Building Better Web Pages: Extending HTML (Paperback)

~ Rebecca Francis Rohan (Author)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Building Better Web Pages is both technically competent and well-written. You can read and enjoy this book away from your computer, or you can have it at your side as you work on your Web site. It offers both broadbrush design advice that you can think about at length and specific coding instructions that you can consult in a rush.

Author Rebecca Frances Rohan has organized her book according to the needs of small businesses. She explains how to create Web pages that impress the largest number of people while consuming the smallest investment of time and money for development. With her advice, any entrepreneur willing to learn how to design and program (and enjoy the process) can save a lot of money on consultants.

Though Building Better Web Pages isn't much of an HTML tutorial, you will find discussions and samples of HTML code on its pages. Rohan has chosen instead to cover the various elements (such as images, sounds, streaming video, and applets) that designers might want to incorporate into their Web sites with explanations of the aesthetic and technical details that pertain to each.

Along the way, the book recommends numerous shareware programs and evaluates software that simplifies a variety of tasks. Building Better Web Pages does tend to leave the reader wishing for a comprehensive HTML reference--you may want to have one on hand as you explore Rohan's design ideas. But don't let those small problems keep you away from this fine book. --David Wall

Product Description

This book is designed to help anyone interested in Web publishing bring all the elements of HTML tags and extensions together to create professional, powerful and effective Web pages. Organized in a manner to make it useful as a reference, the book is composed mostly of expert "how to" advice and special tips for creating Web pages that both run more efficiently and "perform" in an appealing manner. Readers are shown how to master the tagging for color, images and animations--making this the perfect book for Web-savvy professionals who need to enhance their HTML proficiency.

Key Features
* Assumes basic HTML tagging knowledge, with no Java programming background required
* Provides task-saving tips on where to download programs that do all the work for Webmasters, from creation to Web page management
* Offers pointers to thousands of free animations, photos, drawings, sounds, Java Applets, CGI and other scripts, and gorgeous Web graphic sets

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Product Details

• Paperback: 288 pages
• Publisher: Morgan Kaufmann (July 27, 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0125931859
• ISBN-13: 978-0125931854
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 7.1 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (20 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #2,327,558 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

74 of 75 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A manual for website usability design, October 21, 1999

By	Peter Zisson ([e-mail]) (Memphis, TN) - See all my reviews

This book is a superb resource for website desgners. It is NOT about how to write better HTML, or really about the coding at all. What the book is about is how to design a web site that people want to visit and revisit. It is full of techniques to accomplish just that.

If you don't know anything about HTML, this should not be your first book. It should be your second.

If you like to load your site up with crackling flames and Java applets because they are "kewl," this book is not for you.

If you want your website to look professional and accomplish its mission, whether its a personal family page or your company's ecommerce site, this book is a must-read.

19 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Many secrets that can be done free., February 17, 1999

By A Customer

In the month since I bought this book, I created really professional looking graphics without being a "graphics person," cut my page loading time down to a mere fraction, planted secret files within other files in plain site that no one will see but the people they're intended for, password-protected certain pages without knowing how to script, learned how to stream video from my site, and gotten a professional color scheme for my site -- and ALL those things were free because the author tells you where to get what you need from free or trial sources. This book already paid for itself over and over and over. 100% great.

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Packed with information I can use, February 12, 1999

By A Customer

I saw the review on Web Developer's site that said how much practical advice this book has. (The reviewer said he'd seen books three times thicker that didn't have as much usable content as this one). No joke. In the first five minutes of thumbing through it, I found two things I'd been trying to find out how to do for a long time and didn't see in my other books. The index was done right, which made it especially easy to go right to what I wanted to know.

Now I'm almost finished reading it from cover to cover. Even in the areas I already know, its seems like there's always something that makes it easier to do what I want. By Mondy morning the pages I am in charge of won't recognize their old master. (The people who come to those pages won't believe it either.)

I give this book five stars.