Customer Reviews

Build Your Own Web Site The Right Way Using HTML & CSS, 2nd Edition

5 star:		(31)
4 star:		(13)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I'm planning on using this book as a text for an intro to web design course. Overall, it is a great introduction.

What I like about the book are:

It's generally got a great flow [one exception below - ch.8] and has very good explanations for how HTML & CSS are used together to make well designed web pages. The text easily moves from the basic (html tags) to novice (basic CSS) and then more advanced topics like adding graphics, positioning, using tables, and implementing forms. The content is provided in a very accessible way that builds upon previous learnings. And the information is presented in a fashion that most newcomers to web design/publishing can easily understand.

The main caveats I have with the book are:

The book propounds using XHTML, which is still a hotly debated topic whether it should even be used for making public web pages. XHTML is arguably a dead standard as of Dec. 2009. It's also problematic since XHTML STILL is not properly parsed by the most widely used browser in the marketplace (MSIE) - esp. when served as "text/html" as recommended in this book. XHTML pages often "just break" or refuse to properly work with IE, and using XHMTL can break typical usage of some scripting languages, esp. JavaScript. There's even a Sitepoint XHTML vs. HTML FAQ (the publishers of this book) suggesting NEVER to use XHTML unless you have a very specific application that NEEDS to use it. Just because XHTML is popular, doesn't mean it's proper, and it can cause more headaches than it's worth. Kind of like using OOPHP - sure it has its place, but I wouldn't call it obligatory.

I would have moved the content of Chapter 8 into Chapter 1. It would be helpful for readers to know about web hosting and connecting to said host before attempting to publish their pages. To my mind this is definitely a "Setting Up Shop" activity - in fact I'd have these tasks prerequisite to those in Chapter 1. What's the point of creating web pages if you have no where to post them for others to see?

A possibly bigger issue is that Chapter 9 "Adding a Blog..." is nearly useless now that Blogger no longer supports FTP publishing (announced in Feb 2010 and unsupported as of May 2010). Including an entire chapter that has a "single point of failure," such as relying on a singular service that's avail. today to be around tomorrow doesn't seem like very good planning to me. It would've been nice if another, more generic alternative were presented (such as just linking to one's Blogger or Wordpress blog and how to configure them so they at least look similar, if not integrated).

It's still a pretty good book, and I'm going to use it for the class, with strong warnings about the fallability of XHTML. In class, we're going to use HTML 4.01 Strict.

Lately, when choosing between books I pay great attention to ratings and reviews. I found that they are a good indicator of quality and generally are a sign that a book simply was very well written. This is also true for this book, of which its first edition (search for ISBN-10: 0975240293 or ISBN-13: 978-0975240298) attracted 37 reviews with an average rating of 4.8 stars. I absolutely agree and am also giving it 5 stars and will only add that all steps involved in building the model website are explained and there were practically no parts I had trouble with.

Because I had to wait a little while for the 2nd edition I was granted a free pdf download of the 1st edition so that I could start right away. I want to make a case here for this format. A few advantages:

- It's easy because in this case you're behind your computer anyway
- The pdf is in colour whereas the book is greyscaled
- I found it very easy to cut and paste the html code into the files
- It's probably cheaper

With regard to the 2nd edition major changes are in the chapters that deal with online services (for instance form processing, webhosting) because they change rapidly. Also it must be said that it misses the 57 pages HTML reference of the 1st edition, probably to promote sale of the reference by the same author. Also the layout changed a little.

Little downsides:

- It misses a HTML reference. After you finish this book you definitely know how and where to start with building your own website but I still feel you need some kind of reference to know all possibilities (for instance all possible attributes and values)
- I found the book sometimes just a little too funny for my taste
- When it comes to recommending books it too often recommends books of the same publisher, whereas some other books received much higher ratings with Amazon

Before purchasing this book I had a thorough understanding of HTML. I also knew how to create websites with tables in Dreamweaver, which is how my college course taught me (ugh). I did use CSS, but only in Dreamweaver to manipulate text, background, and header styles. So I bought this book with the intention of creating websites in a more efficient way. I wasn't exactly excited to learn and write scripting languages due to my tendency to be more of a designer than a developer, but this book made the process enjoyable.

The book provides the underlying principles of HTML and CSS, and then guides the reader through the development of a simple scuba diving site. After completing the book and the site I felt I had a good grasp on the basics of CSS and HTML. It was simple to understand and the author does a good job of teaching how to think about how things interact, instead of just copying code. He also teaches how to stay organized in the process. Perhaps one of the most useful parts of the book is how many references he provides. The scuba site was simple, and in my opinion, a horrible design, but he gives enough to go on for more advanced stuff.

A month after completing the book I began designing and developing my first website for a local massage business, and after that a site for a political organization. I was staying up late into the wee hours trying to figure out how to get things to work the way I wanted on both of these sites, and this book didn't provide all the answers, but it gave me the foundation to build upon and understand what other web designers/developers were talking about on other forums, sites, blogs, etc.

Overall, a good book to get started.

Tyler

this book is a great read for anyone knowing nothing about html but having a basic knowledge of how the internet works. I read it in about a week, doing the practice site along with the book. Then when i was working on my family's site on iWeb, I got frustrated and just replaced the entire site with one I made from what I learned reading this book. Now I'm practicing on some sites that just for fun, but I can tell now that I can do just about everything without needing the book for a reference for positioning or my CSS page. I'd like to get an HTML-reference book for more advanced stuff, but the editor I'm using (espresso on the Mac) is fantastic with a list of HTML tags to use. This book is definitely one you read from cover to cover. I stopped at the part at the end about FTP and web hosting and forms because I've already got a good understanding of FTP and webhosting (I use dreamhost.com webhosting). I'm now reading "PHP and MySQL web Development" because this is that I've been wanting to learn all along. I feel I have a good basis of HTML and CSS, but I want to do more with web development. I highly recommend this beginning HTML/CSS book for anyone wanting to get their feet wet with web development, or who just wants to make a basic website for their family.
Also, the site that you make with the book kind of seems cheesy especially at first. Just stick it out, because you'll see how it comes together from ugly to decent. Then when you're done, keep the code around as a basic template and build your own site. Even if it the same layout, you can change the colors and obviously the content. Here are some sites that give you the binary color codes (you'll realize why you need these if you have no idea now) and patterns to use for backgrounds, etc.

[...]

What would I do without this book? I am still in the process of building my site, but I had to come over and gush about this book. The glowing reviews of the previous edition led me to this new edition. Thank goodness.

Before I received this book, I was literally to the point of thinking I would have to hire a web design team because I could never do it myself. In the past, I had tried to build my site with basic website building books available at the library, but it was a nightmare. The books were never thorough enough or explained the information in simple enough terms for me to grasp it. While I had some prior experience working with HTML, this new CSS was a complete mystery to me. As I attempted to build a site before (all in HTML) I was blasted by other designers on message boards for not building it "the right way-using CSS" and that's another reason I was led to this book.

So far, this book has taught me so much about how to actually plug in the code to make it happen. So many books waste time talking about how to layout the site and market the site, but they never actually tell you HOW to BUILD IT. This book actually spends all its time telling you how to build the site and that's all I ever wanted from the other books, but never found. This book has been a goldmine of information for me and I suspect it will not leave my side for all my days- it is that critical and vital for information, in terms of website building.

I will update this review later, since I have not yet completed my site, but I had to stop and take a breath and let everyone know that this is THE DEFINITIVE BOOK on HOW TO BUILD YOUR WEBSITE for anybody. I only wish I'd found it sooner.

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Updated: September 22, 2009
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I built a few websites from scratch using the guidance of this book and I was grateful to learn how to build a site from scratch. This book gave me a familiarity and comfort level that never would have been achieved if I hadn't learned this way. Now, I have switched to using a WYSIWYG (What you see is what you get) program to do my web designs. I was always fearful of these programs because many seemed too Mickey Mouse and didn't offer any features for advanced design, but this program is different and wonderful! The program I am using is SiteSpinner V2 I cannot recommend it enough! It has given me flexibility that I never had building a site from scratch. They also give you a 15 day trial and I built more than one site during the trial! It has tutorials and is very easy to learn. When you are ready for it, get it. It's worth every penny!

While you don't have to start with the "Build your own website the right way" book, I still recommend you start out that way. If you are new to the process, there are many nuggets of info to glean from this book and you wouldn't want to jump off into using a fancy program with no understanding of the basics of web design.

This book is perfect for a beginner like me. Having never done any site creating work, this book assumes that you have no previous experience. I am about half way through the book and have had no propblems following the instructions to create the book's practice site. Simultaneously, I am creating my own site for real and am having a lot of fun doing it. I highly recommend the book to any one who would like to learn how to create a web site but has not done any such work in the past.

This book was fun to read and the experimental website even more fun to build, step by clearly written step. The explanation of written code, with specific working examples all along the way, is wonderfully accurate and gives very distinct and functional ideas of exactly how both HTML and CSS work in the real world of web sites. The downloadable images for the site complete the whole experience very nicely! Thank you, good job, Mr. Lloyd!

This book almost seemed a little to "beginner" when I started reading it as I had some experience with html. As I continued, I realized that there was a lot more information than I had anticipated. The book progresses slowly from very basic to more in depth very nicely. I learned a lot of new things and recommend this book to beginner and intermediate level readers. I have since purchased more SitePoint books and find them very educational and easy to follow as well. The SitePoint website is also very helpful.

This is a great how to book for building your own Website. It's well written and peels off all of the high tech jargon. I'm not a computer novice but also not an expert either and I was able to follow thru and complete my website easily. The book also has a lot of links to free sites to help keep the cost down which is a major plus.

I learned HTML programing a few years back and had not used it much since then. After starting making a new website last month I realized I had forgotten much of what I learned and I knew that the HTML language had changed a little over the past years. I had never used CSS so I thought it was time to refresh my knowledge and I bought this book. The book helped me get a good grasp of both HTML and CSS. It is written in an easy and fun way to read and I never got bored, much better then most of the programing books I have read. So I higly recommend it for anybody taking there first steps or wanting to freshen up on old knowledge :)