Building Better Web Pages: Extending HTML

Should be called "Everything You've Always Wanted to Know About Building a Great Website, and Didn't Know Who to Ask." From making transparent grahics to making them "stick" anywhere on the page, converting images to the color tones of your site in one fell swoop, making "embossed" backgrounds, etc. -- this book is GREAT!It also shows you how to make a site users can get around in quickly and that they'll want to come back to, because there's thought to what the user needs.If you're selling something, this book is going to help you make people trust your online store.I couldn't have done what I've done without the help of this book!

This book is a superb resource for website desgners. It is NOT about how to write better HTML, or really about the coding at all. What the book is about is how to design a web site that people want to visit and revisit. It is full of techniques to accomplish just that. If you don't know anything about HTML, this should not be your first book. It should be your second.If you like to load your site up with crackling flames and Java applets because they are "kewl," this book is not for you.If you want your website to look professional and accomplish its mission, whether its a personal family page or your company's ecommerce site, this book is a must-read.

In the month since I bought this book, I created really professional looking graphics without being a "graphics person," cut my page loading time down to a mere fraction, planted secret files within other files in plain site that no one will see but the people they're intended for, password-protected certain pages without knowing how to script, learned how to stream video from my site, and gotten a professional color scheme for my site -- and ALL those things were free because the author tells you where to get what you need from free or trial sources. This book already paid for itself over and over and over. 100% great.

I saw the review on Web Developer's site that said how much practical advice this book has. (The reviewer said he'd seen books three times thicker that didn't have as much usable content as this one). No joke. In the first five minutes of thumbing through it, I found two things I'd been trying to find out how to do for a long time and didn't see in my other books. The index was done right, which made it especially easy to go right to what I wanted to know.Now I'm almost finished reading it from cover to cover. Even in the areas I already know, its seems like there's always something that makes it easier to do what I want. By Mondy morning the pages I am in charge of won't recognize their old master. (The people who come to those pages won't believe it either.)I give this book five stars.

I loved the way the author was so specific and gave more than one way to do something. There were lots of options and ideas. She also gave things a personality that made it fun to read.