Web Design in a Nutshell [ILLUSTRATED] (Paperback)

by Jennifer Niederst (Author) "Most web authors agree that the biggest challenge (and headache!) in web design is dealing with the variety of browsers and platforms..." (more)
Key Phrases: true color space, weh palette, first alignment character, Internet Explorer, Windows Media, Netscape Navigator (more...)

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

From Library Journal
Niederst discusses everything a web designer needs, from basic principles and HTML to designing for multiple browsers, cascading style sheets, and XML. For a working web designer this book will be an invaluable quick reference, and it is written well enough that someone just starting out on the web could also use it. Highly recommended for all libraries.
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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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 (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars See all reviews (128 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #351,175 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

107 of 112 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" (Silver Lake, OH) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

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.

49 of 49 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 (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

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.

33 of 33 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Comprehensive and complete Coverage, January 12, 2000

By	David Salter (England) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Web Design in a Nutshell: A Desktop Quick Reference (Paperback)

This was my first purchase from the Nutshell series and I was particularly pleased with the content. The layout is very tidy and easy to navigate.

I would consider my knowledge of the internet and web design at an intermediate level, and I would recommend this book to anyone other than a complete novice. Each section is concise and to the point and does not assume too much.

The section on CGI scripting and Server Side Includes, I found invaluable. It was easily explained in basic terms and provided plenty of examples to get these working. In addition there are lots of references in the book to resources available on the web.

All in all a thoroughly enjoyable read, if you want only one web reference book on your desk this year, this should be it.