HTML and CSS Web Standards Solutions: A Web Standardistas' Approach [Paperback]

Nicklas Persson (Author), Christopher Murphy (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: December 17, 2008 | ISBN-10: 1430216069 | ISBN-13: 978-1430216063 | Edition: 1

This book will teach you how to build hand-crafted web pages the Web Standardistas way: using well-structured XHTML for content and CSS for presentation.

By embracing a web standards approach, you will hold the key to creating web sites that not only look great in all modern browsers, but also are accessible to a wide variety of audiences across a range of platforms—from those browsing on everyday computers, to those accessing the Web on the latest emerging mobile devices.

Even if you're an absolute beginner in web design, this book will teach you how to build future-proof web pages the right way using easy-to-master tools which are, in most cases, free. Through 14 easy-to-follow chapters, we introduce you to the fundamentals of contemporary web design practice. Step by step we'll assemble well-structured XHTML webpages, which we'll then style using handcrafted CSS.

By the end of the book, you'll have a firm knowledge of the essentials of web design: everything you need to know to move forward in your lifelong journey as a Web Standardista.

To equip you on this noble quest, we've included enjoyable practical assignments at the end of each chapter. Embracing these challenges will not only teach you how to create great looking web sites that are the envy of your peers, but also equip you with an unrivaled knowledge of monkeys that journeyed to space and apes that starred in the movies—the real stars of this book.

On completion of this book not only will you be able to create well-crafted web sites, but you will have earned the badge of a Web Standardista, proving your worth as a good citizen of the Web.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

A bio is not available for this author.

Product Details

• Paperback: 400 pages
• Publisher: friendsofED; 1 edition (December 17, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1430216069
• ISBN-13: 978-1430216063
• Product Dimensions: 7.5 x 0.9 x 9.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.6 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (13 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #868,120 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Christopher Murphy is a writer, designer and educator based in Belfast. Creative Review described him as, "a William Morris for the digital age," an epithet he aspires to fulfil daily.

A lecturer in interactive design at the University of Ulster, Murphy has championed a web standards based curriculum for over a decade. Informing his role as an educator, Murphy is a practicing designer whose work spans a variety of media. His work has featured in numerous magazines and books including Eye Magazine, widely acknowledged as one of the world's leading design journals, and Influences: A Lexicon of Contemporary Graphic Design Practice.

A writer on the 8 Faces team, he has also written for The Manual, 24 Ways, and .net magazine. As an internationally respected speaker he is invited to speak regularly on web standards and the importance of improving design education, and has spoken at conferences worldwide, including: Build, New Adventures and FOWD.

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars Good up-to-date guide for new web developers March 13, 2009

By Gregory Lunn

Format:Paperback

HTML and CSS Web Standards Solutions reads like a textbook, and it should: the authors are both lecturers at the University of Ulster at Belfast, and have worked to create web development courses that use the most modern standards-based techniques for creating well-crafted websites. This approach makes the book and excellent choice for a newcomer to website coding, and is one of the best, most up-to-date examples I have seen of the details of creating standards-based websites from scratch.

The first several chapters are dedicated to HTML and an explanation of why good semantic markup is important for organization, accessibility and search engine optimization. Each chapter builds on the last and provides details about every HTML tag and why you would use them. There are no hands on, step-by-step examples, but each chapter does include several code examples with matching browser screen shots, and a "homework" assignment at the end where the reader is challenged to apply what they have learned. There's even a chapter on setting up your own domain name and uploading your website to a server.

The remainder of the book is dedicated to the art of using carefully crafted CSS styles to transform plain HTML into a well-designed web page. Although web designers already familiar with CSS might not find anything new or unique here, a new designer unfamiliar with Cascading Style Sheets will find an excellent presentation of the proper process for building up a stylesheet. Basic typographic principles, multi-column layout schemes, and creative use of background images to solve unique design problems are covered with solid code and appropriate examples.

Those looking for advanced CSS ideas or new standards-based approaches to creative techniques won't find them here, but those looking for a solid foundation in the correct, most up-to-date methods for building modern websites will benefit from this book.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Perfect Book on learning XHTML and CSS June 26, 2009

By F. Stepanski

Format:Paperback

XHTML and CSS have been around for a long time, and there are lots and lots of books on the topic(s). But there are very few that explain these topics the proper way with regard to web standards and taking consideration to more advanced topics like SEO.

Whether you code your web pages from scratch or use a web design tool (Dreamweaver or Web Expression) or even use a CMS that creates most of the content for you. Understanding the presentation layer (XHTML) and what should and should not be used is important as you add on other layers (Structure and Behavior) with CSS, JavaScrpt and a server-side langauge.

The foundation of any website is XHTML and CSS and the author of this book really explains whats necessary with web design/

The author first starts off with what are web standards and how they have evolved over the years and with the most current web browsers. Then the basics of the different flavors of XHTML and DocTypes with the basic tag definitions...<head>, , <table>, <ul>, etc.

My favorite chapter is chapter 3 which very few books (if any) explain what semantic markup is all about as well as what is meaningful tags and how they should be used. Yes, you can find this information on the web, but its all here at your fingertips and put together wonderfully with great examples.

The chapters that explain CSS are chapter 8 - 13 and really are all you need to fully understand CSS properly. I love that the author includes links to useful online CSS tools like the list-o-matic and explains how to create CSS frameworks for all kinds of web page designs.

There really isn't anything that the author has not covered in this boo about XHTML and CSS and I highly recommend it.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent June 22, 2009

By Mary L

Format:Paperback

I bought this book because I wanted to learn standards compliant web coding. I've been building websites for a while now but I learned by trial and error, so I'm not new to HTML/CSS at all. I decided I wanted to learn to do it the right way, and I couldn't have picked a better book!

Well written, thorough, no nonsense approach. I really enjoyed the hands on nature of this book and that it was so focused on building accessible websites.

It could be said that this book is not for the more advanced user, but I can say it would serve as a great refresher to those who are experienced but need to brush up on standards compliance. Even though I can be considered a relatively advanced user, I still found this book very useful and the only chapter I felt I could skip comfortably was Chapter 7 on how get your site online. Even then, I still skimmed through it to make sure I wasn't missing anything I didn't know :)

Standards compliant semantic web coding - if that's your goal then this is the book for you! Highly recommended read!