Customer Reviews

Creating Web Pages for Dummies

5 star:		(20)
4 star:		(11)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(6)

 

 

If you have no experience with web publishing or you have only created a web page with those wizards that don't use HTML this is definitely the book for you. It was a very easy read for me. I read this book in only 2 days. If you know anything about HTML I wouldn't really recommend this book because it will state what you already know. I considered myself a beginner but I was somewhat familiar with HTML and web publishing. To my surprise a lot of it I already knew. However, it still was very helpful to me. It talked about areas such as creating a web page that is friendly to all browsers...something I wouldn't have thought of without this book. It includes very useful URL's and has screen shots of examples of the things they are talking about. It also comes with a cd-rom that includes freeware and shareware stuff that I found very useful for myself. In one of the appendixes are very useful HTML charts, but they could ahve explained the tags much better. Overall its definitely a great read for a beginner!

Don't be fooled by the title "for Dummies". This book includes everything you need to know about creating your own Web page with all the knowledge and software you'll need. You will need to invest some time in this project - but it is worth every minute! It's a simple, step by step process and you will need to take it slow if you're an average creator.

First you'll learn all about Web Publishing Basics, Website strategies and just enough HTML to get started (it's not that hard!). Besides creating your first Web page, you'll learn how to get the darn thing published on the WWW! That's half the battle, but worth the effort! There's lots of information on what to avoid (before you go there) and what makes the best Web page. Before you know it, you'll be upgrading your Web page all the time. You'll never get bored updating and changing your page until it's just perfect!

The book includes an invaluable CD that is useful for Windows and MAC! It contains Microsft Internet Explorer, Netscape Communicator, Dreamweaver (great design tool!), Frontpage Express, HTML conversion tools for Word (nice short-cut), BBEDIT, GraphicConverter (MAC), Homesite HTML Editor (MAC), Hotdog Express (for Windows - great tool!), SiteCheck utility, an Internet service provider software (if you don't already have one - most likely you have a sufficient one), HTMLValidator (catches errors), WEB Wizard (a nifty quick-and-dirty page maker), Reptile (for making cool backgrounds) and Paint Shop Pro, which is my favorite tool. There's plenty of other stuff too that I just can't get into detail here.

Once again, this does take a little bit of effort, but of all the books I have perused, this one seemed to be the best value for the money. It's all here and updated annually. It is worth every penny. Get your Web site up and running in less than a weekend (even though the book says one day). You'll feel smart when you're done! Enjoy!

Every once in awhile a neophyte Web user who had never done any Web authoring asks me to recommend some books to get them started. These days, I suggest Creating Web Pages for Dummies.

What I liked best about this book was that it more or less stuck to the basics. There is an awful lot to know about creating the Web; so much so, in fact, that it is easy for a knowledgeable author to overwhelm the reader. The other extreme, of course, is skirting over fundamental areas. Creating Web Pages for Dummies pretty much covers everything in enough depth for someone to put together a personal Web site fairly quickly.

Creating Web Pages for Dummies starts out by explaining the fundamentals of HTML and the Web, and then moves into more complex topics, such as how to pick an ISP. One of the great strengths of the book is its focus on a range of simple WYS editors. Web-makers who are just starting do not have to go out and buy a $200 or $300 Web editor; there are a number of very good and very usable tools out there that don't cost a dime.

This book is only a beginning; if you want to get serious about Web design, you'll have to move onto other, more advanced books. But Creating Web Pages for Dummies is an excellent introduction to the subject.

If you want to build your first web site and you don't know where to begin, read this book. The authors address all the key issues and tools that you will need to understand to get started. Smith and Bebak help you to plan your site design. They then explain ISP's and the major content sites, and they show you how to get started without spending a lot of money - or none at all. A basic introduction is given to HTML tags. They teach you about broswers and all their versions and how this affects your web pages. Even Web TV is addressed. Both PC and Mac spoken here. Elementary web page creation tools are discussed along with web page design techniques and strategies. This book covers all the issues that the web beginner will encounter.

This book provides a good foundation for Internet beginners. It explains very clearly all aspects of the Internet and HTML language, including important information on graphics, Web publishing protocols, etc. However, this is definitely a book for novices. If you already possess some knowledge of Web publishing, you might find this book too basic. I also think this book is more ideally suited to designing personal Web pages, not professional ones. Further study is certainly needed after this book is finished. But like all "Dummy" books, it is very easy to understand.

A great starter book that will get you up and running with a good personal web page or site (multiple connected pages) in a short time, or even a basic business site.

One staggeringly DUMB thing is that the first reference to a web SITE rather than merely a page is on page 11. No mention on the cover either. Most people are more familiar with the term web site than web page, so this is a very questionable omission, which may have cost them book sales.

If the book has a weakness, it is that it places too much emphasis on catering for older generation browsers, suggesting that Netscape Composer will build pages that older browsers will usually be able to read. Although, even here, I'm not so sure they are correct.

I created a basic read-only multi-page site in Composer under Netscape 7.1 and when I looked at the HTML source code, it was using HTML 4.1, (i.e. current HTML) and by the fact that it mentioned DTD's (Document Type Definitions), it must be leaning in an XML direction. However, by the fact that it did not generate an end slash after the (empty) "br" (line break) tag, for example, it does not go all the way to being XHTML compatible.

One problem here is that 95-97% of surfers will not have older generation browsers, and to compromise going ahead with XML and ultimately, XHTML standards (the ONLY way to go for the future) will not be helpful to you or your web host.

Many web hosts wince if you say you have built a web site in Composer, and whine about 'inelegant code'. What they are really talking about is forward compatability i.e. dragging web design and Net standards out of the stone age.

It is definitely advisable to manually convert any generated code to XHTML format and use a checking tool such as WC3 Validator, which I don't think this book even mentions.

It also fails to adequately distinguish between the nature of a read-only website and a fully interactive one, with a MYSQL database. It does mention that any add-on such as forms necessarily includes data storage and it does mention CGI and Perl (server-end software), but the detail in this area is somewhat lacking.

These are not heavy criticisms on my part. I love the For Dummies series, and this is a very good basic book. It will certainly suffice for most people, in that many of the explanations of the basics are excellent. Just a few tweaks and it would have been perfect.

Oh, what the heck, give 'em a seegar anyway.

This book is very generic and the intended audience for this book is the person who recently just bought their first computer and now they want to create their first web page. This book will help you achieve that goal. When you finish this book, not only will you be able to create web pages but you will be able to include pictures. This is perfect for the home user who wants to put their kids or their grandchildren on a web page for all of their friends to see. The authors have done a good job writing this book. In chapter 2 and 3, the authors explain how web pages work on AOL, other ISPs, and GeoCities. In Chapter 4, they teach you the fundamentals of HTML. The chapters are fairly short and the cartoons really help ease the stress of learning. You cannot go wrong with this book and I highly recommend it.

In response to the "thumbs down" below: GeoCities is one short chapter, 10% of the book, not 90%! The online steps have indeed recently changed, catching us between our annual updates to the book. For now, there are currently some extra steps in the book in the GeoCities chapter -- but the basic process works, and all the other HTML, graphics, and Web info in the book still works and still helps with your GeoCities or other Web page. Hundreds of thousands of people have found Creating Web Pages helpful, and I expect that to continue for a long time to come.

I love all of the Dummy books I have because all of these books just explain things so clearly, have a little bit of humor, and you learn things while having fun! I just bought this book not too long ago and I have to say it's pretty good. I always wanted to create my own web site but knew that I should start out with small ones then move onto larger ones. This book teaches you the basics of HTML without all that scientific talk and other things like creating cool icons. Then, once you create a basic web site it tells you how to improve it by giving it a little more power. Before you know it you got yourself a pretty cool web site! The humor was alright but was still entertaining to read. I recommend this book for anyone who wants to start to create basic web sites then move onto major ones!

I bought this book because I heard it was so easy to use. After I read it I realized those people were right. However, all the examples they use in this book and the way they tell you to actually create web pages are incorrect. The reason is because they are out of date! American Online and GeoCities are both different from the way this book describes them and that makes using this book extremely difficult. If you really want to see this book go to the library - but there's better books to learn HTML and other web languages. This book may have been great for anyone lucky enough to read it when it first came out, but now it's just not worth it.