Build Your Own Website The Right Way Using HTML & CSS

• #8 in Best Cascading Style Sheets Books

37 Reviews

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When you are starting out creating your first web site, many things run through your mind...What tools should I use? How do I layout my pages? What content should appear here? How do I make it look professional? How do I get users to send me feedback? What web host should I use? What is blogging? How do I track my sites statistics?

All these questions and more are answered in this great book written by Ian Lloyd.

The book is geared towards beginners creating their first website and/or designers who already have a site on the internet but want to update it with current technologies like CSS and Web Standards.

The book starts out talking about the different tools you can use (Windows or Mac) starting from the basic text-editing tools to professional like Dreamweaver and Photoshop. But this book is created for people who want to learn how to create their site with proper XHTML and CSS, and does not focus on a particular tool. In my opinion is the best way because if you only know how to create a web page with a particular program (i.e. Dreamweaver), you must always use that tool no matter what and you never really learn how to do it yourself. That is what I also teach my students as well.

The next chapter focuses on basics XHTML structure and how to use each tag type (head section, headings, paragraphs, lists, hyperlinks, etc.) effectively and shows you how to define a proper home page. Lots of code snippets are included.

Chapters 3 - 5 are the mean and potatoes (150 pages) chapters in my opinion because it focuses heavily on CSS (Cascading Style Sheets). The author first starts by explaining the different ways to use CSS (inline, embedding, and external) and the advantages of each. I like how the author takes an example and explain what each part does and how to best use it. He first goes through how to style text using different font styles, colors, sizes and weight (bold) and then shows some practical examples of each dissecting each part. Further example are shown using CSS to style paragraphs, links and headings as well as information on when to use DIV and SPAN in your markup. Then the author shows more advanced topics with CSS by explaining how the box model is used to separate your structure (HTML) with borders, padding and margins. These three items can start making your web site look very professional if done correctly. Finally the author reviews how CSS can style images on your web pages to have them appear exactly where you want using floats and other properties.

The remaining chapters focus on:
1. tables - to display column-like data and how to make it look professional;
2. forms - to allow your visitors to submit feedback or other information
3. getting your web site online - (great chapter) - how to use free FTP programs to transfer your web page files to your web host
4. blogging - how to use a blogger and also how to create a template that can be used within your website
5. free tools to monitor your site.

This is an all-in-one web design book that covers all the basics in creating, designing, publishing, and optimizing your web site.

Build your own website is a great book for someone who wants to build a web site and has little or no experience. This book is applicable to both Mac and Windows users. A novice web site builder will gain many skills and confidence as they work through this book. The reader is taken from the very basics of defining terms to creating a web site.

Due to the name of the book, I expected to learn how to build a web site. This book exceeded my expectations. Many computer training books have you download preexisting files and work of off those files. There is a file available with all of the coding used in the book, but you can proceed without it. What I really like about this book is the author guides you step by step through all of the directions and the reader does all of the work. You start from scratch - just a blank notepad page. Ian Lloyd gives sites to download the tools you will need and most of the downloads are free. There are screen shots of the coding you do for each section which helps to avoid mistakes.

Once you get the hang of some basic coding, you will also learn about Cascading Style Sheets (CSS). I have heard about CSS, but didn't really understand them. This book explains the benefit of a style sheet, how it works and gives directions on creating and applying CSS. In addition to CSS, you will learn through step by step directions how to create tables, forms, adding pictures with captioning and setting up borders. As you build your web site, you will link pages together and also set up a link for email replies.

I don't think there was anything I didn't like about the book. A website was given to access typo errors found in the book; to date there is 1 listing. There is also an extensive XHTML reference section in the appendix. The title of the book leads the reader to believe there are right and wrong ways to build web sites. Lloyd explains best practices and why it is important to follow them. As a novice, I appreciated learning how to build a web site the correct way.

I think the best audience for this book is someone with very little or no experience building web sites. The very basic topics are covered. If you already have some experience and want to increase your knowledge, this book might not be for you unless you want to make sure you have a good understanding of the basics. There are references to other books to increase your knowledge after mastering the basics. I highly recommend this book.

~ Karen Katz

In the "old days" of the web, it was acceptable to lay out your web page with tables, font tags, and other HTML tags that directly applied formatting. Doing this type of thing today brings scorn upon you, your children, and your children's children. The acceptable way to lay out a web page today is through SPAN and DIV tags. Style is applied through a cascading style sheet (CSS). This book provides an excellent introduction to the world of creating web pages and CSS.

Aimed at people brand new to creating web pages, the author begins with a quick introduction to HTML--but don't worry, the author tries to keep things fun and the jargon down to a minimum. After the introduction to HTML--which, by the way, I found to be excellent for the beginner web designer--the author leaps into how to add formatting/style to pages. Really, the next half of the book is dedicated to adding formatting to a web page (e.g. creating cascading style sheets). I felt the author did an excellent job justifying style sheets over direct formatting of elements in a page.

After really covering what I consider to be the "meat" of the book, the author digresses into some other important, but not critical aspects of web development. Things like where to get web hosting, adding javascript to pages, and where to go from here are discussed. The discussions are certainly briefer and leave a lot unsaid, but that's not really what the book is supposed to focus on.

I felt for what this book is--an introduction to creating simple web pages with cascading style sheets--it did an excellent job. This book will likely be too basic for experienced web developers who want to get their feet wet with cascading style sheets. However, for those who have little or no experience with creating web pages, this is a great way to get started.

I loved this book, and I'm a pretty experienced web designer. There are a lot of other reviews saying how great it is, so I thought I'd add a few comments not mentioned. First, this book is really intended for people who are starting from the ground up. As such, it only describes strict XHTML, so if you're going to be working on an existing site, you're not going to learn about a lot of what is out there, like frames and using tables for positioning elements on the page. It describes an elegant design philosophy that will get beginners on the right track. It also covers, in just enough detail, finding a web-hosting site, getting a domain, using FTP, etc. Second, as others have mentioned, it is not a reference manual. Third, it assumes the web tool you are going to use is Notepad, or a similar editor. Personally, I think that's the best way to go, but it's good to know before you buy the book. In other words, you are going to be writing XHTML and CSS to build your pages, not using some fancy tool. Lastly, where I think the book really shines is in the sections describing how to add extras to your web site, like search, blogs, and getting web statistics. It does all this only describing free utilities.

As I read this review, I've actually come to appreciate the book better. I can think of no other book that takes a complete novice from almost nothing to a complete, rather sophisticated web site that meets CSS and XHTML strict standards and even has a few bells and whistles, all in about 400 pages. There's even a bit of humor, and the author has a relaxed easy-going, re-assuring without pandering tone.

It's pretty good at the introductory level. Don't buy it if you are looking for more in depth treatment with ready to use patterns and practical tips. I wish the author skipped trivial stuff like how to open and save files in windows notepad or how to refresh your browser window.

This book is aimed at beginners. Although Mr. Lloyd tells us that upfront, I thought there would be complex topics in the book. I am familiar with the old-school (bad) method of HTML layout, but I wanted to start learning the new way from the ground up. After reading this book, I have a very good understanding of the basics. However, when the topic of the text starts to get into more complex and interesting CSS technique, Mr. Lloyd glosses over it or refers the reader to another book published by SitePoint. It got to the point that I thought that this might just be a teaser for the more robust book.

Overall, it laid down the basics very well, but I was expecting a bit more instruction in the more complicated ares of CSS.

I attempted to learn web page development self study beginning with a couple of " for dummies " books. They were interesting - and had some value - but the information within these books were not as well organized to learn from. There was also important issues for beginners in web page development that were left out of the book. Things like selecting a website - and loading files etc. I had gotten to the point where I created a very basic site with my text editor - but when I went to upload it to a web host - I could get the pages uploaded / but I could not figure out where to put things - how exactly everythign works.

I'm only on page 80 - but so far I've learned some basic HTML - inline style - Embedded style elements - and External Style sheets - with brief projects using each of these structures. It's very hands on and basic to learn so far, I'm quite satisfied with the purchase.

I don't expect it will teach all teh tricks of the trades and how to work with each and every element throughout the book - but it sets you up with the basic framerwork of knowledge and structure of which to build upon and the hands on approach is very user friendly for learning markup.

I'd recommend this to anyone interested in learning web page markup and CSS from scratch.

I hate cutesy books with lots of graphic distractions and interruptions (are you listening, Wired?); and those who are poisonously cynical might consider this book a little cute, but it is amiable, readable, linear, and above all, it actually tells you what to do. After many months of trying to figure out other people's books, this one actually put me on the air, and I am honestly grateful for it.

If you can't do a site with this book you can't do sites -- which is okay, whatever your talent is, find your niche and do great things!

I have been trying to build websites for a while with WYSIWYG packages, but was always disappointed with what you are able to do with these packages. So I bit the bullet and decided to learn HTML and CSS myself, in order to have full control over the design of the website.
This book by Ian Lloyd is an excellent beginners guideline in how to build websites the proper way. He helps you build a website from scratch and in building this site you learn the fundamentals of website building with HTML and CSS. Even as a programmers language layman, I found this book refreshingly easy to go through. After going through the book I felt comfortable to start building my first website. With the knowledge gained from the book you can do so, and if you need something extra, the Internet is providing more then enough how-to's to do that.
So if you want to make the jump from a package doing the work for you to actually do it all yourself, this is an excellent place to start.

Build Your Own Web Site the Right Way Using HTML & CSS by Ian Lloyd is one of those books that I'd recommend to someone who is computer savvy but a complete novice when it comes to building web pages. It's readable and understandable to non-techie types, and it will get them started in the right way without all the old habits that have developed over the years.

Contents: Setting Up Shop; Your First Web Pages; Adding Some Style; Shaping Up with CSS; Picture This! Using Images on your Web Site; Tables - Tools for Organizing Data; Forms - Interacting with your Audience; Getting your Web Site Online; Adding a Blog to your Web Site; Pimp my Site - Cool Stuff you can Add for Free; Where to Now? What you Could Learn Next; XHTML Reference; Index

Rather than teach HTML and CSS as separate skills, Lloyd really combines the two as a single discipline. The book starts out with basic XHTML coding to build the structure of the page. He even goes into div tags in preparation for the next section of the book. That section has to do with making your page look nice with CSS. The reader learns how to position and style the content using style sheets, rather than using techniques such as bold tags and tables. Presenting the material in this fashion means that you shouldn't develop bad habits like using HTML for presentation rather than structure. The examples build upon each other and are consistent throughout, so you actually end up building a complete site rather than just a collection of pages that have no relationship to each other. There's even coverage of things such as blogs and third-party tools like statistic counters.

Overall, this is one of the better "beginner" books I've come across. I would feel comfortable giving this to someone who was enthusiastic about learning a new skill, and I wouldn't be concerned about where they'd end up at...

I teach college courses on Web development that emphasize Web standards and usability. This is one of only two entry-level (X)HTML + CSS books that I will recommend to students, and this is THE book I recommend for those who want to get started in the field as an in-depth guide to standards-based Web development, or as an excellent, no-frills reference for your Web development bookshelf.

This is a very good book. I have been stumbling around for some months now trying to figure out how to do web site development, yet never having had any training to do so. I'm only half way through this book, but it is like the lights have come on. This book really made sense to me. It was easy to understand and the directions were written in terms that anyone could understand and follow. I agree that it would have been nice to have some color, but it was okay not having it if that meant keeping the cost down. Once I finish this book, I'll be moving on to another that will teach me how to work in the Dreamweaver CS3 Suite, a program I have been stumbling around in for some months now with no success. I feel like Ian Lloyd's book has provided a firm foundation on which I could build before moving on to DW and CSS.

If you are a first time wanna be web site designer, with no computer training or experience, yet want to learn a firm foundation on which to build, I would highly recommend this book.

I had tried learning HTML & CSS for about the last year by going to various "educational" websites and by looking at the source code from sites that I visit. What I found was conflicting ways of doing things.

Eventually, I stumbled across this book and decided to order it. It was so easy to follow that I breezed right through it. Along the way I learned exactly what I had been trying to learn for the last year or so. The information is presented in such a logical and straight-forward manner that I easily absorbed the information.

It has a very extensive reference appendix that I'm sure will come in handy for a long time.

I just can't wait to start building my site!

This book serves its purpose ably, showing the virtual beginner how to build web pages. The author keeps the reader interested with a subtle mix of humor and useful tips. The example web site contains many of the elements a beginning web developer needs to produce an aesthetic site built on sound principles.

While the author does some hand holding through the process it's by no means a dummied down book. By the time you finish the book you will find yourself able to create a nice 10-page web site.

I am a novice. If you are a novice, have never built your web page and you want now to do it and you are computer savvy look no further. What you learn here are the basics that you will have to learn no matter which book you choose. Do not waste your time learning just HTML, it has to be XHTML from the start which is easier and the latest so your Web Page downloads fast. The author, Ian Lloyd, knows how to keep your attention and writes in an easy and non-technical way. He shows you by example, step by step instructions to build a real Web Page, from the 1st brick until fully functional. He gives you a lot of information were to go after you read this book if you want to progress more. Believe me Mr. Novice, this is it.

It's been such a long time since I did anything with HTML and I needed a no nonsense approach to brushing up on it. Well, this book is right on target for me. The hands-on method of teaching in this book is so great that it feels like you are taking a course on HTML. The format is like a work book so you are always working with the material as you learn it. This author does not dumb it down to make you feel like if the material is for "Dummies" either. There are a few puns in there to maintain levity but the author is always on task.
So far I am in Chapter 4 and have learned quite a few fundamental techniques in CSS that I will use on my work center intranet. I definitely recommend this book to get the basics of HTML and as a bonus being taught to do things the right way to meet standards, what a concept! I tell you if the rest of the Sitepoint books are like this one, then they have just earned themselves a loyal customer!!

I am about halfway through this book, building the sample website it teaches you. I am a fairly sophisticated computer end-user, but have never tried any kind of website design before.

As advertised, this book starts with the assumption that you know nothing about HTML. It does not require you to have any fancy software. I have DreamWeaver, but I'm working in Notepad because that's what's on my laptop, and it's going just fine.

The approach the book takes is step by step from the very first line of code. It explains "why" you build a certain way, not just "how" to do it. There are also many examples beyond the sample website that is the book's main focus, so you learn more than just how to build a website that mirrors the one in the book. This will be a good reference book, not just a one-time read.

Good supporting website with downloadable code, errata (there aren't very many at all), and a nice forum. Author's style is pleasant and straightforward with a few corny jokes to laugh at along the way.

I can see by flipping forward to the end of the book that the sample site will be both nice looking and very functional with tables, response forms, images, radio buttons, etc. It will also be easy to maintain due to the proper coding practices taught here. This is just what I need both to create a nicer "home" website, and get started on one for my business.

Awesome product, definitely worth the price. Buy it.

I was in search of a book that was simple to follow but all inclusive on how to get a website built and running in a short amount of time. Build Your Own Web Site The Right Way helped me do just that. From the moment I started reading the first chapter I found myself drawn through the book, eager to find out how to do this or that. I especially liked the section on blogging and how to move a Blogger site to a personal domain. I would highly recommend this book to a newbie web developer like me. You will be amazed at how fast you learn and how quick you can build that site you dream about launching.

Well written, easy to understand, step-by-step but quickly level-raising...
One of the best web-design books I've seen.
It teaches you the right praxis of designing today. Starting from the basis, but growing soon.
Really pleased with it.

Highly recommended, even if you are not a beginner.

I've been using HTML for 14 years, and have a long experience in software development, but I really found this book interesting and useful. I would highly recommend this to all, experienced and inexperienced - you're never too old to relearn!

I had already built a website using a "user-friendly" site builder offered by the hosting service. However, it was almost impossible to make changes to the site and the markup created by the program was bloated and often contained errors. So when I bought this book I was desperate. Within two days I had completely re-done the markup for the site so that it's now compliant with all current standards.

The book lays out in simple terms, with great examples, exactly how to use CSS and XHTML to design a website that meets your needs. It's easy to read, offers good tips, and you can customize the look of your site by simply playing with the examples to see how they appear on a page and then adapting the markup. Using a style sheet, as illustrated in the book, makes it VERY easy to change the look of all pages in a site with one or two alterations in markup.

I recommend this book highly for anyone who knows little or a moderate amount about using CSS and XHTML.

I view this book as a great update on older HTML books (like Visual HTML series). While many of those were really good, many were also missing some important information on things like Cascading Style Sheets.
In this book, you have it all - basically, you start with a small project, which eventually grows into a very nice site (if you're willing to invest energy into reading/working, of course). Along the way you learn stuff which may seem ultra-complicated, but when explained by Mr. Lloyd, it suddenly turns into something that (almost) anyone can understand.

Buy this book, not only if you're a beginning web designer, but also if you're transitioning from table based design to CSS. Read it from cover to cover (it is soooo easy to read and EVERY bit of info is useful), and keep it by your side for quick reference. Follow it up with 'html utopia' by sitepoint and you will see how easy, effective and rewarding it is to build a website using html and CSS. I wish I had this book when I first started monkeying around with web design. The distribution of 'how-to' content, the theory behind it and references for more info on each topic couldn't have been better. Yay for that.

This book really couldn't have been more useful.

I've been working in HTML and CSS for about a year using Dreamweaver. I didn't have a great grasp of the basics, but didn't want to spend money on a book to cover what I already knew. I took a chance on this one and I'm glad I did.

The author's writing style is upbeat, but not overly playful. Other How-to books tend to take the humor too far (____ for Dummies) but this one strikes the right balance.

More importantly, the information is well explained and usually works on the first try. In other words, one can learn a great deal and build a working product quickly with this book.

I now have a knowledge base that helps me in every facet of web design. If you feel you're missing a few pieces of the puzzle, or are new to web design- you'll love this book.

edit:
The title of this book should be Xhtml, the author pushes xhtml as the only correct way to build a web site. As I learn more I am finding out this is not true, there are many experts who, in fact feel just the opposite. I still like this book, and I would still recommend it, but before you get all hung up on xthml and standards verification, you might want to read some opposing views, they are not hard to find!
/edit

This book will take you from 'uh, what's an html' to a completed product, even some material for those not fluent in windows. Includes a primer on graphics also. May also be of use to someone who has some limited experience building websites the wrong way. (that would be me ;) )The book follows the author's example building a site, with occasional forays into concepts not directly related to the example site. More experienced developers may find this book a bit too noobish, but it's not meant to be a reference book, it's a tutorial. The writing style is interesting and shows just enough humor.

This book was one of the best purchases I could have made to get my website project off the ground. I personally know html 4.0, but am not as failure with the new html and xhtml standards. Well that was true until I read this book.
Ian Lloyd writes in a way that I found to be very easy to access the information and to understand it. You can also go right to the subject that you need at any time for a project by looking at the table of contents. I found the book to be a quick read and it very quickly emerged me in enough knowledge to convert my site over to CSS with little effort.
Overall I am a big fan of the Site Point books, they make it easy to learn how to make standards compliant websites and the format that the books are printed in is very accessible.
I recommend two other Site point books after reading this one for further web development. I am currently reading both to create a better layout than my current one on my site. Both are by Rachel Andrew and go very well with this book by Ian Lloyd.
HTML Utopia: Designing Without Tables Using CSS
The CSS Anthology: 101 Essential Tips, Tricks & Hacks
If you already have a fair knowledge of CSS you may be tempted to bypass this book and go straight to the more in depth design books like the two I mentioned above. However if you are not failure with site standards compliance or xhtml, you may want to purchase Ian Lloyd's book anyways. HTML Utopia does a good job of introducing CSS and covers site compliance, but Lloyd covers it more in depth.

I've read alot of technical books over the years and this is easily one of the best. Well-written, focused, and organized, it imparts its lessons in an interactive manner, creating a mythical web site as you work your way through the book. I would highly recommend it for someone who wishes to learn how to create HTML pages using CSS to handle the presentation.

This book is an outstanding resource for anyone who wants a thorough introduction to HTML and CSS! I purchased it when I was first learning (and using) HTML and CSS. It was definitely my preferred resource throughout that process. Now, I keep it nearby as a handy reference tool. It's very easy to read, it's well organized, and it offers a seemingly endless array of examples so that you can see exactly how a particular task is best handled. There are a few rapidly changing issues covered in the book that are not quite current (such as the section on "link swapping"). However, I definitely recommend this book for anyone with a need to learn basic HTML and CSS.

Despite the title the book is teaching you XHTML, a more standardized and stricter version of HTML.
XHTML is set to be the progression from HTML so you should learn the XHTML standards rather than HTML.

This book is ideal for anyone starting out in web development/programming, you need no prior skills in it whatsoever.
It is particularly well suited for self-study.

The focus is on using XHTML and CSS together, all explained in a non-technical manner; the author does not have an academic degree in computer science so you will get a humane explanation of things.

The book is structured like one large tutorial: you build a website (about diving) from scratch.
The first part of the book covers basic (X)HTML stuff - fonts and such.
It then quickly dives into CSS.
The author shows you how to integrate CSS into all major (X)HTML functions as you learn how to build tables, forms, insert images and sounds, etc.
At the end of the book you will have built a complete website.
The final chapters cover more administrative things such as setting up a website and updating it.

I have a few minor perks though:
- the reference section is not very good
- because the book is built up around a single tutorial it is not very
practical for looking up specific things, this is a problem only
if you are using this book as a complement to a course and not
for self-study

This book is brilliant, CSS is easy to learn using this book, the progress you can make is also very good as it is easy to understand. The book arrived earlier than stated and was in perfect condition. Full marks to everyone. ThanksBuild Your Own Website The Right Way Using HTML & CSS, 2nd Edition

I have recommended this book to my friends.
It seems a very low price for so much useful information!
Takes you step-by-step to completion of a website using nothing more than "notepad" . . .
Pretty freekin excellent as far as I'm concerned. :D

This book is by far the best html/css book i've ever read I could only be happier if it built the pages itself.

Ian Lloyd does a great job starting at the very basics of HTML and gradually builds up using CSS and clean web design. The text is easily readable and the many images demonstrate what you are creating.

This is a great educational building block for those that want to jump into the world of web sites. It's clear and very understandable. You forget how to do something just go back and find your answer in the book. I was very happy to read this, it's very good.

I just finished reading this book and it was a very excellent beginning introduction to HTML and CSS. Thank you Ian lloyd.
This book edition was updated January 2008.

I knew a bit about css and html back in high school, but needed a refresh, so I got this book. It did help me alot to not only remember css/html, and also help me do it the right way. After reading this book, you should be able to create a pretty decent website (assuming you have a creative mindset and apply these techniques to your own logic).

The book also covered tables and forms pretty well. Other useful stuff include how to put the site online, how to activate the forms, and other web-related advice.

There are a few minor cons to this book. There wasn't any info on frames (i would like to know). Theres a one small typo in the form chapter which confused me a lot. Also, the author could have skipped a couple of pages that deals with people who also beginners with computers.

Overall, I recommend this book for people who dont know anything about css/html and people who know css/html a little bit but wants to learn to do it the correct way. I would also like to note this book is probably not worth the money for people who know decent css/html.

I've done about 10 web sites in the last 3-4 years and have been using CSS for a couple of years. I'm by no means an expert but I do know a little something. This book clarified some things that were a little murky. There were several times as I was reading this that I thought, "Oh, now I get it". I got it out of the library but I now plan to buy a copy. This book along with Rachel Andrew's "The CSS Anthology" make a nice pair.