layout(the old way). It's important to know both if you need to support legacy browsers.
Appendices are provided as a reference listing (X)HTML elements and attributes, CSS properties and values, intrinsic events (for triggering a script), the codes for symbols and characters, color codes, a tutorial on hexadecimal numbers, and a list of web tools.
This book is a good learning tool for beginners and a good reference for experienced web designers.
2004-06-16 6 of 7 found this review helpful An indispensible reference
2003-08-25 6 of 6 found this review helpful Best of the bunch.
Each time I refer to it, I learn more about structuring and changing a web page.
It is not only a great teaching tool, but also a great reference.
I highly recommend it to beginners and old hands alike!
2003-08-15 6 of 9 found this review helpful Very frustrating
2007-08-29 5 of 5 found this review helpful Let your fingers do the walking ---- and then some!!
Because the author's "style" is to write on half the page and show examples on the other half - each page has half the content. Yet, in that reduced page content there are many references to other parts of the book. As only one example, look at page 105.
On this page you'll find references to page 151, page 69, page 114, pages 106-107, page 108, page 112 and page 113. Again, this is only one page and example because nearly every page is filled with these types of references that make the "Yellow Pages" look tame.
I got through the first six chapters and couldn't deal with it any longer. In those 118 pages that I went through, there had to be several hundred (if not 1000+) references to other pages. Considering there are 436 pages in the book (not counting the index) I didn't feel it worth my time or effort to continue.
Working in the IT industry for more than 25 years, I can only thank my lucky stars that the author was never a part of our planning committees or programming departments. Flow charts, logic, etc would have been all over the place with connectors out of control.....and then try to get staff to follow/understand that flow. Yeah, right!!!
I gave the book to a co-worker with cautionary remarks about how difficult it might be to follow along. I'll give my co-worker credit - she got nearly 200 pages into the book before giving up on it for the same reasons I did.
Continuity!
Fluidity!
You won't find it in this book!
So if you're willing to put up with paging through the book that often, and you can keep track of the "train of thought", then more power to you. There are other books available and they have got to be presented better than this one.....I continue to search Amazon for such a book and will order immediately!
2007-07-25 5 of 5 found this review helpful Great book for a professional!
I bought the original 5th edition when it came out and I learned so much from it. [...]
That's why when the 6th edition came out I couldn't wait to buy it. The 6th edition is in full color and has even more imformation, which is surprising because I didn't think that anything could get better then the 5th edition, but I was sure surprised.
If you want to learn some very valuable skills that will eventually make you money, BUY THIS BOOK!
[...]
2007-03-08 5 of 5 found this review helpful A great book for beginners
2007-03-08 5 of 5 found this review helpful Slightly over a beginner, but excellent for a novice
2006-10-01 5 of 7 found this review helpful Far and away the best book for everyone!
2005-09-29 5 of 5 found this review helpful Excellent and Easy to Read
2004-10-17 5 of 5 found this review helpful This book got me started in the field
I would recommend this book for those who want to either make a personal website, make web programming your career or for those who have just been stuck with the job of maintaining the company website. The fundamentals of HTML and XHTML are laid out with very clear examples, with code snippets set alongside visual examples. This format really cuts down on the abstract concept of the technology.
All in all, HTML for the World Wide Web is worth the money many times over. The sections on CSS and XHTML are a new addition for the fifth version, so you have a really comprehensive resource beneath one cover. You will learn how to create websites, and you will learn quickly.
2004-06-25 5 of 5 found this review helpful Helped me survive a college web class
2004-02-16 5 of 5 found this review helpful Simple, but....you have to design the web site
The book helped me to make my web pages more effective and easy to navigate, it solved a number of problems that my pages had.
The book is also very entertaining unlike most books of this sort that bore you with lengthy explanations. If you are serious about web design, you need this book, but the book does not make you a professional web designer, you have to come up with the way a web is designed, pictures to be used, colors, font size, and things like this.
I gave the book five stars because I went to Mrs. Castro website and I got the feeling that she built a website to give useful information not to amuse the reader with her abilities to build a cutting edge web page. That's the message most pro designers forget, "We're after people, not after technology".
Mrs. Castro explains HTML rules in a very humble way, with humor and effectiveness.
Two thumbs up!
2003-05-27 5 of 5 found this review helpful Better than promised
but was a total HTML newbie. This book, while not perfect,
seems to go at the right pace, and gives the right amount of
detail when needed.
CSS are well explained. After reading this book, (and with the
help of a Web Editor), I was able to create a small (25 page)
web site for a company that I just started.
several. Of the 5 - 6 I looked through, this seemed to be
the best. I think I made the right choice as this book has
provided me everything I needed to know on HTML to get up and
running.
2008-03-27 4 of 4 found this review helpful Great book for HTML and CSS beginner
WARNING: The binding has fallen apart on my book making it a hassle to use. This is an issue that is evidently common with peachpit books. I am in touch with the publisher to get another, and hopefully they will come through.
2007-05-08 4 of 7 found this review helpful Too many errors to be trustworthy!!
2006-12-07 4 of 5 found this review helpful Good background knowledge; Poor tutorial
2006-09-09 4 of 6 found this review helpful Coding
2005-08-17 4 of 5 found this review helpful Weekend Warrior
The biggest thing I like about this book is that even though I'm fairly fluent in the language, I forget so many of the simple things...and they're in this book!
I have many different programming guides - Access, HTML, CSS, Adobe, blah and blah - but this is a book I refer to on at least a weekly basis. I've visited the websites Ms. Castro refers to throughout the book and although they weren't as helpful, I can usually find what I'm looking for within the book. If I can't find it, I'm able to "rephrase the question" using her terminology and can then find it somewhere else.
2004-08-08 4 of 5 found this review helpful a good introduction for non-technical types
It gave me a basic understanding of html & css and allowed me to understand the more current info on the subject that is out there online. I got my pages done using transitional xhtml and css--and they validated!
Now I have a different job and have just redesigned my department's website using this book as a reference. As one reviewer mentioned, there's very little in here about cross brower support of the various selectors, but all that stuff is available online.
2004-01-21 4 of 5 found this review helpful Good book, although author's web site stinks
2003-03-06 4 of 4 found this review helpful There has got to be a better book...
2003-02-12 4 of 6 found this review helpful If you have to buy one book, this is it.
2008-05-11 3 of 3 found this review helpful Excellent! Very well written, very simple and organized. I highly recommend this book!
2008-02-13 3 of 3 found this review helpful My book for Intro to Web Design
I would recommend it.
2007-08-01 3 of 3 found this review helpful Great for those that need to know.
From what I have read so far, I have enjoyed learning xhtml and css. I have bought many books on html and css and this book is the first book you should read before taking on deeper web-related languages.
You will get your money's worth, especially when the author says that you need to add a space after... most would assume that the reader will really scrutinize but Castro doesn't; what a joy it is to have a complete and thoughtful facilitator.
2007-07-27 3 of 3 found this review helpful HTML Quickstart Guide
The only problem I have with the product is that after only using it three times, the book fell apart (not because of any misuse or mishandling). I have to get it rebound.
2007-07-20 3 of 3 found this review helpful An awesome read and reference guide for html
2007-06-29 3 of 3 found this review helpful Out-of-date
2007-01-12 3 of 4 found this review helpful Worked great
2006-11-30 3 of 3 found this review helpful Grad class guide
2006-02-08 3 of 6 found this review helpful Overrated book
2005-09-26 3 of 3 found this review helpful html made easy.
2004-06-01 3 of 3 found this review helpful Simple, Clear, and easy!
My only complaint is that sometimes in the CSS chapters it was hard to tell if the code snippets were coming from the style sheet or from the HTML document, but once I got the hang of it that all made more sense. On the whole I would definitely reccomend this book to any beginner or intermediate programmer who wants to learn clean, standards-based (X)HTML.
2004-05-09 3 of 4 found this review helpful Required textbook for my Web Page Scripting class
2004-05-03 3 of 3 found this review helpful Good HTML Introduction, Very Good Value.
2004-04-26 3 of 3 found this review helpful All you need to know. and then some....
My first website was created by a friend of mine with Dreamweaver. While it was quick and easy to use, it was almost impossible to understand what did what, in the HTML language! I had resorted to copying and pasting things from other peoples HTML files to add on to my web pages. It didn't work so well, because I had no idea what anything meant.
After picking up Elizabeth Castro's book (on the advice of a friend) I can now help other designers with technical problems in their source code!
I've honestly never understood anything about HTML before, and couldn't figure out how to make sure that text stayed inside the black border's I wanted. Now, I'm mapping out an 8 page site, with no worry about how I can make it happen. Just 2 days ago, someone called me asking how he could be sure that his site was showing up on Macs and PC's the same way. I was able to view his source information, explain how to fix the problem, and make some suggestions to make his site easier to update! I couldn't do that 2 months ago!
(1) EASILY
(2) Quick
(3) Competently
(4) with less technical mumbo-jumbo
2004-01-18 3 of 3 found this review helpful Bravo Castro!
2003-12-07 3 of 4 found this review helpful The best resource on HTML
2003-10-12 3 of 3 found this review helpful Greatest HTML book ever written
2003-08-24 3 of 3 found this review helpful Probably still the best out there, but...
2003-02-11 3 of 6 found this review helpful Obligatorio para cualquier desarrollador Web!
2008-09-30 2 of 3 found this review helpful Not a fan, depsite the reviews
This book has a great deal of information, but very poorly put together when it comes to teaching the code. There is far too much of "type this:" with no immediate explanation of exactly what's going on. Throughout this book I have constantly had to "reverse engineer" what the book had just told me to type, essentially teaching MYSELF rather then having the book teach me. I should have read some of the other negative review before buying this because now after getting the book they make a lot of very good points. I could see this book working well when used with a classroom setting, where someone is there to bridge the gaps it leaves, but it is simply TERRIBLE for trying to teach yourself HTML. Not knocking the content, but just the way it's put together. I have a high knowledge of pc's, along with some programming skills, but I found this book unacceptable when the cover says "learn the quick and easy way!" Not even remotely close. One star.
2008-07-14 2 of 4 found this review helpful didn't like the book
2008-04-07 2 of 2 found this review helpful A Great Reference
2008-03-22 2 of 7 found this review helpful CONFUSION RUNNING AMOCK
2008-02-17 2 of 2 found this review helpful HTML Review
2008-02-16 2 of 6 found this review helpful Not great., b, i, and the like. After doing a lot of XHTML and CSS, this is a backward step and I don't know why it was even recommended for the class as it is really rather out of date.
2007-09-08 2 of 2 found this review helpful Sixth edition best one yet
2007-07-31 2 of 2 found this review helpful Great book for beginners
*A wide host of common subjects(RSS, video, scripts) covered to get you going on any site
*Nice graphics to help with understanding concepts
*A must have
2007-07-13 2 of 2 found this review helpful Great Reference.
2007-07-12 2 of 2 found this review helpful Great reference book!
2007-07-01 2 of 2 found this review helpful Great book for learning. Useful for the more experienced.
The format is very useful. The book is written in two column: her explanations are in the outside columns, and very clear examples are in the inside columns.
The first two chapters are necessary for the beginner, but might be the among the more difficult. You'll need to learn about how text editors work, what URLs mean, etc. Once your done with this, you get on with learning to create webpages, and things pick up very nicely.
The more experienced developer will likely refer back to this book to refresh himself on the myriad ways CSS can be used to display an layout webpages.
I'd give this book a fifth star if some of the last chapters on Podcasting, etc. were removed, and additional information on Javascript, and perhaps PHP were included.
2007-05-17 2 of 2 found this review helpful Solid guide
2007-05-09 2 of 3 found this review helpful Fails to provide clear CSS examples.
2007-02-08 2 of 2 found this review helpful Quick Reading, Easy Understanding
2007-01-09 2 of 2 found this review helpful Exelent and very clearly written
Quote
"HTML, is not hard to learn or master. "
Unquote
Is very true with the help of this excellent book. After having red the book I decided NOT to buy expensive and complicated software and write my WEB page directly in XHTML, using CSS style sheets. And because I wrote my WEB page directly in XHTML, I have the feeling I have far more control over my page, because I know and understand all the codes. I didn't loose time and energy learning a new piece of software, all that time and energy was directed at understanding how a WEB page is really made and really functions.
Alexander Halkema
2007-01-09 2 of 2 found this review helpful Elizabeth Castro's Visual Quickstart Guide
everyday to develop comprehensive websites. Well written and easy to
understand. It is the ultimate road map for beginning and advanced
web developers.
2006-12-14 2 of 2 found this review helpful Worth the Time and Every Dime
2006-09-02 2 of 3 found this review helpful Clear, concise, easy to understand
Her Web site is also very useful.
2004-09-26 2 of 3 found this review helpful Aced my HTML class, no sweat.
2003-05-19 2 of 2 found this review helpful GREAT BOOK!!!!
2003-05-11 2 of 2 found this review helpful Great Beginnings
2003-01-16 2 of 2 found this review helpful Learns you all fundemental to build a good homepage
2002-11-03 2 of 2 found this review helpful Easy to Read
2008-08-05 1 of 4 found this review helpful Disappointing :-(
2008-06-09 1 of 1 found this review helpful Best Buy
Great book for a beginner or to reference the basics.
2008-04-14 1 of 1 found this review helpful GREAT resource!!
2008-04-05 1 of 1 found this review helpful Great for any level
2008-03-08 1 of 1 found this review helpful Easy to Understand
2007-11-27 1 of 1 found this review helpful Good beginners book for those new to web design
Please note though that as I said its a good book for beginners but you'll quickly outgrow it once you get a feel for the basics. I recommend that you purchase, "CSS Mastery: Advanced Web Standards Solutions" within three months from when you begin reading this book. My analogy of these two books are this: Ms. Castro's book is a course in using all of the tools in the carpentry shop and doing small projects. The CSS Mastery book is like then taking an apprenticeship under a master carpenter to build some really nice things with the basic skills that you previously acquired.
2007-11-16 1 of 1 found this review helpful Very Poor Binding! Great book, but falling apart.
This is the BEST book I've seen on XHTML & CSS. I refer to constantly (and carefully), while studying another class-required "dummies" textbook (that drives me up the freaking wall). I can't think of one instance where I've not found exactly what I needed to know, within seconds. I'm very happy with the content of the book! The binding sucks! I tried to email Peachpit to let them know, but they don't have any contact info on their page. :o(
2007-05-15 1 of 1 found this review helpful HTML, XHTML, & CSS
2007-04-02 1 of 1 found this review helpful great reference tool
2007-03-08 1 of 2 found this review helpful This makes me the best..
2007-03-01 1 of 1 found this review helpful Light readers dive in!
2007-02-28 1 of 1 found this review helpful Great Book on HTML
2007-02-05 1 of 1 found this review helpful Great as a tutor or reference
2007-02-01 1 of 1 found this review helpful Webdesign done right.
2007-01-15 1 of 2 found this review helpful Visual Quick Start-Excellent Choice
2007-01-12 1 of 2 found this review helpful Very good and instructive
It would get five stars if a CD was included.
Regards,
Rob, Netherlands
2007-01-05 1 of 1 found this review helpful Good reference, a little outdated
2006-10-01 1 of 2 found this review helpful For Reference or for learning
It is good for both beginners and advanced designers. This is necessity have for anyone who wants to design websites.
2006-02-27 1 of 4 found this review helpful A great book for the beginner
2006-02-17 1 of 1 found this review helpful Extremely Helpful
2004-10-12 1 of 1 found this review helpful Good Resource
2004-05-08 1 of 1 found this review helpful Awesome book!
2004-04-22 1 of 1 found this review helpful A Valuable Resource
2004-03-06 1 of 1 found this review helpful Most Excellent!
2004-01-28 1 of 1 found this review helpful Good Choice
2003-02-02 1 of 1 found this review helpful If you can only get one book for current usage, this is it!
Owner and Executive Copy Director
Powerwriting.com LLC
2008-10-31 0 of 0 found this review helpful Excellent Book!
2008-10-23 0 of 0 found this review helpful HTML, XHTML & CSS
2008-10-12 0 of 0 found this review helpful great textbook!
2008-09-30 0 of 0 found this review helpful So great! This book is very helpful and useful for learning HTML and web layout
-Thanks, Amazon!
2008-09-30 0 of 0 found this review helpful BEST BOOK TO PICK-UP FOR WEB SITE BUILDING
2008-09-21 0 of 1 found this review helpful Not What I Expected But Still A Good Book
2008-09-13 0 of 0 found this review helpful Best Resource ever in HTML & CSS
Covers HTML layout, forms, controls, text, graphics manipulation, style sheets, and basic Javascript. this is a very useful book. It is full of great tips about each subject, including how different browsers react to different HTML details, bugs in browsers, tips, tricks, and workarounds.
If you are beginner at coding HTML, you`ll find valuable info in this book . If you are interested in XHTML and have HTML this is the best resource .
2008-09-01 0 of 0 found this review helpful This is a Must have book!
2008-09-01 0 of 0 found this review helpful Overall good value - great reference section....
2008-08-17 0 of 0 found this review helpful Great Book-Easy to Follow
HTML, XHTML, and CSS, Sixth Edition (Visual Quickstart Guide)
2008-08-01 0 of 0 found this review helpful Helpful and Easy to follow
2008-06-11 0 of 1 found this review helpful html,xhtml & css book
2008-04-29 0 of 28 found this review helpful learning to do HTML for dummies