When I first mentioned to a computer scientist friend that I bought a book to learn HTML, his response was "why would you use a book?" The fact of the matter is that while the material of any non-fiction piece can be found via the internet, the knowledge of HTML is particularly accessible; as of my writing this a Google search of "HTML tutorial" generated over 300 million hits. With websites devoted to the subject like w3schools.com and htmldog.com why should you buy a book? This is the most general question to answer.
The benefit of this book is that it is very well written, organized, and easy to follow; this is where a book can do better than the internet. That begin said, this book is truly for beginners - it assumes you know nothing about HTML or mark-up language structure. The book is divided into two halves: one html (structure) and the other CSS (formatting). The first chapter is devoted to basic text pages. Then the following chapters describe the basic elements of which most web pages are composed: lists, links, images, and tables. The second half covers how to make these elements pretty. There are two major benefits from this book in terms of content. First, there are many little external references that can help you find what you need; for example, [...] is listed as one way to crop pictures (granted I usually do this in iphoto). Secondly, while the text does not teach you everything, it gives you an idea what to Google to learn more. The text gives you a broad overview of the main topics and once you understand the buzzwords you can dig deeper.
One aspect of website design is to make something look good. This book looks really good. All of the diagrams are extremely clear and ample whitespace is used to create a nice flow. At the beginning, Mr. Duckett outlines the color-coding he will use for each type of page (i.e. title, summary, etc..) to help guide the reader. The choices make the pages stand out even when the only feature of the page type is a background color. He also spends time in some of the chapters discussing artistic features such as contrast and why to use png versus jpg format for images. These additions add a useful aspect to a book that really could just be about coding. I also think style is extremely important to keep in mind when making a website.
Overall I think this book is a good starting point if you want to make a website with little to no knowledge of coding languages. It is extremely well organized and clear. Furthermore, I used to as a starting point for my own website. However, I can see how someone would instead use the free resources available online. I have frequently consulted these myself for more detail.
Download the free Kindle app and start reading Kindle books instantly on your smartphone, tablet, or computer - no Kindle device required.
Read instantly on your browser with Kindle for Web.
Using your mobile phone camera - scan the code below and download the Kindle app.
Frequently bought together
This item: HTML and CSS: Design and Build Websites
$16.59
In Stock
+
$21.99
In Stock
+
Total price: $00
To see our price, add these items to your cart.
Choose items to buy together.
More items to explore
Page 1 of 1 Start overPage 1 of 1
READ THIS FOR HONEST REVIEW
I got this book a few days ago, I like it! I have no reason to give anything below 5 stars. I am satisfied with it for a few reasons which I’ll list here.To the people buying this book READ THIS!This book requires no previous knowledge to understand it. Though it’s worth noting that it goes a bit fast on some pages. If you have a terrible memory and need tons of examples on 1 thing, I’d go with the head first guide to HTML CSS & XHTML. That book goes over everything at a LOT slower pace. I read that book before this one and I still found things I didn’t know about HTML and CSS. I have been programming for a few months now and I’ve learned a ton of helpful things from this book that I never knew before, which is cool. The book had 50-star quality! I bought my book new due to the complaints of people getting broken books. The new book option is worth it if you are a person that hates even the slightest dent in your book. If you don’t care about the condition and only want the knowledge then used is good too.The book is easy to read with examples that are labeled clearly. They give you a start code and an end code, both showing the start and end of the code and page to see where your at. Good colors in my opinion! Very informative and REALLY good for the price from what I’ve seen! So yeah, I‘ve enjoyed the book so far and I’m on page 200 or so. I just bought the JavaScript version of this book it’s coming tomorrow! 5 stars. Good for beginners. It goes over the most important stuff plus extra, you’ll definitely be able to write a few lines of code after reading and have a good understanding of the language.
Top reviews from other countries
elalmarusa
El libro de diseño Web más importante del mundo.
Reviewed in Spain on May 16, 2024Jessica H.
Excelente contenido
Reviewed in Mexico on September 12, 2020
Jessica H.
Reviewed in Mexico on September 12, 2020
Es un buen libro para los que estamos iniciando en el mundo de HTML.
Images in this review
