HTML and XHTML Pocket Reference

Large books, by their very nature, can have good points and bad points. After all, if you have a couple or several hundred pages worth of material, you are bound to get some things right and some things wrong. But these pocket reference books from O'Reilly are great. They aren't for learning, rather they are what they say they are: a pocket reference. (Nice to see some truth in advertising for a change.) If you buy this book you will use it. A lot. Period.

Great little reference book. It is not intended to be a learning tool. If you want that, try the Head First book on HTML/XHTML/CSS that O'Reilly also publishes. It's a super little time-saver, and also makes for a quick read when designing a new page or project, to see if something you haven't used previously could benefit your work.

My bookshelf at work just got about five pounds lighter with the addition of this book... HTML & XHTML Pocket Reference (3rd Edition) by Jennifer Niederst Robbins. Contents: HTML and XHTML Fundamentals; Alphabetical List of Elements; Character Entities; Specifying Color This is a great pocket guide, and exactly what I look for in this type of book. No fluff, just well-documented information that's easy to find, with a small number of examples to show you the format. I really appreciated the documentation on which elements and parameters are deprecated. This comes in really handy if you're looking to code strict XHTML, but you're unsure as to whether a certain feature is going to be supported or not. In most cases, I know the general tag I want to use, but I might be a bit confused as to the exact format of the different arguments. With the pocket guide, I can find that tag in seconds, see the options, and move on. I love it. The book I've been keeping on my shelf at work for HTML reference is one of those five pound doorstops that covers absolutely everything. The problem is that I have to check the index to find what I need, and I end up using a different book for CSS information. With this pocket guide, I can retire that book, gain more room for other titles, and give my poor shelf a bit of a rest... :)

If you understand html/xhtml and have to edit html source code on occasion (but not necessarily what you do all day long), this is a great little reference. The descriptions are useful, but short enough so you're not wading through pages of superfluous verbiage. I also like the notes for each attribute, which are things like "deprecated", "XHTML only", or "Nonstandard". While some people might be used to the "IE attributes vs. other browsers" notes in references like this, this reference makes no mention of browser supportability other than to note "nonstandard" attributes. I like the fact that it sticks to the spec and doesn't go into browser compatibility issues.