Spring Into HTML and CSS

by Molly E. Holzschlag and Athena Dixon

The fastest route to true HTML/CSS mastery Need to build a web site? Or update one? Or just create some effective new web content? Maybe you just need to update your skills, do the job better.... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0131855867
• ISBN13: 9780131855861
• Release Date: April 2005
• Publisher: Addison-Wesley Professional
• Length: 336 Pages
• Weight: 1.22 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.7" x 7.7" x 8.6"

Customer Reviews

Just what I needed - not too much, not too little

This book is perfect for my needs. I have a background in graphic design, and have created some web sites in Adobe GoLive. GoLive writes the code for you, so you don't need to know how to do it "by hand." But now the newest version of GoLive is based on CSS, so although I had been dabbling in it, I need to learn a lot more. Plus, sometimes you need to look into the code to get something to work or to understand what is happening. GoLive itself does not include a manual, and the online help files are extremely lame. Many other books and online articles are either too basic (especially since GoLive writes the code it for you) or so technical that I can't grasp what they are talking about. This book falls right in the middle. It covers the basics of HTML, so I can understand what I am looking at in GoLive code, but does not go into a lot more detail than I have time for. Then it moves on to CSS, and how it is applied to the web page. Having worked my way through about 2/3 of the book, I finally feel like I am beginning to really grasp the basics of how it works, and this knowledge has greatly increased my ability to work with the new GoLive version. So who is this book for? Maybe not a total newbie, but for someone who knows enough to get by, but wants to learn more and really begin to get a solid grasp of the fundamentals. There must be many other graphic designers out there making the transition to the web. They probably understand the idea of styles, since that is how page layout software works, but are new to the coding part. While this book is not specifically addressed to that audience, I recommend it as a place for those people to start.

Doesn't treat the reader like a total newbie

This will be a relatively short review, not because of lack of interest but because there are a number of HTML and CSS books out there, and most HTML/CSS books cover the same amount of information for the most part. Spring into HTML and CSS is no different in this respect, but it does have some differences to it that might give it more of an edge over other HTML/CSS books. The presentation is what seems to be the differentiating factor between this book and other, similar books. HTML is covered first before jumping into CSS. All of the basic elements are covered one by one with a number of examples and options for each. The book also has a number of screen shots to show the results of almost all of the given examples. So, in that way the book is very much like most other HTML/CSS books. The difference is that although this book covers the basics, it assumes that the reader is not a total novice and at least has a technical proficiency that is higher than most. This explains the sub-title of The Smart Professional's Choice. Indeed, the subject matter is very easy to read but presented in a way that avoids a lot of the cute, end-user analogies and metaphors that exist in many other HTML/CSS beginner books. The topics are concise, to-the-point, and are presented in a formal yet easily understandable manner. They're also presented in a way that does not allow much room for the misunderstandings or confusion that true newbies would likely have, thus further stressing that this book is meant for those with a higher level of technical understanding. That's not to say that this book cannot be used by those who have no HTML or CSS experience; however, the presentation is very direct and matter-of-fact whereas other books, such as those in the For Dummies series, are presented in a way that sometimes stresses simplicity and fun over direct information. People who are familiar with both the For Dummies series and books that are meant more for professionals understand what I mean. Unfortunately, it's difficult to articulate this difference if you have not experienced the style differences for yourself. The biggest difference between this book and most other HTML/CSS starter books is the inclusion of XHTML 1.0 and CSS reference sections in the back of the book. These sections contain 71 pages of examples, descriptions, and usages for each of the various tags and elements. These appendices are a great addition for professionals or those who are more technologically adept because this is the kind of material that we look for. Sure, we can always go through the index and look for the chapter that describes the goal that we're trying to reach. But most IT professionals prefer the concise nature of reference appendices. We know the command or function but perhaps not all of the options that are available. We want to zero in directly on that command or function without having to search through the entire book. (Can you say man pages?) The 71 pages of XHTML an

Clean, Dry, and to the Point

This book is not bloated with theory...which is exactly why I like it. Yes I've been coding HTML for over 4 years, but it doesn't hurt that this book has a healthy (X)HTML section that I can turn to to remind myself of things that may have been forgotten. This book is a good technical reference manual that requires you to build your own examples. If you want beautiful color pictures of examples to accompany the mechanics of XHTML and CSS, I suggest you partner this book with any of Eric Meyer's publications. If I have one critism of the book, it's that it treats tableless lay out in a cursory fashion, but having a book by Meyer's should compensate for that. Final analysis: excellent learning source for beginners and a very good quick reference for pros.

Great way to get up to speed quickly

While there are many much thicker books on HTML and CSS on the market there is very little in them that is not in this book. There is very little extra wording here but instead the authors take a direct approach to the subject. Each item is described in a fully understandable way with examples and an easy reading style. The book also serves as a basic reference on XHTML. If you want to understand how to write, edit, or understand a web page you can easily do so with this book. If you want to know how to do something in particular it is explained in a couple of pages and you can write it immediately, not 20 pages of fluff. Spring Into HTML and CSS is highly recommended as one of the fastest and easiest ways to get up to speed in HTML and CSS.

A Great Intro and Refresher

I was a reviewer of this book, and though I've worked with HTML for 10 years, I still learned some tidbits here (tabindex would be one example). In a sea of HTML/CSS books, this would be a good pick as an intro, or a refresher/reference. The thing that I enjoyed most about the book was Molly's writing style. It gets the points across, without bogging down into complete geekdom. An HTML/CSS book can be complete, informative, and not dry. I like the honesty that comes across ("The use of tables for layout is the biggest hack in HTML history"). The book is divided into two sections, which I think of as "structure" (HTML) and "presentation" (CSS). This allows Molly to lay a good foundation of how to get basic elements on the page, and then to turn attention to styling them. There are tons of examples (the HTML/CSS, and the output). They'll take you from basic paragraphs and links, to styling, boxes, and z-orders (depth). SIHaC is careful to maintain focus. Molly does not wander off into JavaScript or this or that plugin. The book does a great job addressing its core audience.