Review: HTML and CSS in 24 Hours
Ian Waugh brushed up on his web skills with this new title from Sams.
| Product | HTML and CSS in 24 Hours |
|---|---|
| Company | Sams |
| Web | www.samspublishing.com |
| Price | £17.99 |
| We like | Easy to understand, covers XHTML and goes beyond the basics |
| We don't like | Not much |
| Rating | |
| Requirements |
This book is now in its seventh edition so it must be doing something right. It presents 24 lessons or chapters each of which you ought to be able to complete in a hour, give or take.
The title, however, doesn't tell the whole story as the book not only covers HTML (Hypertext Markup Language) but preps you for XHMTL (Extended Hypertext Markup Language) and XML (eXtensible Markup Language), too. In fact, all the examples are fully XHTML and XML compatible so the book will help make your web site future-proof.
XHTML is a new standard that tidies up HMTL to make it more consistent across browsers. The Appendix includes instructions for migrating HTML to XHTML.
The object is to create code that is compatible with all major browsers, something which cannot be guaranteed with current WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You get) HTML editors. As more people migrate to Mozilla Firefox, it's essential that your pages look the same in that as well as Internet Explorer. Over 20% of Practical PC readers use Firefox.
Tagged
The book begins with basic HTML tags, including XHMTL headers to allow you to validate your code and web site. This is a good idea as the validation (http://validator.w3.org) will highlight any errors in the code.
It then explains how to upload your pages to the web using a browser, FTP (File Transfer Protocol) software and FrontPage. You can also save your pages to a CD, intranet or memory card.
After the basics, the book moves on to basic text alignment and formatting, linking, web graphics, custom backgrounds and colours, and graphical images and imagemaps (where a hyperlink is associated with an image rather than text).
There's a section on creating graphics and optimising photos and banners for the web, and aligning images within the page.
One of the most flexible ways of organising data and laying out pages is to use tables. The book covers this, too, but some of the listings are two pages long and the beginner may be better off using a good WYSIWYG editor for anything more that a basic table.
Do it with style
And so we're at chapter 12 and CSS (Cascading Style Sheets). Although not overly complex, CSS does require a little application and the book leads you through it gently. Advanced CSS properties are discussed plus some that are not yet implemented in browsers, and there's a chapter on using CSS for page layout. CSS gives you absolute control over the positioning of items on the page, more than some WYSIWYG editors can offer.
You can also use CSS to create media-friendly pages suitable for printing, TV, a handheld, Braille or audio. Neat stuff, especially as more people are accessing hr net with handhelds.
There's a section on frames although the author admits to not being a great fan. They can be confusing to the user and to some search engines.
All this will give you a good understanding of how to create a web page and easily change the layout using the latest techniques. The following sections cover more advanced material.
A chapter on dynamic web pages does not try to teach you JavaScript but includes some useful and easy to use scripts. Other chapters describe how to gather information with HTML forms, embed multimedia in web pages, improve the layout of eBay auction pages and create your own blog on blogger.com and dress it up.
The final chapters covering organising a web site and helping people find your site, and there's a useful summary of tags and properties in the Appendix.
Some old web hands create all their pages entirely in a text editor with raw HTML. That probably smacks of just a little too much dedication for most folks but even if you use a WYSIWYG editor you will undoubtedly want to tweak settings or make adjustments to pages in the code itself. In which case you'll find that HTML and CSS in 24 Hours is an excellent guide and reference. Recommended.
