How to Design and Build the Coolest Website in Cyperspace

I have been making web pages for quite a while, trying to figure it all out myself from scratch. I wish I had had this book. It is very practical with lots of screen shots. Whereas I have been feeling that web design is a complicated field, after browsing through this book I think maybe it is not that hard after all. Nettleton puts it all together in a great overview. Now that it is more and more common for everyone to be familiar with web design, it is as if he has picked out the most important elements and left out all the unnecessary growing pains. I think I have looked at many web design books and this one really summarizes all the basics: what is html, software, hosting, ftp, site planning, how to organize your files, how to use tables, making a layout, designing for screen resolutions, graphics, buttons, icon graphics, templates, navigation. And it doesn't stop there: rollovers, slices, linking, library items, frames, animation, actions, flash, sound & video. And for power users: forms, style sheets, behaviors and actions, and finally, going live and how to improve traffic to your site. The subjects are all too familiar for experienced web designers -and of course: covering all these subjects in 224 pages cannot go very in depth. But all his examples are simple and clear, and Nettleton lays down an excellent map for further exploration. It inspires me to use the book for teaching purposes and of course it will go to my kids when I am done with it. There is one point to note: The book relies mostly on Dreamweaver or Adobe's Golive for web authoring, and mostly on all the other more expensive software choices.And it is true that the title is a little presumptuous, the book at least inspires to reach for that goal. Just keep working at it.

In "How to Design and Build the Coolest Web Site in Cyberspace", Nick Nettleton does an excellent job of introducing a fairly new web site creator the ins and outs of building a website beyond what one can do with simple HTML or FrontPage. While the title might be stretching it a bit far, the book has tons of colorful screenshots to explain each concept and tip. This isn't neccessarily a tutorial book -- though there are simple examples of neat tricks included -- it does provide some good ideas, tips and examples for a person new to web design on how to create a better website. Experienced users will get little from this book except for the random tip, but this is a great book for a beginner that wants to go to the next level. Best part about this book is the price. Less than $20 US. Quite the deal in this age of overpriced computer books!