Customer Reviews

HTML & CSS: The Complete Reference, Fifth Edition (Complete Reference Series)

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

The GOOD: The 'notes' section of each entry provides very useful information, reflecting the author's expertise.
The BAD: This is a very difficult book to navigate - to find what you are looking for. Have the designers of this book heard of <h1> or <h2>? How about color? Or something more than "PART I" along the edges? I found I have to go to the index almost every time. You should hold this book in your hand and see the inside before buying it to decide if navigation will be an issue for you.
THE UGLY: The lists of 'Attributes' and 'Events' make the book very bulky, without much use for me. This would be OK on an online reference, but in print form, it does not seem as usable.

This is my first experience with "The Complete Reference" series, and I am very impressed. I am new to html and css, and this book provides a fine introduction to both. The book has a nearly perfect balance of teaching content and reference. I read enough information to learn the basic syntax, and saw many examples of usage. Then, the reference starts; you know how to use them, here are all of the options - go for it! Now when I need to know how to do something, say positioning in css, I just look at the options, decide what I need, and test it. It really is that simple. The html and css sections are separate, but both are explained in the same format. Now that I have a basic understanding of these topics, and a great reference, I am free to move on to more advanced topics like Javascript and MySQL.

This is also the first book that I have seen that includes HTML5 and CSS3 coverage (all of the others are currently pre-order only). The coverage lists everything, but only goes into detail on the tags that are most likely to be supported, or are already supported. Since we are a couple of years away from seeing the new standards adopted, this coverage seems appropriate.

This is the type of book that I can really learn from quickly, and I hope I find more that are this good for other subjects.

I am relatively new to web page implementation (I hesitate to call my current level of competency "web design.") This book, is not meant as an instructional book but is an excellent reference book. I know what I want to accomplish, but I don't know what the correct term or syntax is to give that instruction to the browser in either HTML or CSS "language." It doesn't go into programs, such as Dreamweaver. It probably assumes you are writing code in a text editor, which I'm not. I do use Dreamweaver and have other reference books to explain the program specifics. I use this book as a supplement that saves me a lot of hunting around in drop-down menus or entering keywords in the help menu.

When I get stumped as I plod along, I simply refer to the super-extensive table of contents or, failing that, the index or one of the many appendixes. I find an alphabetical list of elements, their meaning, and a page reference for further information. The exact same list is available for all CSS selectors. In the text section, the syntax is demonstrated, the values are explained, and the term is defined. Simpler terms have shorter explanations; longer and more complex terms have longer and more detailed explanations. (Look in the Amazon "Look Inside" option for this title. Go, page by page, over the index and table of contents and you'll see what I mean. This was what convinced me to get the book in the first place.)

Yes, there are pages of text explaining web standards, general and specific rules for HTML, XHTML, and CSS, the peculiarities of browsers, markup language and many other topics. But these are also found in other books. The absolute strength of this reference is the clear and logical presentation of the terms that we need to invoke in order for a browser to understand our intentions. For this to happen, it helps if we know how to write what we want and the correct way to write it.

I purchased this book as part of a requirement for an HTML/CSS class I was taking for school. I had no prior HTML/CSS knowledge prior to purchasing this book.

I gave this book five stars because it is an excellent reference for HTML/CSS, which is the intention of the book. It is full of great detailed information that would be helpful in creating great looking websites. I cannot stress enough how much detail is in this book.

However, I personally would not recommend this book to someone who is trying to learn HTML/CSS. It is not a how-to book and I found myself looking at other resources a majority of the time in the learning process. I believe this book is geared more towards people who already have a good basic knowledge of HTML/CSS and are looking for additional ways to spice up your website. For a beginner, I believe this book was a little too overwhelming.

Overall, an excellent book for reference purposes. It's a book that you will probably be utilizing after you have learned HTML/CSS. If you are looking for a book to walk you through how to create a great looking website, this is not it.

This is a comprehensive reference which covers all versions of HTML and CSS, including HTML5 and CSS3. It is written by a Web development expert who has participated in the development of the new standards, and who is very knowledgeable. I was very impressed by this book, which I think currently is the most comprehensive, complete and up to date reference book for CSS and HTML available. The book is an outstanding go-to guide for both for beginners and professional Web developers as it is fully updated for the latest CSS and XHTML standards and provides clear and concise examples.

The author, Thomas A. Powell, is president of PINT, Inc. [...], a nationally recognized Web agency. He developed the Web Publishing Certificate program for the University of California, San Diego Extension and is an instructor for the Computer Science Department at UCSD. He is also the author of the previous bestselling editions of this book and Ajax: The Complete Reference, and co-author of JavaScript: The Complete Reference. This broad expertise and background has clearly been important in the writing of HTML & CSS: The Complete Reference.

This excellent book covers all the elements supported in today's Web browsers-from the standard (X)HTML tags to the archaic and proprietary tags that may be encountered. HTML & CSS: The Complete Reference, Fifth Edition contains full details on CSS 2.1 as well as every proprietary and emerging CSS3 property currently supported. I was positively surprised by the width of the coverage of CSS3. It also has good annotated examples of correct markup and style which show you how to use all of these technologies to build impressive Web pages.

Also, CSS and XHTML: The Complete Reference, Fifth Edition covers the newest browser versions including Firefox 3, Internet Explorer 8, Safari and Opera, and contains much updated information about the browser and cross-browser compatibility of the various HTML and CSS elements. In addition, helpful appendixes cover the syntax of character entities, fonts, colors, and URLs.

I was very favorably impressed by this book. It is well written and well organized, and even though it is has more than 800 pages, very little space is wasted. CSS and XHTML: The Complete Reference, Fifth Edition also contains good examples of useful Java. Overall the book is very up to date and so comprehensive that I think it will be useful for a long time, even though things change relatively fast as far as CSS and HTML is concerned. If you, like me, like to have a good reference book that is well organized, contains information on browser implementation and even some good examples, this is a very good choice which I strongly recommend!

My husband, a software engineer, recommended this book. He and his colleagues have found this series to be excellent. Of course, I didn't take his word for it and flipped through more than a dozen books available at a nearby book store before I agreed with him.

Around the year 2000 I began computer programming with a CGI course that had a pre-requisite of HTML. I had no HTML experience but figured I could learn it along the way. I did, using a different book that is no longer on my bookshelf and is now out of print.

Now I need a book like this one to help me edit my ebay/Auctiva listings. Auctiva uses div and span tags which were new to me. I quickly eliminated most of the HTML books because the word "span" wasn't in the index. This book not only has the word in the index, "span" has its own line in the table of contents, and the book gives the most wonderful explanation via a quick glance and thorough text. One of the books I left on the bookstore shelf gave "span" one brief, meaningless definition in the tiny chapter at the end titled "Advanced HTML".

I see that a number of people recommended this book as beginners in conjunction with a course. I also recommend it as one you can "grow into" as it goes beyond the basics.

I almost gave it 4 stars for lacking a color chart, but I'd rather play with html-color-codes.info, and copy and paste the hexadecimal color code. This book covers color very well, but in text with black-and-white charts, not full-color ones.

This book deserves 5 stars for offering a balance of text to study while reclining, and elements to use while at your keyboard.

Whether you're an advanced or beginning HTML & CSS expert or student, this book is a great reference you can "grow" into. It is not a how-to nor does it offer practice exercises. But if you're wondering how to employ certain tags or elements, this reference will get you closer to the answers. I'm only 1/3 way through the book, but already I've learned how to use tags that were previously a mystery. Plus, the author is very honest about the future of HTML 5 and thoughtfully warns the reader of the inevitable changes that the future will bring to this standard.

This book is a good book for reference only. It is not a how-to-do instructional guide. Go with something else if you are a beginner.