Web Design in a Nutshell [Paperback]

Jennifer Niederst (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0596001967 | ISBN-13: 978-0596001964 | Publication Date: October 15, 2001 | Edition: 2nd

Web Design in a Nutshell, 2nd Edition contains the nitty-gritty on everything you need to know to design Web pages. It's an excellent reference for HTML 4.01 tags (including tables, frames, forms, color, and cascading style sheets) with special attention given to browser support, platform idiosyncrasies, and standards. You'll also find lots of updated information on using graphics, multimedia, audio and video, and advanced technologies such Dynamic HTML, Javascript, and XML, as well as new chapters on XHTML, WML, and SMIL. This book is an indispensable tool for web designers and authors of all levels. Full Description Web Design in a Nutshell, 2nd Edition contains the nitty-gritty on everything you need to know to design web pages. It's the good stuff, without the fluff, written and organized so that answers can be found quickly. This completely revised and expanded 2nd edition is chock-full of information about the wide range of front-end technologies and techniques from which web designers and authors must draw. Web Design in a Nutshell, 2nd Edition is an excellent reference for HTML 4.01 tags (including tables, frames, forms, color, and cascading style sheets) with special attention given to browser support, platform idiosyncrasies, and standards. You'll also find lots of updated information on using graphics, multimedia, audio and video, and advanced technologies such Dynamic HTML, Javascript, and XML, as well as new chapters on XHTML, WML, and SMIL. This book is an indispensable tool for web designers and authors of all levels. Web Design in a Nutshell, 2nd Edition includes: Discussions of the web environment including monitors and browsers, printing from the Web, accessibility, and internationalization A complete reference to HTML and Server Side Includes, including up-to-date browser support (Netscape 6, IE 6.0, and Opera 5) for every tag and attribute Updated chapters on creating GIF, animated GIF, JPEG, and PNG graphics, including designing with the Web Palette Information on multimedia and interactivity, including audio, video, Flash 5 and Shockwave, and a new chapter on SMIL A revised tutorial and reference on Cascading Style Sheets Appendixes detailing HTML tags, attributes, deprecated tags, proprietary tags, CSS compatibility and support, and character entities

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

In 1998, Jennifer Niederst wrote the first edition of this very successful book after she found herself spending way too much time chasing down the solutions to HTML problems. From hexadecimal color specs to mouseover scripts, the answers are all out there, but finding the exact one you need can soak up a whole day. "I wrote Web Design in a Nutshell because it was the book I needed--one place to find quick answers to my questions."

With all that's changed in the meantime, an overhaul is welcome. This is the rare book for designers that is almost completely nonvisual. It doesn't show what's hip in navigational bars or what the coolest colors are. Rather, it gives readers the kind of know-how that can make a difference between someone who just whips up pretty pages with WYSIWYG applications like Dreamweaver and someone who can make those pages cross-platform, cross-browser, fast loading, and accessible to all.

The clear organization makes it easy to locate any specific topic. There are six sections. "The Web Environment" discusses the realities of browser compatibility, display-resolution problems, a useful bit of Unix, and tips for print designers looking to move into Web design. "Authoring" shows how to write accurate and up-to-date HTML, cascading style sheets, and Server Side Includes (like putting the current date and time on your homepage).

"Graphics" brings together all you need to know to make effective use of images (GIFs, JPEGS, PNGs, and animated GIFs). "Multimedia and Interactivity" helps with adding audio, video, or Flash to your site (including some succinct tips on optimization and publish settings). And "Advanced Technologies" covers JavaScript, DHTML, XML, XHTML, and WAP and WML. And there are six useful look-up tables in the appendix, which include HTML 4.0 tags, deprecated tags, attributes, and CSS support across browsers. Web Design in a Nutshell could easily have been titled The Web Designer's Companion--it's mighty handy to have around. --Angelynn Grant

Review

Web Design in a Nutshell is the welcome second edition of a classic Web authoring guide. It is aimed at professionals, with the focus sharply on page layout rather than scripting or programming. Two things are outstanding. First, the book is a handy reference for core Web standards like HTML tags, character entities, MIME types and CSS (Cascading Style Sheets). Second, and most important, the author offers concise, meticulous explanations and comments on key topics including the various different approaches to text formatting, choosing and optimising image types, and getting good results from tables. She highlights the importance of Web standards, and is careful to include Macintosh as well as Windows issues when discussing design tools or compatibility matters. Reference information is up-to-date as of Internet Explorer 5.5 and Netscape 6.0. The early chapters offer general introduction to the Web environment, laying down basic design principles and covering tricky issues like printing and internationalisation. The next part covers formatting and layout with HTML, hyperlinks, tables, frames, forms and CSS. Part three is an in-depth look at images, particularly JPEG, GIG, PNG, and colour usage. Multimedia comes next, featuring video and audio formats as well as Flash movies, while the final part introduces other technologies such as Javascript and Dynamic HTML, XML, XHTML and WAP. These overviews are useful, but the best chapters are those that cover the nitty-gritty of setting out a page. It is ideal for print designers who need to understand Web design, or as a reliable general-purpose handbook for Web authors. --Tim Anderson --Oreilly web design

Web Design in a Nutshell, 2nd Edition contains the nitty-gritty on everything you need to know to design web pages. It's the good stuff, without the fluff, written and organized so that answers can be found quickly. This completely revised and expanded 2nd edition is chock-full of information about the wide range of front-end technologies and techniques from which web designers and authors must draw. Web Design in a Nutshell, 2nd Edition is an excellent reference for HTML 4.01 tags (including tables, frames, forms, color, and cascading style sheets) with special attention given to browser support, platform idiosyncrasies, and standards. You'll also find lots of updated information on using graphics, multimedia, audio and video, and advanced technologies such Dynamic HTML, Javascript, and XML, as well as new chapters on XHTML, WML, and SMIL. This book is an indispensable tool for web designers and authors of all levels. Web Design in a Nutshell, 2nd Edition includes: Discussions of the web environment including monitors and browsers, printing from the Web, accessibility, and internationalization A complete reference to HTML and Server Side Includes, including up-to-date browser support (Netscape 6, IE 6.0, and Opera 5) for every tag and attribute Updated chapters on creating GIF, animated GIF, JPEG, and PNG graphics, including designing with the Web Palette Information on multimedia and interactivity, including audio, video, Flash 5 and Shockwave, and a new chapter on SMIL A revised tutorial and reference on Cascading Style Sheets Appendixes detailing HTML tags, attributes, deprecated tags, proprietary tags, CSS compatibility and support, and character entities --Oreilly web design

Synopsis Encompasses every aspect of designing Web pages; furnishes quick and easy access to a vast array of technologies and techniques needed for effective Web design; and covers such topics as HTML, graphics, multimedia and interactivity, and much more. Original. (Beginner). --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title. Book Info New edition is completely updated for the latest web browsers, graphics editors and authoring tools. New material on web standards, printing, accessibility, Flash, and designing for wireless devices is included. Softcover. Previous edition c1998. From the Publisher Web Design in a Nutshell, 2nd Edition contains the nitty-gritty on everything you need to know to design Web pages. It's an excellent reference for HTML 4.01 tags (including tables, frames, forms, color, and cascading style sheets) with special attention given to browser support, platform idiosyncrasies, and standards. You'll also find lots of updated information on using graphics, multimedia, audio and video, and advanced technologies such Dynamic HTML, Javascript, and XML, as well as new chapters on XHTML, WML, and SMIL. This book is an indispensable tool for web designers and authors of all levels About the Author Jennifer Niederst is creative director of Songline Studios, publishers of innovative online products. She began designing documents for the World Wide Web in mid-1993 as the original designer of the identity, interface, and graphics for Global Network Navigator (GNN), published by O'Reilly & Associates, Inc. Prior to her life online, Jennifer worked as a book designer for O'Reilly & Associates, Inc., and Little, Brown & Company. She has also worked as a freelance graphic designer. She attended the University of Notre Dame where she received a BFA in design and photography and a BA in art history. --Oreilly web design

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Product Details

• Paperback: 640 pages
• Publisher: O'Reilly Media, Inc.; 2nd edition (October 15, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0596001967
• ISBN-13: 978-0596001964
• Product Dimensions: 8.5 x 6 x 1.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (26 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #374,194 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

113 of 118 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Return of the Least Weasel, September 25, 2001

By 

John S. Ryan "Scott Ryan" (Cuyahoga Falls, OH) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Web Design in a Nutshell (Paperback)

When a book is as good as this one, later editions can't improve it; they can only update it.

That's what this one does. The second edition of Jennifer Niederst's comprehensive reference on web design now takes account of HTML 4.01; the stuff on browsers takes account of Microsoft Internet Explorer 6 and Netscape 6.

And what else is there to say? Just like the first edition (but with a handful of additional topics and updates to the existing ones), this volume provides a thorough "desktop quick reference" on the entire spectrum of web design -- a general introduction to and overview of the Web itself; authoring using HTML, cascading style sheets, and server side includes; graphics (GIF, JPEG, and PNG formats, colors, and animation); multimedia (audio, video, Flash, Shockwave, and introductory Synchronized Multimedia Integration Language); and advanced topics like JavaScript, DHTML, XML, XHTML, WAP, and WML. The appendices still provide easily-thumbable tables of HTML elements, attributes, tags nobody officially likes anymore, proprietary (i.e., browser-specific) tags, a chart showing which browsers support which CSS features, and all the special characters you can use in HTML (you know, &#these; &#things;).

And you probably also already know who Jen Niederst is; if not, go read my review of her book _Learning Web Design_, which you should buy first anyway if you're new to the subject. Anyway, she's a terrific writer with intimate knowledge of all the little details you need to know in order to do web design effectively; guides just don't come any better.

You know all of this already if you have the first edition. If not, then all you need to know is that this is an updated version of -- no contest -- the best available single-volume reference on web design, written by -- no contest -- the person best qualified to write it. It's complete; it's accessible; it's well-designed; it's O'Reilly.

Oh -- and the "least weasel" is the species of weasel pictured on the cover.

57 of 57 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Excellent book for the "not quite a beginner" to Web design, August 29, 2004

By 

Meryl K. Evans "Content Maven behind meryl.net" (Plano, TX) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Web Design in a Nutshell (Paperback)

This book takes novice to intermediate designers to the next level and is also useful as a desktop quick reference. Many buy such books and end up never opening them or maybe a few times before it's outdated. I admit I'm one of those people, but not when it comes to the weasel (picture on the cover) book. This is the book the professor assigned for one of my first Web design classes and it is responsible for my learning tables, CSS, and knowing when to make a graphics file .gif or .jpg.

It's the most well worn Web design book I have in my collection and the only HTML book I ever bought. Thankfully, there is little that's changed in the format of the book because it wasn't broken. Robbins takes the appropriate steps to update it and expand the sections that are more relevant today.

Expect an entire orchestra of instruments relevant to Web design, along with the specific details and tricks you should know. It may seem a bit much that Niederst covers HTML, CSS, SSI, graphics, multimedia, JavaScript, DHTML, XML, XHTML, WAP, and WML. However, she appropriately magnifies essential things while the advanced or "you may want to explore" topics are touched upon to give an idea of how it works with suggestions for further reading

The book starts off by addressing the biggest challenge of designing a site that looks good in every browser and version. "Designing for a Variety of Browsers" has a two-page chart of various browsers and versions for the Windows, Macintosh, and UNIX environments, showing what each supports and doesn't support.

The next chapter covers another source of frustration for designers, "Designing for a Variety of Displays." If you monitor your Web visitor stats, then you'll probably notice that no size leads the majority especially with WebTV, handheld, and cellular devices accessing the Internet. There are screen shots of browser and system measurements and tips for designing for various displays.

Chapter 26, "Flash and Shockwave" explains what it is, advantages and disadvantages, introduces you to the Flash interface, adding a Flash file to a Web page, and integrating it with other technologies. Flash is a whole different animal and the book gives you the big picture of how it fits with designing Web pages. The following chapter on SMIL covers the same basics.

Part V addresses the advanced technologies including JavaScript, DHTML, XML, XHTML, and WAP and WML. It's useful to have these all close together at the end of the book to help you figure out which you may want to use for a Web project.

As useful as special characters can be, I never remember what to type to make the symbol appear, though I know these now. Finding the special character chart is the only complaint I had from the original edition and not even the index helped me find it, so I had to tab the page. This has now been remedied with one of the best improvements of moving the special character reference chart to the appendix for speedy access. Other appendices in the book are listings of HTML tags, attributes, deprecated tags, proprietary tags, and CSS compatibility and support.

As your design skills and knowledge grow, there is always a question that prompts you to open the book and get your answer. It holds true today as I retire the worn out book with a loose page thanks to a certain child and happily replace it with its new younger sibling.

***3rd edition update***
The third edition took a bigger leap from the second than the second took from the first. Web Design in a Nutshell, 3rd ed., comes with a greater focus on Web standards and cascading style sheets (CSS). In fact, the book opens with a chapter on Web standards, whereas it was merely a footnote in the previous edition.

Rather than a sole chapter on HTML, the markup chapter blends HTML and XHTML. The chapter comes with notes explaining the major differences between HTML and XHTML. The greater emphasis on XHTML ensures newer designers dive right into XHTML and improve their chances of designing standards compliant Web pages. Furthermore, the appendix includes HTML 4.01, XHTML 1.0 and 1.1, and CSS 2.1 references.

Ajax and WCAG 2.0 have barely been around in terms of publishing time. While the Ajax process isn't new, but its terminology and popularity are recent. Both items are covered, albeit briefly. Had Robbins wrote the book now, Ajax would not likely get huge coverage as it's a little advanced for the book's purposes and target market.

Accessible forms, mobile devices, internationalization, JavaScript with document object model (DOM), and document structure also gain more attention in the third edition. On the same token, the book reduces coverage of concepts that have gotten less attention such as the Web palette (Web safe colors), SMIL (synchronized multimedia integration language), frames, and DHTML.

Part III is devoted to CSS, which contains 10 new chapters -- a must as CSS becomes a design standard not something to play with. The third edition superbly reflects today's Web development environment and still sticks to its main purpose -- helping new and intermediate designers get up to speed on Web design. The book continues its role as a valuable reference.

18 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A reference for all seasons, July 4, 2002

By 

R. Tiedemann "Sunnye" (Bellevue, NE USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Web Design in a Nutshell (Paperback)

If you design web sites, even just for your own personal use, this is a book to keep by your computer. In it you'll find the answer to just about any designing problem you face.

Perhaps the most challenging aspect of web design is how to make a site not only attractive but accessible to a variety of browsers and to have it look the way you want it to in each. Niederst begins there. She explains browsers (most people seem to use Navigator rather than Explorer)and a variety of design strategies. To design for the lowest common denominator (for instance), splitting the difference or something for everyone --the choice is yours.

Chapters are divided into Designing for different browsers, for a variety of displays, Web design principles, a guide to the server. She includes a great overview of HTML, tags, text, links and adding images, tables, forms and frames. Under graphics she explains GIF, JPEG, PNG and teaches designing graphics. There's also lots of information on animated GIFs, audio, interactivity and javascript.

In a section titled Emerging Technologies she explains cascading style sheets, DHTML, XML, embedded font technology and internationalization. In the appendixes you'll find HTML tags and elements, list of attributes, deprecated tags, proprietary tags and CSS compatibility.

This book is basic and thorough, but it's going to have to be revised for Windows XP. That aside, it's a useful reference because it's easy to find information and Niederst seems to be able to anticipate problems, explain them and provide useful solutions. So far the answer to every question I've had has been easy to find in this book. I give it the highest recommendation. The only reason I didn't give it 5 stars is that I've recently decided to reserve those for exceptionally beautiful writing.