Customer Reviews

The Complete Idiot's Guide to Creating a Website

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

 

 

I didn't feel I had enough of the big picture from this book to be able to just make a website by myself. However, IF I wanted to learn HTML I would definitely use this book! He is VERY clear and understandable on the code and his examples are pretty funny. I actually enjoyed him as an author. After reading the code section of this book, though, I decided I didn't want to learn HTML that bad (lots of details, and that is not my strong suit). But if I did . . . I would use this book. I'm going back to my brainless free google site now.

Now, I consider myself to be reasonably computer literate. Not an expert, but I've managed to get myself out of some reasonably complicated computer glitches by researching and reading info about the problems I was experiencing.

The other day, I checked this book out from the library that I thought would be interesting and perhaps raise my intellectual level another notch. I figured I would buy it if I thought it would be a help. The book? The Complete Idiot's Guide to Creating a Website by Paul McFedries. I was hoping it would be useful, or at least give me some insight into the process of building a website. I must be an even more "complete idiot" than the average "complete idiot". I couldn't even make sense of the Introduction let alone any of the other pages. To understand this book I believe you have to already be website savvy. Then you might actually make progress beyond the cover. Most of the "Idiot's" books start out at a reasonably simple level and bring the reader along at a nice pace. Not this one. This example begins at a high level with little explanation of the basics and goes up from there. So much for raising my intellectual level. In defense of the book, the cover was pretty, and it came with a round shiny disc.

I'm really sorry I bought this book and agree with other negative reviews. It is not for beginners. I got to the point of typing McFedries exact examples into notepad just to see if they would open in my browser. They didn't. A waste of money. I wonder if the Complete Idiot's Guide series actually checks manuscripts. This book is folksy but not helpful.

If you want to learn HTML, this is for you. If you are a small business owner who wants a website, this will consume way too much of your valuable time. Better off using a website template system or content management system.

Well researched and informative book. Contains all you need to know to get your website up and running.