- Expanded coverage of CSS and scripting added to the full HTML coverage
- Over 250 color illustrations
- New sample projects to get started quickly
- Doesn't use the most up-to-date code
- Color can get overwhelming at times
- Examples are overly simple
- Text is wordy and long-winded
- Suggests using tables for layout
- Chapters 1-3: Planning your Web pages, and the minimum you need to know to learn HTML and CSS.
- Chapter 4: The (X)HTML document structure.
- Chapter 5: Text and lists.
- Chapter 6: Linking to other websites.
- Chapter 7: Finding and using images on your pages.
- Chapters 8-9: Introduction to CSS and how to use it.
- Chapter 10: Fonts and colors in CSS.
- Chapter 11: Tables.
- Chapters 12-15: Adding scripts to your Web pages.
- Final Sections: Projects and the standard "For Dummies" top 10 lists.
The HTML for Dummies book has been around a long time, and has taught a lot of people how to write HTML. This latest version provides full-color illustrations and lots of new projects that improves the book immensely. Plus, as a bonus, it also covers CSS and scripting so you can build a Web page that is more complex than your typical beginner site.
This edition of HTML for Dummies has all the same cute graphics and folksiness we've come to expect from the "For Dummies" series. It can be a bit wordy in parts, but if you like these books, you'll find this one a great tool to learn HTML and CSS.
Tables in the CSS Section?
The last chapter of the CSS section is titled "Using Tables to Jazz Up Your Pages". This is confusing for two reasons: tables are not CSS and tables for layout is out-dated and considered bad design by most modern Web designers. It is very frustrating to see a book published in 2008, to be promoting tables for layout instead of more advanced CSS techniques.
Some might argue that tables are easier to understand than CSS, but tables are just as difficult for a beginner to do effectively as CSS. So this book suggesting that tables should be used for design purposes is bad. I would recommend that if you buy this book you skip the tables chapter or only read it as a way to learn how to use tables for tabular data, and ignore the suggestion that you use tables for layout. Web page layouts shouldn't use tables. If you remember that while you're reading this book, you'll be a better designer in the long run.
06/24/09
