good book, bad service
The book itself is well written, and I'm learning a lot from it. HOWEVER, the selling-point for me was, as advertised inside the back cover, the companion site with source code and graphics used in the examples in the book. Some competitors' books have a CD-ROM included, but I chose this one figuring accessing a Web site would be just as easy. Well, the Web site does not exist. Bringing this to the publisher's attention was a waste of time. They were neither concerned, apologetic, or interested in making any kind of effort to accept responsibility or rectify the situation. Bad customer service.... I'm quite annoyed.
Beginners: buy this book
If you want to learn HTML and XHTML this is the book to read. Some subjects are deeper covered than some others but this is the best guide for newbies and a very good reference for the advanced.
The best HTML book - in 2002
I am a professional software developer. I've dabbled in HTML as part of my job, but in late 2001 decided to finally take the time to learn the latest HTML standards right. So I set out to find the best and most comprehensive HTML book there was. I considered the five most available and highly-rated ones: Laura Lemay's Teach Yourself (Professional Edition), The HTML Bible, the Wrox HTML book, Elizabeth's Visual QuickStart Guide, and Molly Holzschlag's Special Edition.None of them are perfect, but Lemay's book seemed to be the best of the bunch - at the time (more on that later). I worked through it the hard way - from cover to cover. Now I can share with you my observations:
PROS:
1) Comprehensive coverage of almost all the important topics, from site planning, the HTML language itself, sound/video to design tips, site marketing and server admin. Its unrivaled breadth gives the novice a good survey of the entire field.
2) The comprehensiveness extends to the well-written appendices - HTML, CSS, Javascript, charset, color and MIME charts make this book a great all-in-one reference long after you've finished the lessons.
3) Commitment to XHTML1.0 means you will learn to do things the right way
4) The three meaty chapters on web server set-up and admin set this book apart, as are the chapters on site marketing and testing.
5) As for the basics, good coverage of text formatting and wrapping
6) Clean, readable writing and layout
CONS:
1) The only major shortfall - insubstantial CSS coverage. The future of page design deserves more than one rather generic chapter. Particularly annoying is Lemay's practice in early chapters of introducing classic formatting tags/attributes only to tell you it's deprecated in HTML 4.0. A comprehensive chart of old-vs-new practices at the end of the CSS chapter would have been helpful, as are re-implementations of all previous examples in standard-compliant HTML (especially for tables).
2) There should have been a few color insert-pages - to help explain the Using Colors section, at least! (I am thinking about the Color Wheel model in the old Teach Yourself Web Design book)
3) Laura Lemay is not a professional designer, and it shows. Look at any HTML book and you can tell whether the author is a Developer, a Tech Writer or a Designer. Lemay writes well and gives some good general design advices, but her example pages are uninspiring. Typography, an issue dear to designers and problematic in the web world, receives scant attention. To learn design, go to chapter 6, 7, 8, 12 of Robin William's "The Non-Designer's Web Book" for sharp and practical advices.
4) Skimpy on: WYSIWYG tools, Java, streaming, Flash, META tags, DNS and domain registration; no mention of the AOL browser
5) Needs better explanation of the DHTML concepts, especially diagrams that show how HTML, CSS and Javascript work together
6) Examples not consistently standard-compliant, Ch.20 errorneously states that Javascript array index starts with 1, and other minor editorial errors
What worries me though, is that the book is not being maintained. Its companion site is gone, and Laura herself stated on her site that she's retired. In contrast, Molly Holzschlag is an active member of the web designer community and her "Special Edition" was just updated last May - so that may be the new Gold Standard now.
The definitive beginners XHTML guide
I picked up this book in March, 2002 with no prior knowledge of HTML. In less than three weeks I learned how to create good-looking web pages, featuring Cascading Style Sheets, in XHTML (the latest revision of HTHL).This book is simply outstanding. Laura Lemay presents the markup language in a clear, easy-to-understand manner with excellent, real-world examples. You need no prior programming skills of any kind. Reading and working through the examples of this book has enabled me to create my own website in a matter of weeks.
For anyone who wants to learn HTML, I would strongly recommend this book.
SAMS Teach Yourself Web Publishing With HTML And XHTML In 21
This is the professional reference third edition, complete with a CD-ROM that has source code examples, web graphics and sample software. This is a very easy-to-use, comprehensive book for learning either HTML or XHTML.
The clear step-by-step instructions in this book make it easy for even a beginner to gain hands-on practice with web page creation.
This book will teach you how to work with color, sound, animation and images.
I let my husband, who knows nothing about computers, take a look at this book and play around designing a web page. It was one of the few times he wasn't saying "honey, how do I.......?"
If you are a beginner, I'd definitely get this book. If you have some experience with HTML or XHTML, this would make an excellent reference edition for your bookshelf. The user level is beginner to intermediate.
I have spent a lot of time building web pages over the last four years and some of the information in this book was new to me.
