Customer Reviews

Sam's Teach Yourself Web Publishing With Html 4 in 21 Days (Teach Yourself Series)

5 star:		(23)
4 star:		(18)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

You may be an HTML beginner when you pick up Laura Lemay's best-selling book, but at the end of the 21 days you won't be a beginner anymore. This second edition is a major upgrade, 400 pages larger than its predecessor, and updated to cover the latest and greatest in W3C specifications including Cascading Style Sheets and the red-hot dialect called XHTML. Veteran users will welcome the fact that this new release contains more topics: about deprecated tags, working with sound and video files, using Java, and introductions to writing JavaScript scripts and CGI scripting. New users will appreciate the easy-to-follow format and the teaching strategy known as 'micro-uniting'. You'll learn everything in bite-sized chunks, not to much to choke you into unconsciousness, but just the right amount to satisfy your curiosity and appetite. In a mere 21 days -- about the time it takes me to begin my preliminary procrastination -- you'll learn how to create and maintain a professional-looking web site. This book is an entire reference library in one volume: everything you need is here. Each "day" of the 21 days contains three chapters. Each chapter covers a specific theme -- such as creating links, animated graphics, tables, frames, multimedia, and so much more. You'll also learn how to spice up your pages with Dynamic HTML; how to put your site online; and how to promote and maintain your site. When I looked at the CD that accompanies the book, I rubbed my eyes to see if it were true. You get a library of photographic images that you can use for free; and trial versions of the biggest names in web-related software. There's not enough space to name everything here, but just to whet your appetite, how about Dreamweaver, GoLive, Homesite, BBEdit Lite, HotDog, Photoshop 5.5, Fireworks, PaintShop Pro -- and the list goes on. XHTML is hotter than Pokemon, and all the latest information about XHTML is carefully explained. The book answered all my questions about this child of HTML and XML: it clearly described how to transform my HTML documents into XHTML. For anyone interested in publishing ebooks, this is essential knowledge, since XHTML has been chosen as the standardizing format for this brave new publishing world. Web site making these days is much more complex than it was when all you had to know were a few dozen tags of HTML 2.0. Lemay's book, with it's relaxed conversational style, is the perfect tutor for every beginning-level to intermediate-level user. If you like to understand the things you read, then -- like me -- you will thoroughly enjoy working with this book.

Michael Pastore, Editor

This was one of my first HTML 4 books and it more than helped get me started on my way to making my first web page. The text is well written and easy to understand with plenty of examples and exercises to get you writing HTML right away. If you want a good reference book and a paced self learning course then this book is a good choice.

This book was recommended by a close friend who wanted me to learn HTML so I could do some work for his Web Publishing company. Well, I went through it in less than two weeks and was ready to go to work!

The book is written simple-to-understand, but gives enough technical information to keep you interested long after you've learned HTML.

As far as reference goes, you can't get much more complete. I keep this book close at hand to look up the various HTML commands and how to use them.

The book teaches cascading style sheets, tables, forms, javascript, and the new version even includes coverage on XHTML!

The main author, Laura Lemay, writes in a style that is not condescending, and her humor is not forced. It's almost as if your friend were teaching you this stuff.

I would definitely recommend this book, and once you learn HTML, pick up HTML Goodies next.

This is a great book for anyone wether you're a beginner or an expert. Chock full of 762 pages of info for HTML 4. It talks about everything in HTML 4 that you could ever want. It has a easy to use quick reference section for quick reference obviously. It also has step by step guides for beginners who know absolutely nothing. You will need no other book on HTML if you get this one!!!

I bought this book to help sharpen my HTML skills for a web site project that I am currently working on for my Master's Degree. Luckily, I made a great choice, because this book has helped me further develop my understanding of HTML in a very short timespan. I use this book more than the textbooks that our instructor assigned to us. I highly recommed the book to anyone looking for a book that can teach them HTML in less than a month.

I found the book easy to read, full of great examples, and very well suited to use as a reference guide. You will find yourself quickly building web publishing skills starting with the very basics, then moving on to tougher subject like using frams, inserting multi-media, creating forms, and other useful topics. My own personal copy is rough around the edges because I have used it so much during my project.

If you are looking for an easy way to learn a lot about HTML, but don't have the time or money to spend on a class, I recommend that you purchase this book. It is money well spent for those looking to expand your web publishing skills.

I've come back to this volume again and again in my work as a professional webmaster. It's great for those just beginning to work with HTML or those like me who have a strong grasp of HTML but have some gaps in our knowledge. The index is thorough and helpful, and the examples are clear and concise.

Where it does come up lacking, though, is when you get off the beaten path with your HTML work - trying to do non-standard things, for instance. This book is not for advanced HTML tricks - it's for fundamentals. It does an excellent job at what it set out to do - couple it with an advanced HTML programming reference (from Que or Sybex, for example) and you'll have almost all your HTML bases covered.

Here it is in brief: I didn't know the first thing about posting a web page or html. A friend recommended this book to me. With the help of this book, I have led a team at my church in the development of our own site. Since February, we have made a lot of progress, but I have personally coded almost every page. Thank you Laura Lemay!

I found the book extremely helpful until chapter 13. It is well written and the explanations clear and concise. The tutorials are straight forward using the files image files and source code provided at the listed web site. Unfortunately, the web site is for the 1st Edition. Chapter 13+, the files at the web site no longer apply with the tutorials. These are particularly important chapters involving embedding sound and images. The publisher has acknowledged the missing info but has yet to rectify the situation. The hardcover professional edition provides a cd with all necessary files. The softcover is the cheaper and unsupported red-headed step-child. Money would be better spent on the hardcover edition, at least you will be able to complete the tutorials.

Excellent book, I highly reccomend it. I went from not knowing thing one about HTML to writing web pages that are like the ones that I see on the web while surfing. I also finished this book in substantially few days than 21 days, approx. 8 days but I put in quite a bit of time and I did work every example and exercise. GET THIS BOOK.

Probably one of the most comprehensive books for the beginner. I purchased this book with no knowledge of HTML or any programming language for that matter. I had no prior computer training but I was able to grasp HTML 4.0 with ease which says a lot about how well thought out the lessons are. For the beginner this is definitely the best I've seen in circulation. Try any of the other Sam's books and you will definitely get the same experience.