DHTML for the World Wide Web (Visual QuickStart Guide) [Paperback]

Jason C. Teague (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 21, 1998 | ISBN-10: 0201353415 | ISBN-13: 978-0201353419 | Edition: 1st

For any course in Digital Graphics, Web Design, Web Scripting and Development, Multimedia, Page Layout, Office Tools, and Operating Systems. These task-based, visual reference guides feature step-by-step instructions and plenty of screen shots to guide students and teachers through the most important tasks. Visual QuickStart Guides are the ideal way to get students up and running quickly, and are used for intermediate and advanced students as a quick reference.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

If you're proficient at HTML, yet still fuzzy about Dynamic HTML, you're definitely not alone. Since the two browser heavyweights--Microsoft and Netscape--offer different flavors of DHTML, this promising technical advance for the Web is still in flux. DHTML for the World Wide Web is a no-nonsense look at where DHTML stands and how to use it effectively.

This Visual QuickStart guide delivers by offering a comprehensive look at using DHTML--in only 248 pages. The author wastes no time laying out the differences between the two vendors' approaches and establishing the common ground--mainly cascading style sheets (CSS) and JavaScript. With a fast-paced series of screen shots and step-by-step coding, you'll quickly learn the basics of CSS and how to use them effectively to control your typography and page layout. The book illustrates some of the most common uses of CSS--including multiple backgrounds, overlapping font styles, and columns without tables--clearly and quickly.

This guide also presents Document Object Models (DOM) to illustrate how to utilize dynamic event handling within your pages. Many popular techniques, such as moving banners, dragging objects, and creating pop-up menus, are included. An even balance of Netscape and Microsoft techniques makes this book a handy reference for any Web developer. --Stephen Plain

From the Back Cover

Finally, the smoke is clearing on the technology which unleashes the full capabilities of the world's web browsers: DHTML. Capable of creating full multimedia power on a web site, DHTML is a collection of related technologies, cascading style sheets, Javascript, and HTML used together in powerful and elegant ways. The effects can be stunning, and give web designers unprecedented power over their visual interfaces. After learning DHTML, the interactive designer and webmaster can create web pages filled with animation, synchronized events, intelligent data, and beautiful fonts: all the bells and whistles!

The DHTML Visual QuickStart Guide inherits the immensely successful format and approach of the best-selling HTML and Javascript titles and shows that DHTML doesn't have to be difficult to learn. A technology created for designers, DHTML should not only be used by programmers.

Task based, step-by-step instructions and easy to follow screen shots make the DHTML: Visual QuickStart Guide the easiest way to learn DHTML. Read the book cover to cover, or just follow the steps for the task you need, right here, right now. Either way, you'll be up and running with DHTML in no time.

Easy to use and also comprehensive. The DHTML Visual QuickStart Guide documents every aspect of this complex technology, and provides extensive appendices that make finding the exact code word you need a snap.

Product Details

• Paperback: 248 pages
• Publisher: Peachpit Pr; 1st edition (September 21, 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0201353415
• ISBN-13: 978-0201353419
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 6.9 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 14.4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (35 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,255,995 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Jason Cranford Teague is a designer, writer and teacher who helps people creatively apply technology. He has over 15 years of experience in the online world and written numerous books, including Speaking in Styles: The Fundamentals of CSS for Web Designers and Fluid Web Typography. He has recently worked with the W3C CSS Workgroup--advising them on design issues with typography. Learn more about Jason from his blog, speaking-in-styles.com or follow him on twitter @jasonspeaking.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

28 of 29 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Good start-up- acurate title, just a touch out of date, November 29, 1999

By 

"cyberdr" - See all my reviews

This review is from: DHTML for the World Wide Web (Visual QuickStart Guide) (Paperback)

This is a very good book for getting started with DHTML. It covers all the basics (CSS, CSS-P, etc.). It is, however, a little dated since HTML 4, CSS2, and the W3C DOM standards are being implemented in the latest browsers. Don't get discouraged though, this will still introduce you to the basics.

I would highly suggest reading PeachPit's VQS Guides on HTML and Javascript first. Then read this VQS. If after your intro to DHTML, you decide to become a Guru- buy O'Reilly's "Dynamic HTML- The Definitive Guide". Also, search the web for some reference sites- there are some really good ones for DHTML. Good Luck

23 of 24 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars A good primer, but lacks polish and attention to detail, February 3, 2000

By 

Ernest Kim "An Average Joe" (Hillsboro, OR USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: DHTML for the World Wide Web (Visual QuickStart Guide) (Paperback)

The format of all of the Visual Quickstart Guides is very helpful in that it provides the reader with a visual representation of basically all of the concepts covered in the book. In the case of "DHTML for the WWW" this is extremely helpful since many of the concepts are fairly complex and would be difficult to comprehend without a visual aid.

Overall, this book is a good guide for intermediate level HTML coders who perhaps aren't interested in coding for the rest of their lives, but who would like to take advantage of some of the advanced behaviours that DHTML affords. In addition to the basic concepts behind DHTML, the book provides a surprisingly good and thorough explaination of CSS.

The downsides to this book are twofold, first, the examples provided are not, in large part, directly applicable to any real world applications. After having read the book, it would still take a fair amount of effort and ingenuity to develop a cascading menu, for example. This is made particularly difficult because of the book's second major fault, the fact that many of the code examples provided in the text are incorrect. If you buy this book MAKE CERTAIN THAT YOU CONSULT THE ACCOMPANYING WEB SITE BEFORE DOING ANY CODING! This will save you much time and frustration.

The summary: worth buying, but it will leave you with as many questions as answers.

17 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Really an Intermediate Level Book, July 17, 2000

By 

Steven A. Bell "Even Keel" (Kemp, Texas USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: DHTML for the World Wide Web (Visual QuickStart Guide) (Paperback)

This book is not truely for beginners. I would suggest a good book on JavaScript (for those sketchy in this area), an then a good book on HTML (again for those beginning to learn to Web program). DHTML is a combination of intermediate to advanced HTML and JavaScript. Now with that said, this book does a good job presenting DHTML clearly. Here is a list of some of the topics covered: Cascading Style Sheets (basics, fonts, text control, properties, margins, borders, positioning, ad-nausium...), DOM (Document Object Model), Dynamic Techniques/Solutions, JavaScript and DHTML, Layers (a real biggy for me), and Visual Controls. Both Netscape and the ubiquitous Internet Explorer are covered (with a couple of chapters specific to their uniqueness). Appendices include: CSS Quick Reference, Layers QR, and Resources. The book is rounded out with an excellent index. I especially liked all of the cross-browser information (comments, code techniques, what would work and what wouldn't, how to adapt). I would have liked to have seen more on JavaScript integration with visual controls, but oh well. In addition, more information on CSS techniques with JavaScript would have been nice, and when dealing with IE it would have been terrific to have had some VBScript comparison code. Overall, I would recommend this book for the serious web programmer's shelf.