Mastering HTML 4 Premium Edition [With *]

I found this book on the New Horizons Computer Learning Center website. I liked it so much I decided to buy it. Why? Because it offered more than just HTML. Not only did it provide all the information one needs to write a webpage, but also Cascading Style Sheets and Javascript. As more and more basic code becomes deprecated CSS is becoming the favored mode for writing HTML. Finding A comprehensive list of special codes also sold me on getting this guide.

Authors never talk down to you, yet never assume that you know anything either. I had two distinct sites well underway within 2 weeks. And they looked pretty good, considering I didn't know a shred of html beforehand. I did use this with a second book, just to get started, (A Sam's Quickstart Guide, Learn HTML in 24 hrs.) but I soon passed the quickstart guide off to a friend, as this is all I need. As I become more adept I keep finding "goodies" in the back appendices. Never opened the CD. And I spent a good $50.00 on this book. Get it here, it's much cheaper. It is worth every penny.

After browsing through a few titles, I decided to purchase this book and the Castro Quick Start Guide. I found the combination to be wonderful. Within a reasonable time of starting through the books, I was able to understand and create nice-looking HTML pages for our web site. I found the Castro book to be a good supplement to this; if I didn't understand it in one, I was generally able to understand the other. The coding is set out step by step so you can see where the additions are.I did find the CD to be pretty weak - but there is some stuff there that's worthwhile.

I've been teaching myself HTML for the last couple years, the hard way (meaning without manuals). I've recently wanted to explore the more advanced aspects, what is new in 4, and touch on XML. This book has been a fantastic reference and has answered any queries I've had so far. The XML coverage is not as thorough as I would have liked, but this is for HTML 4 after all. I am VERY happy with this purchase.

I have only been reading this book for about 2 weeks, now, at an easy pace. I have read many tech. books covering topics from C++, data structures and algorithms to HTML itself. I have found this book to be very easy to follow along with straight forward examples used in a real life scenario. However, if you just need an HTML reference book for your desk and you are already experienced with writing HTML code you may want to look elsewhere.