Integrated HTML and CSS: A Smarter, Faster Way to Learn

On a number of occasions I've used this book as a training manual at a Microsoft Certified Learning Provider in Cape Town, South Africa and on all occasions the students were amazed at the ease of use, albeit that the author is obviously Open Source oriented. As a trainer I was able to be objective and I am sure that I put the content across in the way she would have wanted, without any Microsoft prejudices. Now that I have it, I often make use of the book while consulting with all and sundry. I really find it tremendously useful on a daily basis.

I know that this is written by someone very knowledgeable (at least for HTML and related web technology) right from the beginning when I read the first chapter. I learned HTML 8 years ago and didn't keep up with the latest version for a while; I read about CSS on the web, but never felt like mastering it, until I read this book. She is good in pointing out all the interesting details. I definitely recommend this book strongly.

Virginia really teaches those of us who were weaned on tables how to approach the way of thinking about CSS based design. An excellent reference, I look at this every day. If it weren't for Virginia's clear thought process and method of thinking, I doubt that my web design business would be anywhere near keeping up with the times.

There are many books out there that teach HTML, and many that teach CSS, but no other that I have found that combine HTML and CSS, or that clearly explains both the theory and techniques of modern web design in language that beginners can understand. It's truly a hands on book, a combination of guide, tutorial and reference, targeted to beginner and intermediate web designers, that carefully and clearly guides readers through the process of planning and building universally accessible websites that conform to web standards. It emphasizes thinking the total project through to create designs that work from ground up - thinking about content first, then planning, structuring and building. Each chapter is carefully structured and clearly explained, and gives you everything you need to complete a given task. My background is in design and marketing, and I've found other books about CSS design to be confusing, unnecessarily theoretical and technical. Where other books are dry, complicated, and often esoteric, this book is focused on plain and simple answers with which even the newest beginners can build standards based sites. It makes learning fun and is focused on real world issues. "Integrated HTML and CSS" is truly "A Smarter, Faster Way to Learn." It is the perfect book for anyone thinking of building a web site, or for learning modern coding techniques based on CSS and web standards.