Customer Reviews

Spring Into HTML and CSS

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"Spring Into HTML and CSS" is another in the series of quick primers from Pearson Education, Inc. about contemporary technologies, designed for non-professional website designers and developers. The author is described as one the "top 25 most influential women on the Internet", having 30 books to her credit as well as being an influential thinker.

What is called "HTML" here really means "XHTML" and this book is one of a number currently promoting standards-compliant web design using XHTML and CSS. Like the others in this series, this book is written for quick reading of short 1-2 page "chunks" detailing one of a large handful of topics related to contemporary webpage design promoting adherence to the World Wide Web Consortium standards and will have its most value for less-technically experienced web designers..

Ms. Holzschlag starts right from the top - describing the logical construction of a web page using the now-required "Document Data-Type" header and proceeding through the usual Head section to other page objects. These objects include text paragraphs, links, images, media, and tables which are styled with CSS. Basic CSS concepts are explained and examples of styling include styling text and tables, forms, layouts, positioning and more.

Nearly every page contains sidebars of related items, illustrations, or code examples. Strangely, some of the examples involve color settings for backgrounds, lines and text but the illustrations are all gray-scale color. No matter, as the examples are simple and clear enough. There is appropriate note of browser-compatibility issues and how to work around them.

The 13 chapters are supplemented by long, comprehensive annotated references of XHTML 1.0 and CSS 2.1, containing over 70 pages all together. Downloadable code examples are available at (...).

This is a light introduction to the subject matter with fast-paced writing and is well-populated with examples.

More of a commercial operation than an attempt to bring out a good introductory text on HTML and CSS authoring, this text is very concise, direct and no fluff, but also dry and lacking in through explanations and examples. One of the most interesting application of CSS, layout management without tables, is relegated to the last chapter and receives just a cursory treatment. Also be warned that half of the book is dedicated to basic HTML tags which you should really be already familiar with unless you have lived in a cave for the last 10 years. Don't buy this book if you are interested in design. It is not a bad book after all, if you are totally new to the subject and looking for an easy and direct introduction just to get your feet wet, but from an author of the caliber and reputation of Molly Holzschlag I was expecting something more inspired and inspiring. My advice is stay clear form this book and use freely available web tutorials if you really need some material now, and wait till "CSS Hands-On Training" by Eric A. Meyer comes out. That should be the right book to give you decent training and inspiration on CSS.

I was a reviewer of this book, and though I've worked with HTML for 10 years, I still learned some tidbits here (tabindex would be one example). In a sea of HTML/CSS books, this would be a good pick as an intro, or a refresher/reference.

The thing that I enjoyed most about the book was Molly's writing style. It gets the points across, without bogging down into complete geekdom. An HTML/CSS book can be complete, informative, and not dry. I like the honesty that comes across ("The use of tables for layout is the biggest hack in HTML history").

The book is divided into two sections, which I think of as "structure" (HTML) and "presentation" (CSS). This allows Molly to lay a good foundation of how to get basic elements on the page, and then to turn attention to styling them.

There are tons of examples (the HTML/CSS, and the output). They'll take you from basic paragraphs and links, to styling, boxes, and z-orders (depth).

SIHaC is careful to maintain focus. Molly does not wander off into JavaScript or this or that plugin. The book does a great job addressing its core audience.

While there are many much thicker books on HTML and CSS on the market there is very little in them that is not in this book. There is very little extra wording here but instead the authors take a direct approach to the subject. Each item is described in a fully understandable way with examples and an easy reading style. The book also serves as a basic reference on XHTML. If you want to understand how to write, edit, or understand a web page you can easily do so with this book. If you want to know how to do something in particular it is explained in a couple of pages and you can write it immediately, not 20 pages of fluff. Spring Into HTML and CSS is highly recommended as one of the fastest and easiest ways to get up to speed in HTML and CSS.

Wether or not you find this book useful really depends on who you are. If you are absolutely new to HTML, and maybe even to computers, you are better off elsewhere. This is not so much because the authors assume you have mastered a lot of things already, but rather because they assume you have a certain number of reflexes and thinking habits which make things intuitive for people used to working with computers, but take a little explaining to newcomers.

If you know a bit about HTML already though, not much, mind you, just what a body and head are, for instance, then you will appreciate the lean, no-nonsense approach of this book. It goes straight to the point, in a clear, and convincing manner without preaching or beating around the bush.

This will be a relatively short review, not because of lack of interest but because there are a number of HTML and CSS books out there, and most HTML/CSS books cover the same amount of information for the most part. Spring into HTML and CSS is no different in this respect, but it does have some differences to it that might give it more of an edge over other HTML/CSS books. The presentation is what seems to be the differentiating factor between this book and other, similar books.

HTML is covered first before jumping into CSS. All of the basic elements are covered one by one with a number of examples and options for each. The book also has a number of screen shots to show the results of almost all of the given examples. So, in that way the book is very much like most other HTML/CSS books.

The difference is that although this book covers the basics, it assumes that the reader is not a total novice and at least has a technical proficiency that is higher than most. This explains the sub-title of The Smart Professional's Choice.

Indeed, the subject matter is very easy to read but presented in a way that avoids a lot of the cute, end-user analogies and metaphors that exist in many other HTML/CSS beginner books. The topics are concise, to-the-point, and are presented in a formal yet easily understandable manner. They're also presented in a way that does not allow much room for the misunderstandings or confusion that true newbies would likely have, thus further stressing that this book is meant for those with a higher level of technical understanding.

That's not to say that this book cannot be used by those who have no HTML or CSS experience; however, the presentation is very direct and matter-of-fact whereas other books, such as those in the For Dummies series, are presented in a way that sometimes stresses simplicity and fun over direct information. People who are familiar with both the For Dummies series and books that are meant more for professionals understand what I mean. Unfortunately, it's difficult to articulate this difference if you have not experienced the style differences for yourself.

The biggest difference between this book and most other HTML/CSS starter books is the inclusion of XHTML 1.0 and CSS reference sections in the back of the book. These sections contain 71 pages of examples, descriptions, and usages for each of the various tags and elements. These appendices are a great addition for professionals or those who are more technologically adept because this is the kind of material that we look for. Sure, we can always go through the index and look for the chapter that describes the goal that we're trying to reach. But most IT professionals prefer the concise nature of reference appendices. We know the command or function but perhaps not all of the options that are available. We want to zero in directly on that command or function without having to search through the entire book. (Can you say man pages?) The 71 pages of XHTML and CSS appendices are a welcome change and definitely have the appeal to professionals that most other HTML/CSS just don't have.

What this comes down to is that if you prefer HTML/CSS books that give you the information that you want in a direct manner with little or no fluff, this is the book that you want. If you are looking for a book that is more laid back with cute examples and anecdotes, you should look elsewhere.

This book is not bloated with theory...which is exactly why I like it. Yes I've been coding HTML for over 4 years, but it doesn't hurt that this book has a healthy (X)HTML section that I can turn to to remind myself of things that may have been forgotten. This book is a good technical reference manual that requires you to build your own examples. If you want beautiful color pictures of examples to accompany the mechanics of XHTML and CSS, I suggest you partner this book with any of Eric Meyer's publications. If I have one critism of the book, it's that it treats tableless lay out in a cursory fashion, but having a book by Meyer's should compensate for that. Final analysis: excellent learning source for beginners and a very good quick reference for pros.

This book teaches alot of outdated and deprecated methods of web design using HTML and CSS. It also does not explain anything more than simple text and picture modification. If you're looking for something to teach you more powerful usages of HTML and CSS, I recommend looking elsewhere.

I hadn't worked in CSS in several years and my skills were beyond rusty. The book doesn't give you any particularly advanced skills, but if you're looking for a refresher, you could do worse.

I would imagine it would work well for most people new to this as well, but it's hard sometimes to know how much previous knowledge you're bringing with you.

I really like the way that the author puts all of the information together. She covers all of the basics very fast with really simple examples. The fact that she uses the same basic example though out the entire CSS set of chapters makes it possible to introduce a lot more concepts without having to show all of the html for every single page. I think that the writing style is perfect for a beginner.

I have already used many of the things that I have learned in this book. She covers html forms but the book does not cover how to use the forms. I understand the reason that she could not cover how to use forms becuase this is a huge subject that is worthy of a book of its own.

The book is filled with websites that have more information on various subjects. The web pages could be used to help increase your understanding on a subject.

This book is an excellent starting point for learning html and CSS. It is not a win all book. If you are going to get this book I would also advise getting the book published by O'Reilly Dynamic HTML. I have not read the book Dynamic HTML but I have used it as a reference book and it fills in where the Spring into book leaves off.

A few complaints. In one of the early chapters the author talks about HTML Character entities and says that there is a list of many of the common entities in the appendix of the book. I have searched the appendices of the book and was unable to find the list. I had to turn to the Dynamic HTML book to find it.

I don't think this is a learn all, win all book but I think for me it was a huge help. The sections are short and well written. I will pick this book up if I want to remember how to do something really fast.

I don't know if I would say it is a must read for aspiring web developers but I don't think it is a bad read. I give this a great recommendation on ease of reading and being really clear on the subjects that it does tackle. I don't think the book has very much depth. I don't think it should be discounted because of that. I just think the reader should be aware of this fact.