P.W. said
I bought a dutch translation of this book, and was rather disappointed. I wanted to learn more about xhtml, to be able to work on my own website, and not having to ask a friend for every little change I wanted to make.
In my opinion the book clearly lacks good editing work. For instance on parts where certain elements are introduced, the authors start elaborating on styles. This complicates things a lot, because explaining styles should be reserved for the chapters that are devoted to it.
Where it says in the first chapter that layout and content should be separated, they give examples where there is layout mixed with the content. This doesn't make it easy to develop my own writing of html.
The meaning of document type definitions didn't become clear to me, because they use different type definitions throughout the text. So as a beginner I can't follow any more...
I'll do my best to go learning with this book, but if you still have to decide which one to buy...
Bishop Hadley said
If you are a complete novice at building web sites and you feel a little frightened about even beginning to learn, there are several more basic books available to help get you started on this adventure. However once a few rather simple lessons are learned and you are gazing in joy at your first attempts at web pages, Schafer's book is your next step. He also covers all of the basics for beginners but those chapters are useful more or less as a review rather than a starting point. His coverage of HTML is not offered in a hand-holding fashion for the meek but rather in a straight-forward, "here's how to do it" format. His presentations and explanations are perfect though for everyone who eventually comes to the realization that they are not "dummies" and who want a more grown-up approach to learning basic web site construction. Schafer's conversational style helps those who have a grasp of the basics and is also the book they will continue to use throughout their web site creation careers: HTML, XHTML, AND CSS BIBLE, Fourth Edition is a long-term reference tool. The one drawback to the book is that it lacks any color to help brighten some of the many examples he creates. However, this loss is offset by the affordable price of the book and in the long run does not detract from its usefulness. For anyone who wants an accessible text they can grow with, Schafer's book is their answer.
Lori Smart said
We've been in the web development business for over 11 years and have watched so much change in that time. We're often asked what tools are vital to learning how to work in our field. Many from the 'bible' series books have been on our office shelves over the years. This one is the latest to actually take up residence on each of our desks as a regular reference tool. Buy it, use it, use those nifty post-it flags & highlighters all over it, and when the pages start falling out, tape them back in & keep using it. As for the bad reviews - my suggestion is that if you're advanced in HTML or looking for advanced techniques in CSS there are books for that, too. It takes an entire library of reference books to stay up with all the changes & aspects of this industry, and as you grow beyond the levels found here add to your collection, but this one really is important to your library!
Jenn said
It's easy to read, full of useful information, and up to date. It is well written and has great examples.
I don't know what more to say. If you are interested in using HTML/XHTML or CSS, I'd say this is a very valuable book to own.
Jenn
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Richard Cabral said
If you are an experienced coder looking for an strict HTML, XHTML, or CSS reference, I suggest you move on to another title. If you are a novice in HTML using a WYSIWYG editor and want to start getting into the HTML code itself, then this is a good book for you. I bought this book to refresh myself in HTML, and CSS being away from it for several years. I program in VB and VC++ and have many programming references that are excellent and very concise. Unfortunately this book is neither. The writers persistently wander off on long winded tangents that seem to ramble on and on.... and on! The analogies had me scratching my head wondering just what exactly the comparative
In closing, there is useful information in this book for the novice. However it is not complete or in any particular order. Happy hunting.
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