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Message from Dean - May 8th 2007
I am currently testing out a new version of the APF Bridge Component - If you notice any errors within this demo store please drop me a line.
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The book is very well done. It would have received 4 stars but the new book came with slight damage to it.
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I was looking to create a website for my work group that was professional looking and modern. I had played with HTML on an off, mostly copying other sites and cutting and pasting things. I became interested in learning CSS, what they were and how to use them. After borrowing "Eric Meyer on CSS" I realized I was over my head, I could parrot the examples but didn't really know what I was doing or how to repeat it. I really needed a more basic and solid foundation.
I stumbled across this book browsing the local bookstore and bought it from Amazon for the price break. This book is a treasure. The writing is clear, concise and flows well. The layout is colorful but well organized and not too busy. The author first gives a solid foundation in HTML/XHTML, describing the different HTML tags, pointing out how things have changed over the years and advocating for the current best practices, HTML for semantic markup and CSS for presentation. I appreciate the consistent sidebars describing browser inconsistencies and quirks.
The section on CSS is great and gives a good foundation for using CSS to markup the display of HTML elements and how to use it to set the layout of a page, instead of using table cells. When the more advanced topics of floats and page layout templates are discussed, while still a good foundation, the material becomes a little more sparse and difficult to follow, but this is a minor problem.
One of my favorite features of this book is the consistent sidebars in each chapter detailing web-sites and resources where you can go for more information on a topic. The author focuses in the main text on presenting the basics and providing a foundation. At the same time, she realizes that there is much more to a topic than she can present and kindly provides the reader with places to go to find it, and keeps those references in context (right next to the topic at hand).
I'm not a professional web developer, nor is that my aspiration. However, I don't want to spend hundreds of dollars on Dreamweaver or other software just to create a nice looking web-site. This book showed me how to do it the right way and cleared away alot of misconceptions and bad practices I had adopted over the years, cutting and pasting HTML from pages I liked.
I would highly recommend this book for anyone interested in gaining a solid foundation in (X)HTML and CSS. Now I feel comfortable going back to Meyer's book and other references with a solid understanding of the basic principles.
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When I needed to put up a Web site for my photo business, I decided to do it myself. I figured this would allow me to make changes and fixes without paying a designer. I then bought a template (online), MS Expression Web software, and Jennifer Robbins "Learning Web Design." While Expression Web was ultimately near-useless, Jennifer's book saved the day. Each chapter deals with one specific topic, with clear examples and exercises. The technical stuff can be a bit thick, but it's really not necessary to master that. In due order, I was able to edit my template and bring it up with only minimal help from tech support. I continue to read and reread this book to gain even more understanding and eventually make my site better. This book is absolutely great, particularly for someone (like myself) who does not speak Software.
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I have looked through almost every web design book on the market, or it would feel that way at least. This is the one book I would probably reccomend if you could only buy a single book on web design from the code perspective in terms of XHTML and CSS. The author logically and systematically lays everything out, gradually working up through CSS in a logical way that is easy to read and comprehend. She doesn't get bogged down in 'geek speak' and explains things in a clear way. There is also a section on saving graphics for the web as well as dealing with the code. There are a ton of visual graphics/examples to accompany all of the text and the book doesn't depend on the tutorials like alot of books (you can still get alot out of the book even if you didn't do a single one of the tutorials). This is the kind of book that you would have as a reference or refresher by your side... It's one of the few that covers almost everything in a great and easy to use manner (there are some great books on the individual topics like CSS or Graphics, but this is one of the only great ones that touches on them all. I found myself putting down other books I have on these topics and coming back to this one several times b/c it made so much more sense..... If you can only get one book, make it this one....
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This is the clearest, most comprehensive, and most accurate beginner's text I've seen. It's also easy on the eyes, with helpful full-color diagrams and illustrations on every page. If you want to enter the field of web design, or just want to figure out what the heck this CSS stuff is all about, then this is the book for you.
I like the way Robbins covers some of the current lively debates in web development circles, such as the relative virtues of XHTML vs. HTML markup and fixed vs. fluid designs. She explains the issues clearly and without bias, leaving it up to the reader to make an informed choice. This is refreshing compared to certain other beginning texts (for example the Head First book) which try to bully the reader into using XHTML without drawing sufficient attention to the drawbacks of that choice.
I only have a couple of bones to pick with the author. First, Getting Your Pages On The Web, which is the last (?!) chapter of the book, explains how to upload your files to a server via FTP, as if that were the only option. I think she should have at least mentioned the existence of more advanced techniques like version control and file synchronization, even if she didn't have room to cover them. Finally, the graphics software section fails to mention GIMP as a free, open-source alternative to Adobe Photoshop. This probably reflects Robbins' background and bias as a Mac-oriented designer. I think she should have at least mentioned GIMP as an extremely powerful system for image manipulation that is favored by many Linux-oriented web developers.
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