Troubleshooting Your Web Page (Eu-Undefined) [Paperback]

Evan Callahan (Author)

Book Description

Series: Eu-Undefined | Publication Date: February 17, 2001

Trouble designing and building your Web page? Confounded by HTML? With this handy "Troubleshooting" guide, it's easy to pinpoint -- and solve -- your own problems when using Microsoft FrontPage to create and manage a Web site. Each section opens with a troubleshooting chart to help quickly diagnose the source of the problem. It offers clear, step-by-step solutions to try right away, plus a full chapter of things to do to stay out of trouble or learn a new trick. Continuous support via the Troubleshooting "Latest Solutions" Web site provides monthly updates on additional problem solving information. Books in the "Troubleshooting" series are colorful, superbly organized, and easy to read, giving even novice users the confidence to fix it themselves -- without calling tech support or wasting time on futile trial and error. Covering both FrontPage 98 and FrontPage 2000, this book shows how to troubleshoot basic Web design and construction, graphics, HTML, Web publishing, database integration, and more.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

If you're a serious Webmaster, this book will seem trivially simple to you. But, if (as with thousands of other people across America) the boss suddenly has said to you--"Hey, you! Guess who's in charge of our Web page now!"--Troubleshooting Your Web Page could be perfect.

Written with the novice Webmaster in mind, this compact book walks you through most of the common problems that you'll encounter when you first start to learn the vagaries of the Web. Most of the problems in this book count as the tiny annoyances that the beginner doesn't have the time to research and fix: "How do you indent a column of text?" "The radio buttons have a square background behind them!" and "A border is too thick or thin" or "I don't want it at all" are examples of the sorts of problems that you can expect to rectify with this book. Occasionally, the problems touch on more advanced issues, as in "My connection string isn't connecting to the database" and "My streaming audio isn't working properly." Each set of Web problems is split into separate chapters and prefaced by a solid flow chart--leading the reader through various "yes" and "no" questions, until the right solution is reached.

The well-written solutions generally are quite useful, and almost always give you two options to correct the problem: i.e., tweaking the HTML code directly, and the Microsoft FrontPage 2000 commands that will fix it. In either case, the text is clear; it doesn't provide simply a bunch of nonsense code for beginners, but instead takes care to explain carefully why the problem has arisen, and why these steps will correct it. This book is a useful tutorial of common HTML and good Web-design practices for the novice.

Furthermore, many of the "problems" specifically point out challenges that graphics-happy designers might not know they have, like "My images take too long to load" and "My FrontPage site doesn't work in a particular browser." By leading its readers to be aware that these are problems, it forces them to ask the right questions about their HTML Web work--and encourages better design, overall. Thoughtful sidebars on some of the raging Web debates (to use frames or not to use frames?) help the reader understand the nature of the WWW.

Which is not to say that the book doesn't have its faults. For one thing, it's very heavily FrontPage-dependent--not only is a single 15-page chapter devoted to FrontPage troubleshooting alone, but an additional section deals with FrontPage and Microsoft Office 2000 interactions. In other words, just under 10 percent of this book is useless, if you don't use FrontPage 2000--which, considering that this is a Microsoft Press book, shouldn't come as too much of a surprise, but caveat emptor.

Also, some of the sections are just a little too detailed and complex for the book to handle. Entire books have been written on debugging JavaScript code; so, you know that a four-page section isn't going to cover it. Likewise, poorly written database queries and incorrectly configured database connections have driven many an amateur programmer to drink. It would be nice if Troubleshooting Your Web Page told you when it was time to seek professional help. But no such indication is forthcoming, which leaves readers to scratch their heads and wonder whether there's anything else they should be doing.

Let's be honest here--this is a quick-fix book for people who don't know a lot about the Web. The HTML fixes are fairly easy to look up, if you know what you're doing. But there are a lot of people who don't have the time to track down various problems, and this book does a fine job of picking the ones that beginning Web designers are likely to face. It won't be a reference you'll turn to time and time again after you've gained experience; but, if you're just starting out--or have no time--it could be useful. Recommended. --William Steinmetz

About the Author

Evan Callahan is President of Callahan Software Solutions, a consultancy focusing on database and other software solutions and technical communications. Clients have included Microsoft, General Dynamics, Online Training Solutions, and a variety of accounting, real estate, and environmental firms. He is the author of "Troubleshooting Your Web Page" and "Microsoft Access Visual Basic for Applications Step by Step", published by Microsoft Press. Evan worked for Microsoft Corporation from 1989 to 1995, where he created documentation and sample applications for Microsoft Access and Visual Basic. His background includes extensive experience in database design, technical communications, web-based marketing, and management.

Product Details

• Paperback: 380 pages
• Publisher: Microsoft Press (February 17, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0735611645
• ISBN-13: 978-0735611641
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 7.2 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,872,696 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Tackle the web page mystery., February 19, 2001

By 

Michael J Woznicki "Michael J Woznicki" (Holland, MA USA) - See all my reviews
(HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Troubleshooting Your Web Page (Eu-Undefined) (Paperback)

I have been working with and teaching web page design for over three years and until now there has never been a book that really breaks down how to fix the web page in an easy to understand and comprehend manner.

This book covers FrontPage 2000 in a flow chart fashion. The book shows what the problem could be and walks you through the diagram until you come up with a possible solution and then you turn to that page and begin to troubleshoot and fix the problem.

There is an abundance of coding examples to help you in your troubleshooting. The author covers topics such as animation, backgrounds, borders, colors, forms, frames, links, images, multimedia, styles sheets and tables.

The appendices included in the book cover HTML tag summary, which is some of the best examples I have seen in any book. Also CSS and resources are included. You can also get free web updates. Overall this book is made for anyone from the beginner to advanced level.

5.0 out of 5 stars Great Book as a reference to Web Site Development, January 28, 2009

By 

bdprog (Kenockee, MI United States) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Troubleshooting Your Web Page (Eu-Undefined) (Paperback)

This book though a few years old, is a great reference. I checked it out at the library and renewed it until I had to return it. I was able to find a copy on Amazon.com and am glad to have this. Lots of great tips!

Check this book out when looking for that hard to figure out web problem.