Books to Read: HTML

“The true University of these days is a Collection of Books.”
— Thomas Carlyle (1795-1881), The Hero as a Man of Letters

HTML Books: putting magic into your web design...
	*Raymond Pirouz, HTML Web Magic* 2nd Edition, (1998), New Riders Publishing, ISBN: 1568304757*— This is a recipe-style how-to book that takes users through 50+ HTML lessons, ranging from page layout techniques to special effects. The second edition has been completely revised with dozens of techniques for HTML 4.0. This book is the most visual, step-by-step "cookbook" of HTML secrets around. The highly successful format takes readers through clear directions and variations for each HTML effect. The CD-ROM contains all the HTML code discussed in the book, plus complete Web pages, graphics and animations and BBEdit Lite*, the premier HTML text editor. Here's a guide that will get your creative juices flowing as you sharpen your skills. Pirouz is loaded with lively ideas and shows you exactly how to bring them to life. He shows how to achieve unexpected effects with images, tables, frames, windows, type, & forms. This book will surely put magic into your web pages! Avg. Review (15):
	*Elizabeth Castro, HTML 4 for the World Wide Web: Visual QuickStart Guide* 3rd Edition (1998), Peachpit, ISBN: 0201696967**— This is the book I recommend to my students taking HTML classes at Foothill College. Like the other Peachpit Press Visual QuickStart Guides, this book takes an easy, visual approach in learning Hypertext Markup Language, where pictures guide you through and show you what to do. This handy volume works like a reference book— you look up what you need and then go straight to work. The author's language is concise and precise, explaining just what you need to know. The 18 chapters, 4 appendices, and 14-page index are well organized to help you find things fast. The handy back cover flap reproduces 16 predefined colors and 117 colors with their hexadecimal equivalents. This edition includes expanded coverage of Cascading Style Sheets. There is a companion web site with all the book's example files, Q&A, & updates. Buy it now at Amazon.com! Avg. Review (105):
	*Chuck Musciano, Bill Kennedy, Mike Loukides, HTML: The Definitive Guide* 3rd Edition (1998), O'Reilly & Associates, ISBN: 1565924924*— The better way to become HTML fluent is through a comprehensive language reference, a resource that covers the language syntax, semantics, and variations in detail and helps you distinguish between good and bad usage. HTML: The Definitive Guide*helps you both ways: the authors cover every element of HTML, in detail, explaining how each element works and how it interacts with other elements. Many hints about HTML style help you accomplish a variety of tasks, from simple online documentation to complex marketing and sales presentations. With hundreds of examples, the book gives you models for writing your own effective Web pages and mastering advanced features. The updated 3rd edition covers HTML 4, Netscape Navigator 4, Microsoft Internet Explorer 4, and the various extensions of each. The book includes a handy 6-page foldout chart of HTML codes for quick reference. Avg. Review (55):
	*Aaron Weiss (Editor), Robert C. Benedict, Rebecca Tapley, Steven Mulder, Kim Daniels, Web Authoring Desk Reference: HTML, Style Sheets, JavaScript, VBScript* (1997), Hayden Books, ISBN: 1568303521**— This is the one book Web developers will want within arm's reach. A comprehensive resource that makes finding code easy, it provides a one-stop solution for learning where and how each code can be used. It lists information both by syntax and by task, covers the latest HTML tags and style sheet syntax, and is filled with examples of the code, screen shots and valuable tips and tricks. This detailed, up-to-date work provides an alphabetized reference of HTML tags (with new HTML 4 and WebTV tags), JavaScript functions, VBScript functions, and browser objects. The 700+ pages of alphabetical listing cover tags supported by both the 3.0 & 4.0 versions of Microsoft & Netscape browsers. Convenient browser-compatibility icons for every entry give the reader instant information on which tags are supported by which browsers. Older and obsolescent tags are also discussed with advice on the best substitutions. For each tag, the layout makes it easy to see at a glance which tags it may contain, between which tags it can appear, and what attributes it takes. The layout also provides an example of each tag's correct syntax. The clear typography of the text printed on heavy paper, and the solid hardback binding make this book a great desk reference. Avg. Review (7):