Customer Reviews

Web Design in a Nutshell: A Desktop Quick Reference (In a Nutshell (O'Reilly))

5 star:		(27)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This book focuses on frontend matters of web design and development: markup, style sheets, image production, multimedia, and so on. Ironically, despite its title, there is little in the way of "design" advice, per se. Rather, it strives to be a thorough reference for the technical details and requirements faced in day-to-day work designing and developing web content. Although it is a good introduction to all subjects covered, if you really want to dig into the details of any particular technology, you will probably need other reference books. As far as "big picture" instruction, though, I highly recommend it. I review the book further in the context of its table of contents. The book is divided into six parts plus appendixes, each covering a general subject area.

Part I: The Web Environment
Chapter 1, Web Standards, describes the current approach to web design and sets the stage for the entire book. It is essential reading. Chapters on designing for varying browsers and displays provide useful overviews of the unique challenges web developers face. Chapter 5, Accessibility, and Chapter 6, Internationalization, both serve as introductions to the ways web content may be created to reach all users, regardless of ability, browsing device, or language. Chapter 4, A Beginner's Guide to the Server, is a primer on basic server functions, system commands, uploading files, and file types.

Part II: The Structural Layer: XML and (X)HTML
This part of the book is about document markup, commonly referred to as the structural layer because it provides the foundation upon which presentation (styles) and behaviors (scripting) are applied. Chapter 7, Introduction to XML, covers critical concepts that guide the way (X)HTML is handled in contemporary web design. Chapters 8 through 15 focus on HTML and XHTML markup, including detailed descriptions of all the elements and the way they should be used in standards-based web design.

Part III: The Presentation Layer: Cascading Style Sheets
Part III provides a thorough guide to using CSS for controlling the presentation of web content with a focus on visual media. It begins with an overview of the fundamentals in Chapter 16 and continues on with an introduction to CSS selectors in Chapter 17. Chapters 18 through 23 provide detailed descriptions of all the visual properties in the CSS 2.1 specification. Finally, examples of how CSS is used in the real world are provided in CSS Techniques (Chapter 24) and Managing Browser Bugs: Workarounds, Hacks, and Filters (Chapter 25).

Part IV: The Behavioral Layer: JavaScript and the DOM
Part IV is all about adding interactivity to your pages with JavaScript. Chapter 26 is an introduction to JavaScript, and covers syntax, control structures, object-orientation, and the whys and hows of unobtrusive scripting. Chapter 27 introduces the Document Object Model and shows how to tap into it to manipulate both content and design. As a supplement to Chapter 27,a brief introduction to Ajax techniques is included that will help you on your way to building richer Internet applications.

Part V: Web Graphics
The chapters in Part V contain essential information on working with RGB color and choosing the appropriate graphic file formats. The chapters dedicated to GIF, JPEG, and PNG graphics offer practical tips for graphic production and optimization based on the compression schemes used by each format. The Animated GIFs chapter is a further examination of GIF's animation capabilities.

Part VI: Media
Because the Web is not limited to text and images, Part VI is included to provide a basic introduction to adding audio, video, and Flash movies to web pages. There is also a chapter on printing from web pages using print-specific CSS style sheets as well as an introduction to the PDF format for document distribution.

Appendixes
The Appendixes in this book are very useful. Appendix A is an alphabetical listing of all elements and attributes in the HTML 4.01 Recommendation, as well as a few nonstandard elements that are well supported and in common use. Appendix B is an alphabetical listing of all properties defined in the CSS 2.1 specification. Appendix C lists all the character entities defined in HTML 4.01 and XHTML 1.0 with their numerical references. Appendix D provides a detailed explanation of the color names and RGB color values used both in (X)HTML and CSS. Finally, Appendix E describes the future of XHTML and Microformats.

As another reviewer has pointed out, it's difficult to write a review for a book that is a reference book. But oh, what a reference book this is. If you do any web design work, you need this book. It covers virtually everything a web designer needs to know/or to be able to refer to. Among the topics Robbins covers are XHTML, CSS, web design standards, also mentions XHTML 1.1, DOM, JavaScript and so forth. While some topics are given a brief mention, that's only because a full description of some of them (like DOM) would take a book of their own.

Part 1 (the Web Environment) takes on topics like designing for different browsers (which can be a challenge with all the different web browsers and versions around), "A beginner's guide to the server," which explains basic web server topics, and internationalization.

Then it's on to The Structural Layer of XML & XHTML in Part 2. It starts off with an intro to XML and then into a HTML & XHTML overview. I liked how Robbins took the time to explain XHTML 1.1 and various new and upcoming standards, it's one of the reasons why I got this book. As a part time web designer, I want to keep up on the latest trends and make sure my web sites are up to date and will appear as they should on both newer and older browsers. There's also sections that explain text elements, images and objects, tables, frames (even if frames are "frowned upon" nowadays).

Part 3 is devoted to Cascading Style Sheets, some ten chapters worth. This I feel is a very good thing, since they've become a vital part of web design.

Subsequent sections of the book touch on JavaScript, DOM, Web Graphics, even Web audio and video.

If you don't have this book you need to get it, it's that's comprehensive a reference.

It is hard to write a review for a book that is in essence a reference guide. In it's third edition, Web Design in a Nutshell has become a go-to book for many web designers. However, its strength is that it's accessible for anyone who wants to learn about web design, and creating standards-compliant content - even beginners.

Robbins does an outstanding job at first defining what "standards-compliant" actually means, and why anyone should care. With the number of Internet browsers out there, web designers want to make sure that the pages they create are viewable by everyone, not just the people who have the latest browser, or the most popular, or the "hippest." The person who can't access your site easily is the person who will leave the site and not come back - not good news to businesses that depend on their web sites for customers.

To that end, Robbins also shows the importance of gathering visitor stats - not just to brag about how many unique hits or repeat visitors you get, but also to make sure that the people who are coming to your site can actually view it the way you designed it. The statistics you collect should not only show which browser the visitor used, but what display setting they used, so that you can design the site with the correct resolution in mind.

I think that the most valuable aspect of the book is its breadth. Robbins covers XML, HTML, and CSS (which are expected), JavaScript, DOM scripting, graphics, color schemes, and multimedia. She admits when things aren't covered in detail, and refers the reader to other reference works that will give a more in depth treatment of the subject.

Web Design in a Nutshell has been a standard reference for web designers since 1998. This third edition is revised enough that it keeps the book current, but retains the layout and style of the older editions. Experienced designers will feel instantly comfortable with this latest edition, and novice designers will welcome this handy, easy-to-use reference work.

The new edition is comprehensive and concise to a degree I have not found in any other web design reference book. Since the first edition this book has grown considerably. This edition, for its concision, could still be described as a reference in a nutshell, but for its comprehensive cover of the most important material to a useful depth, it is more than that. If you are, as I am, often pressed for time while multi-tasking towards the completion of projects on tight schedules, and need the right information quickly, this book will become a treasured tool. This is my, and I recommend that it become your, reference of first resort.

Buying books online can be very tricky. I would very much like to see a
new entry in the online reviews where the author shows his or her level
of proficiency in the subject. A review on a web design book written by
a full profi has different weight than a beginner. They may both give 5 stars, the meaning though is quite different. Web Design in a nutshell is
one of those books which is a must whether you are a beginner or not. If you are a beginner you cannot avoid the nitty bitty details but if you are a versed webdesigner you may every now and then want to refer to particular topics. This book is a must. PS. 6 months ago i was a beginner .

Other reviews show how much is packed into these 800 pages. Consider that the last edition was released over 5 years ago -- now recall how much has changed since then. The book reflects these changes.

The most noticeable areas are the increased centrality of Cascading Style Sheets and the increased role of W3C standards in page structure and the Document Object Model, and greater sophistication in the use of JavaScript. There is a lot of new material bearing on this change in focus and coding habits.

The reference material is mixed with learning material so this book can be used for both purposes.

This short review is about Web Design in a Nutshell, 3rd Editon.

I agree pretty much with hartley J. Jackson's review on this book. I wish to add that the sections on combining "Javascript, XML, DOM, (AJAX)" is brief. It's not as comprehensive as the other sections. You will definitely need another book if you are designing a website that needs do interact heavily with XML. In addition, the Javascript sections are also not as strong, but it's a large topic anyway.

The sections on HTML and CSS are pretty comprehensive and are probably only overshadowed by information provided in "HTML & XHTML: The Definitive Guide, Fifth Edition" by Chuck Musciano and Bill Kennedy and "Cascading Style Sheets: The Definitive Guide, 2nd Edition" by Eric A. Meyer, which are dedicated texts on their subject matters. If you crave more information than what is here, you should probably move on to those books. If you already have those books, this book may be redundant.

The real value of this book lies in her design chapters. These are chapters about multiple browsers, image manipulations, embedding video and Flash, and layouts. The author's writing style makes these topics quite accessible.

If you buy one book about web design and web technologies, this is the book to start with but be aware that it is a (very good) jack of all trades/master of none type of book.

Web Design in a Nutshell, 3rd Editon
Author: Jennifer Niederst Robins
Publisher: O'Reilly
796 pages .... $34.99
ISBN 0-596-00987-9

A Desktop Quick Reference
Completely revised for standards compliance, including CSS 2.1 and XHTML 1.0

"Now that standards-compliant browsers are used by the vast majority of web visitors (see Chapter 2 for statistics), it is definitely time for designers and developers to start creating standards-compliant content." Standards-Driven Design page 9.

Web Design in a Nutshell is a grand reference for designing and creating web pages. It includes HTML elements and attributes, CSS properties and values, character coding, and color. It is a "quick reference" because you can find just about everything you need to know very quickly.

It is more than a reference to HTML and XHTML to write the structure of you web pages, and to CSS to write the style of your web pages. It is a reference to why you should write to these standards, with examples of how they should be written.

It tells you which browsers are standards-compliant, what shares of web use each has, and what the remaining problems there are because of browser differences.

In Chapter 25 Managing Browser Bugs, I read for the first time that Internet Explorer 5.x for Windows (not the Macintosh version) uses width as the total width of the box from which you must subtract the padding, borders and margins to get the content area. The standard used by all other browsers uses width to specify the width of the content area, and the padding, borders and margins are added to that.

Fortunately, use of Internet Explorer 5.x for Windows is now not more than 3% of web users and shrinking. Web authors still include hacks described in this book to get around the problem because 3% of web use is still a very large number.

Web Design in a Nutshell covers writing, page layout, floating elements, columns, lists, tables, frames, linking, and just about everything you need in designing web pages. In addition to images it covers sound, motion, and an introduction to JavaScript. These are just examples of the broad scope of the contents.

Jennifer Niederst Robbins has included a great many references to other sources of information including web pages, other O'Reilly books, and books by other publishers.

This book is much easier reading than I would expect in a reference.

For beginners who want to learn web design, I would recommend a book like Head First HRML, XHTML and CSS from O'Reilly first. This would be a fine second book for beginners.

Owners of the previous edition will want this much needed and all new update. There are ten new chapters on CSS alone. There are a lot of previous owners because this book was a best seller with over 200,00 copies in print.

And, I hope that everyone else who is working on designing, developing, or maintaining web pages will take a look at this book. I am sure you will find it is a reference you must have.

If you're doing web design, it's probably the case where you have separate (and large) books on your shelf that cover (X)HTML, CSS, JavaScript, etc. But if you could put all the essential stuff in a single volume that you'd use on a regular basis, you'd end up with Web Design in a Nutshell (3rd edition) by Jennifer Niederst Robbins. This is a nicely done reference of a large number of intertwined technologies...

Contents:
Part 1 - The Web Environment: Web Standards; Designing for a Variety of Browsers; Designing for a Variety of Displays; A Beginner's Guide to the Server; Accessibility; Internationalization
Part 2 - The Structural Layer - XML and (X)HTML: Introduction to XML; HTML and XHTML Overview; Document Structure; Text Elements; Creating Links; Images and Objects; Tables; Frames; Forms
Part 3 - The Presentation Layer - Cascading Style Sheets: Cascading Style Sheets Fundamentals; Selectors; Font and Text Properties; Basic Box Properties; Color and Backgrounds; Floating and Positioning; CSS for Tables; Lists and Generated Content; CSS Techniques; Managing Browser Bugs - Workarounds, Hacks, and Filters
Part 4 - The Behavioral Layer - JavaScript and the DOM: Introduction to JavaScript; DOM Scripting
Part 5 - Web Graphics: Web Graphics Overview; GIF Format; JPEG Format; PNG Format; Animated GIFs
Part 6 - Media: Audio on the Web; Video on the Web; The Flash Platform; Printing from the Web
Part 7 - Appendixes: HTML Elements and Attributes; CSS 2.1 Properties; Character Entities; Specifying Color; Microformats - Extending (X)HTML
Glossary; Index

I'm at the stage where I know the fundamentals, but I often have to look up a command format or refresh myself on some of the available parameters of a certain tag or CSS property. That's going to be where I benefit most from this book. I can do away with some of the more unwieldy volumes that take up large chunks of shelf real estate (and that don't get opened all that often) and replace it with this "all in one" book. Along with the basic "Intro to..." material, she covers the core options and parameters of each part of the technology, enough so that I would find my answers 95% of the time. That last 5% can either be looked up online, or no book's going to help me in the first place. I also liked the material on graphics and media, as that tends to be a weak point for me. And finally, the chapter on managing browser bugs presents an extremely straight-forward description of the problems with various browsers, and the basic hacks you have to be sure to code for. It's hard to find that type of information in a single location.

As I mentioned, this book will end up replacing at least three larger "single subject" books on my shelf at work. That should leave me room for other fun stuff to bring in from home. I recommend this book if you know the fundamentals and want your reference material in a single location...

I've read this book like 6 times now. The writing style is plain and straightforward, and that is a pleasure to read. I have had never left this book be far from my computer since I am always reading it through. I has a lot, and I mean a lot of links for you to read beyond the book on a lot of topics that should not be fully covered on this particular book.

The design is easy to follow. Brilliantly written and organized. The reading train wont get you lost, and by that I mean you can easily read from chapter 1 to the end without skipping or reading this or that chapter before proceeding.

It has all the basics; all the goods. From servers 101, character encoding, design pros and cons (not bluntly put that way), and most importantly (up to this edition, that is) browser cross-compatibility. The main target in this book is XHTML/CSS, however. The appendixes have a list of all XHTML elements known to date. CSS was not left aside. Which by it self, its a huge reason to consider this book.

If you have been using html/css/js before, you already know it's a bit of a torment and an exhausting task to make a fully all-browsers compatible site. This will do indeed tell you why your site will look different on a Gecko or a Trident layout engine. I wasn't even aware that a layout engine was a very separate part of the browser at all. Info like that makes this book a must-have, not to mention it will make you a well rounded web developer.

CSS, Flash, DOM Scripting, ECMA-262, web graphics, HTTP headers and such are subjects you at least should be a bit familiar with. Weather you decide to go further in any technology in specific, this will give you a friendly jump start. I was always reluctant to learn/try DOM scripting. Not anymore.

One big thing if you are planning to get this book as of 2009, is that this 3rd edition was first published on '06. It's time for an update. Specially with CSS 3.0 and words on 'web 3.0' around the corner.

If you get this book, be sure to get the HTML & XHTML Pocket Reference (also by Jennifer Niederst). Both will become invaluable tools you should keep right next to your work place.