HTML: The Definitive Guide [Paperback]

Bill Kennedy (Author), Chuck Musciano (Author)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

In the most recent edition of this acclaimed HTML guide, Musciano and Kennedy look closely at every aspect of HTML and show how to use it wisely to create top-quality Web pages. The book is up-to-date, covering HTML 4, Netscape Navigator 4, Microsoft Internet Explorer 4, and the various extensions of each.

HTML: The Definitive Guide is aimed at beginners as well as those who have more practice in Web-page creation. The authors assume at least a basic knowledge of computers, including how to use a word processor or text editor and how to deal with files. They teach you that learning HTML is like learning any other language and that reading a book of rules can only take you so far. Readers begin writing what may be their first Web page just two pages into the book's second chapter. From there on, they provide a wide range of HTML coding to allow readers to learn from good examples. The book includes a handy "cheat sheet" of HTML codes for quick reference. --Elizabeth Lewis

Review

'... a well priced and written, comprehnensive HTML and XHTML guide which continues to be useful as a language reference' Rating 9/10 Linux Format, December 2000 'If you want the very best reference manual to HTML and its latest developments ... this is it. I guarantee that no matter which other web page design books you might have on your shelves, this is the one to which you will keep coming back ... again and again.... www.mantex.co.uk --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 576 pages
• Publisher: O'Reilly Media; 3 edition (September 1, 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1565924924
• ISBN-13: 978-1565924925
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 7.2 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (154 customer reviews)
• Amazon Bestsellers Rank: #1,070,509 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

  #100 in

  Books > Computers & Internet > Databases > Database Design

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

51 of 54 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars If you want to code good HTML, buy this book, June 1, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: HTML: The Definitive Guide (Nutshell Handbooks) (Paperback)

DO NOT buy this book if your computer experience is using computers, not programming them, and your boss wants you to build a few pages by the end of next week.

DO NOT buy this book if you are a novice user and are just curious about building web pages.

DO NOT buy this book if you don't care at all about efficient, clean, bug-free code, and would rather just use (cough, spit!) MS FrontPage.

DO buy this book if you care about content more than just flashy graphics.

DO buy this book if you are a programmer or hard-core web designer that apprecieates clean, reliable, cross-browser code.

Make no mistake, this book is not a 1000-page Que doorstop that talks you through every last step in page design. This book barely mentions editors at all, leaving that to your personal preference.

What this book is is a concise reference of the HTML standard and common extensions to HTML code. It will tell you which tags are specific to Netscape or IE, and most of the different rendering quirks. If you are looking to build flashy, but browser specific pages, this book won't help you a whole lot. It is current enough that I think some of the other reviewers must have gotten an old edition, because it covers the entire HTML 3.2 standard, with coverage of basic style sheets and JavaScript.

Other books force you to adopt the author's style as you go through the book slowly, step by step, building an entire site in the process. This book instead features a short tutorial at the beginning, which gives the basic structure of HTML, and mentions a few tips on good style. (indenting, comments, the importance of content over design, etc.) The bulk of the book is a rock-solid, well-written REFERENCE. NOT A TUTORIAL. This is not "The Definitive Guide to Building Web Sites". It is a book on HTML code, and it will not tell you what to use the tags for, it assumes you know what you want, and the basic HTML elements you want to use (tables, vs. frames, for instance).

In conclusion, if! you are not a programmer, that this should be the second, not the first HTML book you buy. However, if you already know some HTML, or you are a programmer that wants to learn a new language, then buy this book.

Peter Mescher

P.S. for the reviewers that said this was outdated: The most recent revision (3/98) goes up to Netscape 4 and IE 4, with a decent chapter on CSS. A good site does not use bleeding edge, non cross-browser tags anyway, so a book last edited two months ago should get the job done.

37 of 38 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars 5 stars for beginners, 3 for old pro's, August 25, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: HTML: The Definitive Guide (Paperback)

When I bought this book I didn't know HTML from JFK, CBS, or AT&T. After three days I had a good handle on the language. The authors don't approach the subject as recreational material; it's a serious introduction, and is quite good if you want to know how HTML really works. There's also good info on browser compatability, and good sources for finding Internet material on a constantly-changing subject.

5 stars implies a perfect book. Well, they don't exist, especially when it comes to an Internet whose technology is in constant flux. The authors cover not only the language but some of its pitfalls, and they include good notes for beginners on quality HTML design. I could criticize some sections, such as the one on frames that tends to be confusing, and some sections that almost ignore a subject (such as META tags, which get barely half a page). But as a learning tool this beats its competitors by a wide margin and is intelligently presented.

After several months of breaking in to web development, you'll soon realize that there's no single source for complete HTML knowledge. I can definitely say I learned good, responsible HTML from this book and learned it easily and quickly. Aspirants to power HTML programming will obviously have to seek out additional sources. But if you're looking for a starting point and excellent reference material that you will use again and again, this is it.

53 of 59 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Good, but time for a new edition, September 3, 2004

By	James R. Mccall (Libertyville, IL USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This review is from: HTML & XHTML: The Definitive Guide, Fifth Edition (Paperback)

This is a fat book with a lot to like in it. The authors thoroughly explain HTML (and its recently-standardized twin XHTML) in its latest version (4.01). They also give a good explication of layout using the current standard (CSS2) of Cascading Style Sheets. They spend some time talking about embedded content such as pictures, Java applets and Javascript scripts. They look, too, at XML, which is the "meta-language" used to define XHTML.

At the time they wrote this book (2002) the versions of the standardized languages they discuss were in the avant-garde. But many of the old ways of doing things are now obsolete, and older browser versions gone. Unfortunately, the authors constantly advert to these early browser versions and their quirks, and spend much time discussing outmoded and non-standard techniques that by their own admission should be avoided. (Let me emphasize that they whole-heartedly approve of the direction away from non-standard and layout-laden HTML and toward the CSS approach.)

As it is, this book is quite usable whether you are writing old-fashioned HTML and loading your documents with physical layout instructions, or writing austere strict-version XHTML and restraining yourself to using style sheets to do layout. It has detailed essays on all the tags and a good chapter on CSS, and has useful appendices at the end for HTML grammer and tags, and for style sheet properties. It also has much that no longer applies. Perhaps the next edition will be less universally useful -- but also lighter.