Murach's HTML, XHTML, and CSS: Training & Reference

by Anne Boehm

Whether you're just starting out in web development or you'd like to update your existing skills, this book gets you off to a fast start! In fact, in just the first 6 chapters, you'll learn more about web development than you can from most full books. By the end of this crash course, you'll be developing web pages the professional way, with HTML or XHTML for the content and CSS for the formatting and page layout. That includes sophisticated page layouts that require the use of the box model, floating, and positioning.

In section 2, you'll learn all the other skills that you need for developing web pages. Those skills include how to develop forms that are submitted to web servers, how to add audio or video to a page, how to use a style sheet for printing, how to develop pages for mobile devices...everything you need for modern web pages. You'll also learn how to take your web pages to the next level by using tested JavaScript code for effects like image rollovers and slide shows.

In the last section, now that you know how to develop web pages, you'll learn how to design an entire web site using today's best practices. You'll also learn how to deploy your web site, and how to get it into the major search engines and directories. When you're done, you'll have all the perspective and skills you need to develop professional web pages.

496 pages, Paperback

First published July 5, 2010

Reviews

[Stephen · Rating 3 out of 5]

When driving on blacktop on a hot day, the light plays tricks on one's eyes such that a pool of water appears, crossing the road on the horizon. The odd thing is that, no matter how long one drives, one never gets any closer to the water. I had a similar experience reading this book. Possessed of the notion that I should build a website, I bought this book to learn how to write HTML. By the time I had mastered that language, I learned that I now had to learn XHTML and perhaps something called HTML5. With that under my belt, I discovered that one must also learn CSS in order to turn data into consistent pages. Then I was told I needed to learn JavaScript, and PHP, and Perl, and MySQL so that every time somebody dials up one of my web pages, that page is "created" anew from a database. On top of that, it was explained (in short sentences) to me that I needed to master PhotoShop in order make pictures fit where they belong. This strikes me as the same kind of come-on one experiences in a confidence game where there is always one more thing to buy and one more dollar to spend. With 500 pages of intense learning accomplished, I am now convinced that it makes far better sense for me to use a website designed (and maintained) by an expert into which I need only to feed the parts and pieces of content. It won't hurt a bit to have some sense of what is going on under the hood, even when cruising with one of those prefabs.