Ed Tittel

I do not recommend this book for two reasons. First, the organization of the book is flawed. Instead of giving readers “hands on” activities that will illustrate the ease of web page creation, the authors begin with a long list of abstract definitions of various concepts and parts of a web page. They discuss more advanced topics like site maps and navigation long before the reader needs to understand the creation and use of those features of web pages.

Someone learning web site creation should first be taught how to create a single page. That will permit the introduction of the basic components of a web page (e.g., Head, title, body). It is not necessary to introduce advanced concepts such as website navigation until the reader creates a second page. Explaining the creation of site maps can wait until a third or fourth page is created.

Second, the book is hard, at points almost impossible, to read. The authors decision to render coding samples using a lightly hued colored text on a colored background, ignores the basic principle that black text on a white background is most easily read. In addition, the text in the coding examples is quite small. I was unable to decipher the examples without resourting to a magnifying glass.

The are several far better introductions to the topics discussed in this book.… (more)

This here's the HTML reference book I picked up at the Friends of the Library sale. I'd much rather have Elizabeth Castro's HTML 4 for the World Wide Web but I didn't see a copy of that one for 75¢. This one's all right, I guess. I'm not real crazy about the "for Dummies" series. I've read a few and wasn't impressed by their style. (Of course, now that I think about it, all the other "Dummies" books I read were about PCs.) This one fits right in. Anyway, compared to Castro's book, this is less a tutorial than an introduction to HTML. Rather than showing you how to craft a web page they give you a list of commands and expect you to go to town with them. Well, they also include a CD-ROM that supposedly
contains many examples. My copy, however, is a used book from the Seattle Public Library, and the CD no longer works on my Mac. Oh, well, at least I got my 75¢ worth. It is a useful reference book and will do unless I find something better. I would rate it as waiting room material.
--J.… (more)