Sams Teach Yourself Web Publishing with HTML 4 in 21 Days

You may be an HTML beginner when you pick up Laura Lemay's best-selling book, but at the end of the 21 days you won't be a beginner anymore. This second edition is a major upgrade, 400 pages larger than its predecessor, and updated to cover the latest and greatest in W3C specifications including Cascading Style Sheets and the red-hot dialect called XHTML. Veteran users will welcome the fact that this new release contains more topics: about deprecated tags, working with sound and video files, using Java, and introductions to writing JavaScript scripts and CGI scripting. New users will appreciate the easy-to-follow format and the teaching strategy known as 'micro-uniting'. You'll learn everything in bite-sized chunks, not to much to choke you into unconsciousness, but just the right amount to satisfy your curiosity and appetite. In a mere 21 days -- about the time it takes me to begin my preliminary procrastination -- you'll learn how to create and maintain a professional-looking web site. This book is an entire reference library in one volume: everything you need is here. Each "day" of the 21 days contains three chapters. Each chapter covers a specific theme -- such as creating links, animated graphics, tables, frames, multimedia, and so much more. You'll also learn how to spice up your pages with Dynamic HTML; how to put your site online; and how to promote and maintain your site. When I looked at the CD that accompanies the book, I rubbed my eyes to see if it were true. You get a library of photographic images that you can use for free; and trial versions of the biggest names in web-related software. There's not enough space to name everything here, but just to whet your appetite, how about Dreamweaver, GoLive, Homesite, BBEdit Lite, HotDog, Photoshop 5.5, Fireworks, PaintShop Pro -- and the list goes on. XHTML is hotter than Pokemon, and all the latest information about XHTML is carefully explained. The book answered all my questions about this child of HTML and XML: it clearly described how to transform my HTML documents into XHTML. For anyone interested in publishing ebooks, this is essential knowledge, since XHTML has been chosen as the standardizing format for this brave new publishing world. Web site making these days is much more complex than it was when all you had to know were a few dozen tags of HTML 2.0. Lemay's book, with it's relaxed conversational style, is the perfect tutor for every beginning-level to intermediate-level user. If you like to understand the things you read, then -- like me -- you will thoroughly enjoy working with this book. Michael Pastore, Editor

This book was recommended by a close friend who wanted me to learn HTML so I could do some work for his Web Publishing company. Well, I went through it in less than two weeks and was ready to go to work! The book is written simple-to-understand, but gives enough technical information to keep you interested long after you've learned HTML.As far as reference goes, you can't get much more complete. I keep this book close at hand to look up the various HTML commands and how to use them.The book teaches cascading style sheets, tables, forms, javascript, and the new version even includes coverage on XHTML!The main author, Laura Lemay, writes in a style that is not condescending, and her humor is not forced. It's almost as if your friend were teaching you this stuff. I would definitely recommend this book, and once you learn HTML, pick up HTML Goodies next.

Probably one of the most comprehensive books for the beginner. I purchased this book with no knowledge of HTML or any programming language for that matter. I had no prior computer training but I was able to grasp HTML 4.0 with ease which says a lot about how well thought out the lessons are. For the beginner this is definitely the best I've seen in circulation. Try any of the other Sam's books and you will definitely get the same experience.

This was one of my first HTML 4 books and it more than helped get me started on my way to making my first web page. The text is well written and easy to understand with plenty of examples and exercises to get you writing HTML right away. If you want a good reference book and a paced self learning course then this book is a good choice.

This is a great book for anyone wether you're a beginner or an expert. Chock full of 762 pages of info for HTML 4. It talks about everything in HTML 4 that you could ever want. It has a easy to use quick reference section for quick reference obviously. It also has step by step guides for beginners who know absolutely nothing. You will need no other book on HTML if you get this one!!!