Markup Languages Books

and I've read quite a few. At least the authors of "HTML for dummies" or whatever don't imagine that they are genuises setting the world on fire.

This book is pretentious, repetitious, phenomenally boring, and completely useless. It consists of little but vacuous management-speak sentences. For example what is one to make of
"A process is something that someone wants to accomplish, including the flow of actions from start to completion"? In the world of normal people, a process is a means to an end, not an end in itself. But the book is riddled with this sort of meaningless juxtaposition of jargon.

There is no point so trivial that this book doesn't feel it's worth repeating at least ten times. There is no technical detail about XML so trivial that this book feels it should include. If you feel that saying that XML uses a tree structure is well illustrated with a picture of what looks like an actual christmas tree (as opposed to something with nodes and edges) then this is probably the book for you. But if you have the slightest interest in the technicalities of XML (even if your interest is limited to ecommerce and management level issues), don't waste your time. Typing XML into google and reading ten random hits will teach you more.

I'm really tired of e-business people coming to me with comments like "I can't see why we can't do ..." and other comments which reflect the absolute lack of technical interest e-business people show for what should be their profession. This book continues this sad tradition. I imagine its effect is to fire up over-enthusiastic MBAs to make XML programmers lives misery.

Especially if you're in the IT field or seeking to break into it (lots of interview fodder here). Most books start with the differences between XML and HTML, how to create a valid XML document, intro the DTD, etc. Simon explains why we need XML! In clear, concise, readable prose, the author explains XML's practical applications. He does an admirable job of conveying XML's importance in terms of ecommerce and B2B applications.

Simon writes with a twinkle in his eye, as he explains the technical aspects of XML in business terms. His business focus provides a general understanding to both business people and college students. His large number of examples and metaphors will also prove useful for others who are trying to explain the amazing powerful of the XML technology.

If you are in business and IT, read this book. Go elsewhere to learn how to program XML. Read this to learn WHY you need to understand XML, its applications, its potential -- make a wise, informed business decision (and if you don't use it, be prepared to explain why not).

I love this book, they are no longer printing this book, but if you can grab it, grab it! It's truly amazing. Love this book and it comes with a CD.

I suppose this book might be helpful as a reference, but to someone who is actually trying to figure out what to do with xslt and xpath, this book is a very poor primer. I found that, in addition to offering little explanation as to how xpath and xslt are needed in a larger context (is this supposed to supplant sql??, for example), the examples are so error-prone that I learned more by correcting the errors than I did reading the book. Here is a list of errors you will encounter (from the CD) for the first 3 chapters:

1.1 (string not quoted)
1.2 (only 1 top-level element allowed).
2.1 (invalid character)
2.4 (cannot locate resource)
2.5 (template.xml undeclared namespace)
2.7 (cannot locate resource)
3.2 (output.xml invalid at the top level)
3.3 ditto
3.4 worked -- hey, a working example!
3.5 (output.xml invalid at the top level)
3.6 misplaced period
3.7 invalid at top level
3.8 only 1 top level element allowed
3.9 invalid at the top level...

The rest of the chapter examples are similar to this one.
Without good examples, a programming book is almost worthless.

I've had this book on my shelf since publication. I had to dig it out last week to do some fairly complex XSLT programming. The book was a huge help and helped me get everything done quite quickly.

I use this book as a reference book, not a how-to. This book is great for things like "what is the function that does 'x' and what are its arguments?" It probably helps that I know XML pretty deeply, so I don't typically look at the examples. Of course, that might be because the docs on the functions in the book are so good that I find I don't need to look at the examples.

XSLT hasn't changed much since this book was published. If you deal with XSLT, and, by extension, XPATH, get this book for reference.

I would agree this is more of a reference for the seasoned XPath/XSLT programmer. I'm a intermediate java programmer with some decent background in xml. I haven't really been able to get that much from this book in the way of examples. It's very light on examples.

This feels like a book that had it's table of contents laid out, and then the content filled in as quickly as possible. Editing must have lasted about 3 days. With a more thorough editing process, and a bit more thought to the examples (the boulevard examples taumatized me so much, I nearly stopped driving), it may have been a very good book.

In some sections, the same paragraph is repeated verbatim 2 or even 3 times. Often in the chapter overview, and then on the next page in the first chapter section.

Possibly the book appeals to other learning styles better, but I've found it a tough slog. In fairness though, XSLT is a strange and difficult beast- I may be transferring some of my frustration on to the messenger!

However, in general, I find the examples are too repetive, causing them to blur together. And you find myself flipping back as many as 6 pages at times to find the xml code the description is talking about.

And there is a lack of technical illustrations to help with more difficult topics.

I would have appreciate larger examples from different domains to specific goals. The problem with a lot of the examples is the purposelessness of the examples.

XML in a Nutshell, and Michael Kay's XLST reference have provided me much more joy.

My last word of advice- follow the examples live. XSLT and XPath need practice, and lots of it.

This book has a few shortcomings. The author goes about building a toy CMS that stores various content types. One of the content types is an article. A big disappointment is that he uses a CDATA section to encapsulate the content of an article - it simply contains XHTML tags. I was quite disappointed when I saw this because it cheapened the book and gave it less technical depth. A more suitable example would have been to use simplified Docbook or even come up with a simple article DTD consisting of custom element tags. Then show by example XML/PHP/XSLT on that DTD. That would have been way more useful.

For PHP developers, this book doesn't use much of it until well into the middle chapters. There are quick tutorials on DTDs, RSS, and SimpleXML that are good. The chapter on client side Javascript should have been removed (wasn't this book about PHP?). The templating framework is backwards - the author uses php includes to build out the page. He should have used XSLT to create a proper XHTML transformation instead.

The writing is generally quite good and the reading light. You can go sit outside on the porch without a computer and follow it quite nicely. The organization and topic coverage is good also. I would have liked to see more technical depth and thought put into it, rather than what appeared to be a quick surface introduction. For example, show more how you can pass variables between PHP and XSLT as well as how to cache the pages. The admin panel should also take into consideration that to see 1000 articles on one full page is silly - use a pager.

Because the author used too many shortcuts to write this book, I gave it an average rating. If you are looking for a basic book on XML/PHP development, this is a good start. For those more experienced, I'm afraid this won't suit your experience level and would be left looking for more.

This is my revised and rewritten review of this book.

The first review dated Feb 19 was just two stars, titled `Disjointed and Superficial', and read...

I bought Myer's book to help me move from XHTML to XML and to handle data with PHP which does not fit well in a relational database / SQL. I am not interested in writing a CMS, and therefore tried to skim or skip those parts. Unfortunately, some key points are buried in the CMS discussion. Subjects (ie: Namespace) seem to be mentioned or touched on in several places without doing a thorough job at any one point or multiple points. The subjects which are discussed, are not discussed in depth. And why is Ralph Waldo Emmerson given ink on page 59, and then included in the index??? I found myself working a little too hard to just get the important points.

I know Myer tried very hard to write a good book, and it is not a 'really bad' book. On a positive note: The editing error rate seems to be low as compared to a lot of first edition, first printing computer books. There is some good material in it, but this book does not work well for me. I have at least temporarily given up on this book a little short of the half way point. Since finding a really good XML book seems harder than it should be, I may come back to this one, and if so, I'll update this opinion.

Warning: [3 opinions given here appear to be by paid reviewers. ie: 9/14/05, 10/7/05, and 11/8/05. I now suspect some of the others are personal friends of the author. Hint: Check out the person writing the review before actually reading it. Look for how many opinions he/she writes and how many stars. I distrust all high opinions in the first few months of publication, all high opinions by people who have only written a couple of opinions, and all high opinions from people who only write high opinions. Bottom Line: Distrust all high opinions except those from people who have established some evidence of independence by posting negative as well as positive opinions about other books. Thanks for the lack of honesty Tommy &/or Sitepoint &/or big A. I would have given 3 stars if there were not so many false ones posted here. (my opinion, 2 cma).]

Now, having finished Myer's book (except for most of the CMS stuff), I have changed it to 3 stars and concluded ....

There are about an equal number of pros and cons. It is somewhat light and easy to read, and the editing error rate is good. It is kind of a quick survey of subjects which Myer thinks are important. I did like chapters 7 & 9 (Manipulating XML with PHP, & XML and Web Services).

On the con side: The Appendix listing of PHP functions / methods is not complete and no examples are given. Where he discusses ways to extract XML from a database, two different sources (tables) are used, so the results are not comparable. I wish he had spent more ink on handling XML with PHP and less on client side technologies which are not well supported yet. I found the example listings a little short and lacking some additional code which would have helped follow what was supposed to happen. More output/results listings would also have helped.

The book is not particularly complete, and could not be used as a reference, but it may be ok (not great) as an overview or introduction. A better intro book may be `Beginning XML, 3rd Edition' by David Hunter etc., although that is a much bigger book.

Lastly, do not trust any high star rating review unless the source has proven his/her impartiality by posting positive as well as not so positive reviews of other books. Too many opinions of this book do not pass that simple test. The basic problem is determining who to believe and which postings to suspect are covertly trying to sell books because they have a vested interest or undisclosed motive.

This book is helpful and easy to understand and follow, however, the more I read about XML the less useful it seems to be. If I knew then what I know now I probably wouldn't bother learning about XML because I work with web design and nothing else. I am familiar with PHP and MYSQL so I can't really find a purpose for XML at this time. The book is great but the technology is not as useful as I thought it would be.

I may change my mind in the future but for now XML is on the back burner and PHP/MYSQL is my current focus.

My point in this review is to let others know that if you already know PHP and MYSQL and only work on the web then you may find learning XML redundant or maybe even useless. I'm sure it would look great on a resume though.

This is a book about XML, all the power and flexability that the language gives you. It just happends to use PHP for the database access. Which means that no matter what language you use, this is a must have reference guide.

Thomas Myer has managed to put into writing one of the very best XML primers out there. It starts so gently, dealing with the familiar (HTML), and steps you through some basic examples. By the end of chapter 2 you are doing transforms. Before you close out Chapter 6 you will have worked with XPath Queries. These are no small concepts, but I never felt overwhelmed or lost. Mainly due to the precise and comprehensive writing, but the familiar examples (for web developers they are very familiar) helped keep me on some familiar ground.

If you are using XML over the web (in any language), I urge you to pick this one up. It wil be time very well spent.

Do you want to teach yourself XML the easy way? Well, you're in luck! Author Thomas Myer, has done an outstanding job of writing a book that introduces readers to a large part of the XML world, and to walk them, step by step, through the creation of an XML-powered Website.

Myer begins by introducing XML. Next, the author introduces you to the XML family, namely XHTML, XML Namespaces, and Extensible Stylesheet Language Transformations (XSLT). Then, he covers DTDs for consistency. The author continues by talking about XSLT and how to use it to transform XML for display in a browser. In addition, the author next covers XSLT in detail. He also shows you how to manipulate XML with client-side tools. Next, the author tackles the server side, specifically addressing the question of PHP 5 as he explores the differences between SAX, DOM, and SimpleXML function libraries for working with XML. Then, he delves into the specifics of the different varieties of RSS that are available, and discusses news aggregators, the parsing of feeds with PHP, and more. The author continues by looking at XML and Web Services. Finally, he considers XML and databases.

With the preceding in mind, the author has done an excellent job of presenting the fascinating topic of XML. So, with any luck, XML will serve you well for some time to come!

Information in the book is great.

Author's sarcastic tone of voice often mocks/belittles the 'dumb reader'

"We will not describe this schema definition in great detail. By now, you should be familiar with schema constructs; if you need to review this material, please refer to Chapter 1." pg. 375(ch 14)

"At this point you may be wondering ..how it knows what this message is requesting. From an intuitive standpoint, the answer to this question is that the.... pg 361

"If you examine the response message, again from an intuitive standpoint, you may notice the following points" pg 362

This book discusses technologies that a Java/JEE developer would use on a regular basis. It keeps it real by providing sample code and discussing the concepts at a technical level unlike other books that bombard you with buzzwords and jargon.

I keep the included sample projects mounted in Eclipse all the time. I found myself copying and pasting from these samples into my own programs. I do this not only for APIs that I am learning but also with APIs that I am pretty familiar with. I do this to save time as I won't have to lookup javadoc or other internet resources.

I have worked as a J2EE Architect and am now working as a Web Services Architect. As part of my job I frequently develop documentation on concepts discussed in this book for providing guidance to my developers. Now all I do is, I give them this book and refer them to a relevant chapters.

In short this is the only book I need for all my XML development needs. A must have in any Java/JEE developer's bookshelf.

This is a very decent book on XML with Java. Lots of examples and it is pretty well organized. Good coverage of SAX, StAX and JAXB. Be aware that if you are looking for in depth coverage of XSLT or XPATH this is not the book ( and doesn't purport to be). Although examples are for Eclipse IDE I was not fazed by this at all and readily translated them to my IDE.

This book covers all important details of XML technology for use in Java.
Although all this information exists in various fragments elsewhere, this
book does an excellent job of bringing a lot of technology together in a
simple to use, step-by-step description.

This is great book to have if you use java on a regular basis but have
been hesitating to use the XML alphabet soup. This book is a must-have.

This book is titled 'THE EXPERT VOICE IN JAVA TECHNOLOGY'. But this book is full of something like how to use eclipse(window pictures in many pages), which most of experienced programmers already know. It repeats this again and again. Another book 'Java & XML ' is much better than this one.

this is very well written book. the material presented in this book are exhaustive and gets you good insight on how xml would be used with dbms. the chapters 2,3 and 4 are very informatiove as they list ou tthe steps required for converting db table to xml and vice versa.

I read through this book at more of an advanced developer level, so I'm going to treat it from that level.

The chapter on XQuery was great; it answered many of my questions concisely. There is very little information on the web about XQuery outside the W3.org site, so I was surprised to find such high quality information in a book.

XPath is also a newer API that is covered well in this book, giving you enough information to get your project going.

If you're planning to do any kind of development with XML coming in or going out of a relational database, this is an excellent book to buy. I also recommend Professional XML from Wrox and O'Reilly's XML in a nutshell.

Interesting that you basically ignore native XML DBs. They are the definitive choice in most XML Document Centric environments. While RDBs remain quite strong in XML Data Centric models, they must resort to BLOBs or risk an order of magnitude of sluggishness compared to native XML DBs, such as our GoXML DB. Even with BLOBs, you cannot create a new document from multiple existing documents because of the columnar structure. The lack of a full table of contents when your title is 'Professional XML Databases' is disappointing...

Concerned XML Enthusiast

If you want to exploit SQL's support for XML, this is THE BOOK to buy. The book does NOT come with a CD, but the code samples can be downloaded from Wrox's site in a zip file. This book is not for the XML or SQL novice, but if you have a rudimentary education in either (as I do, I only started using SQL Server 2000 a couple of weeks ago) then you should be able to follow it.

There are too many people who work just on MS platforms (VB, VC++) or just in the Jave so why for heaven sake one should buy a book talk about the two of them...

As with the first book, the designs included with this one have helped make me look extremely professional among my clients. I am able to customize a couple designs, show them to my clients, and always close the deal. Plus, I learned a lot about creating tableless designs. The book also helped me to better understand the how e-commerce works. I definitely recommend this book for someone needing a quick fix to creating a graphically professional site.

I maintain most of my site by myself. I've wanted to incorporate more css into it. This book gave me the basics to understand how to do so. I, too, wish the examples were available on the cd. However, I was able to acquire the code from the publisher. I have also been able to use of those amazing designs for a second site I am working on. I'm already proud of it, and I've added only five paragraphs of text.
This is not an "advanced" web manual, as the publishers title indicates, but for the average web designer or web site owner, this book offers a high level of easy to follow direction.

I spent months trying to get the colors of my site to go down both sides of the page. When I saw that this book explained this, I bought it instantly. It did not disappoint. I now have a site that does exactly what I need it to do, with very little effort. Along the way, I also discovered a few ways to tweak my code to make it more user friendly. I have had other people in the office comment that I should have used a design or two from the book, but I went with my existing layout. Overall a very helpful resource.

Unlike most people, I purchased this book for the e-mail templates. I was able to add a sharp-looking signature within an hour. Granted, I also understood Photoshop prior to customizing the design. Along the way, I also learned how to create a basic web site, which I plan to have fully operational in a couple days. The tips on e-commerce sites will also be helpful as I continue to develop my home-based business.
Much of the technical mumbo jumbo didn't help me much. I'm not sure how helpful or hurtful it would be to a more experienced designer, but for examples of easy-to-use designs, it works great for me!

Here's my husband's review of the book:

I'm an old-school developer who has spent nearly a decade building table-based designs. This book helped me bridge the gap from the older style of design to the newer way of creating CSS designs. The advanced part didn't help me. Deconstructing various templates from the CD has really helped me understand how to build sites that rival the quality of many design firms.

I'll keep this short. Having used Apress in the past (Joomla, Clear Blogging), and being very happy with what i learned/accomplished, I went straight for this book. Big mistake. It is uneven and reminds me of my college textbooks (dry!). If you are a "hands-on" learner that has a project in mind, get something else (i just ordered the Head First book on this subject, it has 187 five-star ratings here on Amazon). I'm sure this book will be very helpful once I know the basics, but for now, no way.

I had no ideal what I was getting into, when I decided to try to create web pages myself without going to school. I have had this book for awhile now. The book is pretty instructional. I like the step by step instructions that it gives. I recommend this book to people that are starting out creating web pages.

Despite the "Beginning HTML" in the title, this small horror is a densely packed text of incomprehensible jargon.

This book is only useful for balancing wobbly table legs and for teaching writers how NOT to write a reference work / tutorial.

I bought it based on the title, not the contents. (It was shrink-wrapped at a brick-and-mortar bookstore) Had I seen a sample of the text, I would have reshelved it hurriedly or offered a dime to buy it for firewood.

As a reference work for web designers, or a tutorial for beginners, it ranks below any other book I've seen on the subject.

APPENDICES:
1) The promised CSS is scattered throughout the book, with no CSS reference guide in the appendices.
2) The appendices for HTML and XHTML describe each tag's parameters in such a way as to leave one wondering how to use them, and what each tag and parameter does.

EXAMPLES:
The authors clearly did not proofread the version that reached the printers, or the editors made unexpected, inexcusable last-minute cutbacks. This is most obvious in photo captions that ask us (unbelievably) to find the differently colored text in identical B&W screenshots (p. 143), and in examples of JPEG artifacts/compression (p. 108) and pixelating (p. 106) that are unnoticeable because the example photographs have been shrunken far too much or carelessly created.

INDEX:
Carelessly assembled, neglecting common terms like "mouseover".
LANGUAGE:
Professorial pointification and obfuscation rather than real advice to beginners or helpful reference for experts. Reads like a fillibuster performed by a student defending his masters' dissertation.
For example, what beginner could make use of this entry in the appendices?
(p. 353)
"The param element allows you to set run-time values for objects that have been inserted into a document. Required attributes: type: specifies the MIME type of the resource specified in the value attribute when the valuetype attribute is set to ref; value: specifies the actual value associated with the parameter"
...and so on.

Sentences are needlessly wordy, overly technical, and filled with passive verbs. In short, the writing bores and frustrates more than an afternoon spent with an enthusiastic life insurance salesman.

For example, from page 352: : "disabled": Sets the control as "disabled"; "value": Specifies the value for the option that will be sent to the server.
Why would anyone whose first language is English say "as" instead of "to"? What writer uses a word ("disabled") in the same word's definition? What "control" are the authors talking about? Why was ink so valuable that the authors couldn't give examples these options in use? What are the possible values for "value"?

Buy this book only if your goal is to frighten a web designer's boss away from learning what the designer does for a living....or if you need something slim yet heavy for flinging at life insurance salesmen.

Beginning HTML with CSS and XHTML: Modern Guide and Reference by David Schultz and Craig Cook is an excellent beginners introduction to HTML and CSS. Through each of the eleven chapters the authors walk through the basics and foundation of HTML. For those who are just treading in the waters of HTML and CSS, this book will help you understand the tools available to you as you craft your markup. You will learn about the tags available, their available attributes and purposes, and how to finely tune these into a semantic layout that ultimately gives your content more meaning.

Chapter 1 is our quick history lesson and introduction to HTML. They give background and insight into the goals and purposes of HTML, and how these were shifted during the browser wars and the battle for browser dominance and market share. They introduce the different versions of HTML available, and what they mean for your markup and the rendering inside of the browser. As CSS is discussed, there is also a discussion on keeping a clean separation of content and presentation. Chapter 1 lets us see the big picture and evolution of HTML.

Chapter 2 builds the foundation for the rest of the chapters. This chapter discusses the basics of XHTML and CSS. The building blocks discussed here will be addressed in each and every subsequent chapter of the book. Things such as tags, elements, attributes, and formatting. We are also given a snapshot view of what comprises an XHTML document, the doctype, the HTML element, and the document tree. All of this plays into understanding the fundamentals of CSS, cascade, and inheritance. We now have our history lesson and basic constructs in place, it's time to take a look at the rest of the pieces to the puzzle.

Chapters 3 and 4 cover a large territory. From constructing a useable head section, to walking step by step through many of the available HTML elements available to you as you put your content together. With discussion of each element, you are given detailed instructions of how and when it should be used, with an exhaustive list of its available attributes. CSS is briefly discussed, but will be re-introduced in a later chapter after we have our content constructed.

Chapter 5 is all about images. This chapter gives a brief primer on how digital images work, and what are the formats you can use within your content. Images can serve different purposes: icons, decoration, background, or context. Each of these are discussed with information on how to place them accordingly with CSS or the img tag.

Chapter 6 is all about linking. You are introduced to the a tag, its available attributes, and how you can create different types of links. Textual links, anchor links, and linking an image are all discussed.

Chapter 7 is all about tables. Despite what you may hear from others, tables have a very good semantic use in regards to tabular data (who would have thought?). However, tables are also misunderstood in relation to the tags and attributes. It is important to build tables with accessibility in mind, and this chapter goes over some of the elements that haven't received as much exposure. These include, but are not limited to: caption, colgroup, and tbody. This chapter will give you the information necessary to build a powerful and semantically rich table.

Chapter 8 discusses all of the little details to building a usable and accessible form. Just as with tables, there are some elements that are often forgotten about when building forms. This chapter does a great job of covering all of the necessary components for a form, and how to structure them. Form elements are rendered with the underlying operating system, so the end of this chapter discusses CSS and some of the ways you can spruce up the look of your forms. This is to be used with caution, as forms are rendered differently in each browser.

Chapters 9 and 10 discuss the other 2 pieces of the trinity of the front end: CSS and JavaScript. These chapters are meant to be brief primers, and will most likely whet your appetite to learn more about each aspect. They are also placed here to give you a good foundation as the final chapter will roll everything up into a case study.

Chapter 11 is the end of the journey. What good would the book be if you couldn't put what you have learned into practice? This chapter creates the fictional Spaghetti & Cruft website (you have to read the book to find out the meaning of the name). This chapter starts with the design process, moves to the building process, and then polishes it off by adding enhancements with CSS and JavaScript. The humorous name aside, this chapter is one of the most valuable chapters of the entire book. This final chapter brings the book to a close, and with it leaves you a solid foundation as you continue your journey of building other sites.

Conclusion
Many would argue that they don't need to learn HTML, that is what a WYSIWYG is for. This book shows you the value of understanding the history, the basics, and the semantics of HTML. It is important to note that nothing found in this book is earth-shattering, however, if you are a beginner and new to HTML, this book will give you the proper start you need to begin developing right away. If you are moving away from the reliance of a WYSIWYG, you may be surprised at many of the elements available to you that are covered in this book.

Every master was once an apprentice; the beginner must start at the beginning. For the author of an introductory text on a technical subject, the challenge is to adopt the "beginner's mind," which is characterized in Zen practice as "is the mind that is innocent of preconceptions and expectations, judgments and prejudices." The teacher of novices must clear his mind and place himself in the mind of the student who knows little or nothing about a subject. He must be able to transmit complex concepts in clear, non-technical language and provide enough information to make the subject understandable, yet not overwhelm the student with too much information or information that is not pertinent.

The first two chapters of "Beginning HTML with CSS and XHTML: Modern Guide and Reference" satisfies the requirements of a beginner's book quite well. The language is clear, concise, and devoid of jargon. The remainder of the book is quite uneven, probably due to the publisher's decision to employ two authors for the book. Craig Cook (the author of chapters 1, 2, 4, 5, 8 and 11) is more than capable of communicating technical information using plain language. His prose is concise and accurate, yet he maintains a gentle, witty tone that is ideal for making the neophyte feel at ease with new material. David Schultz is much less adept at maintaining the `beginner's mind.' His prose is often convoluted and awkward, making it difficult to decipher the terms he attempts to explain.

Chapter 4 is an excellent overview of the basic structure of a semantically structured web document. For someone looking for an introduction to HTML and CSS fundamentals, the book is worth buying for this chapter alone. It would also serve a more experienced hand as a concise guide to the proper use of HTML elements.

Chapters 3, 6, and 7 all have a common weakness: the author fails to provide clear definitions and explanations for terms. An example, from p. 164: "charoff: Specifies in pixels or as a percentage how far the alignment should be adjusted to the first character to align on. This requires the use of the align attribute with the value set as char." Contrast this definition with one penned by Cook, p.211: "disabled='disabled': When present, disables the control so that it cannot receive focus and its value cannot be modified. Many browsers will display disabled controls a `grayed-out' state. The value of a disabled control is not submitted."

It appears that Mr. Cook devoted a considerable amount of thought to writing his definitions, while Mr. Schultz was content to restate the official specifications. Cook takes the time to carefully explain a term, giving examples of how it is used in the real world. His definitions & explanations indicate a deep and nuanced understanding of the subject material.

Chapter 10 presents an introduction to JavaScript. Appearing out of place in a book on beginning HTML and CSS, one chapter on JavaScript is simply inadequate to explain even the rudiments of this powerful (but often misused) tool. This space could have been better used in covering CSS positioning in more detail and providing more visual examples.

Chapter 11 is a solid walkthrough in putting together a basic website, from the design process through to final markup. This chapter pulls together what has been presented in the rest of the book and would certainly enable a beginner to create an attractive & functional website from scratch.

Finally, the book provides four appendices. The usefulness of these appendices varies widely. Appendix A is an XHTML 1.o Strict reference: it would be useful but for a complete lack of examples. Appendix B covers color names and hex values: does anyone actually use these? HTML colors are notoriously hideous and their use should be avoided. Appendix C covers special characters: this is a good reference to have. Appendix D covers CSS browser support: again, a useful reference.

But why is there no glossary? A glossary of terms is ESSENTIAL in a beginner's book. Please, leave out the scary HTML colors and give us a glossary!

Despite its shortcomings, "Beginning HTML with CSS and XHTML: Modern Guide and Reference" is a useful book for a person needing to understand the fundamental concepts and application of HTML and CSS. The publishers would have served their readers better by providing a consistent authorial voice throughout the book, including more thorough coverage of CSS positioning and layout, and providing more high-quality graphical examples. This book is a good bet for the beginner who wants to learn the fundamentals of HTML and CSS to create well-structured and usable websites.

Use this book once you have Pence's basic HTML book down. It will provide many new tools to spruce up your exist web programming.

It is a great hands on textbook. The author did a great job conveying concepts. Easy to understand especially talking about codes. However a lot of typing error and project data or instructional errors. Misspelled in a lot of places. Information inconsistency. Requires professional editing services. I think the author should continue to write these book. Pence is a good writer but need to make sure information, data or examples are consistent. It hinders the student when trying to do the projects.

This book teaches what it claims to teach. It teaches CSS 1 for everyday tasks you would perform. It also teaches you how to create entire layouts using CSS. I strongly recommend this book to those who have just learned HTML and want to go ahead. This book also gives overview of very basics of CSS 2.

The book is well structured and includes hints, tips and other similar helpful stuff along the way.

Of course reading a book does not really make you a master unless you think and work hard yourself as well. So if you know HTML then this shud be your next step.

This book covers basic CSS. It succeeds in offering a very gentle and fairly comprehensive overview of CSS1 features, with some CSS2. However, his constant warning about the lack of robust support for CSS in browsers is somewhat dated and tiring. The book is also full of annoying typos that at times prevent examples from working--a missing period here, a misplaced semi-colon there. Perhaps to make the chapters (called "Modules" here) independent, there is quite a bit of repetition of the same ideas in many chapters. The gradual introduction of CSS syntax and techniques also seems to incourage the author to use examples that mix CSS and traditional html in ways that are not good CSS practice, just apparantely oversimplified examples to make simple points about transitioning from HTML to specific CSS features. That distinction could be lost on a lot beginners who don't get a more solid understanding of how to use CSS to build more complete and consistent pages and websites. I therefore wish the author would have included more comprehensive examples, rather than lots of smaller out-of-context and disconnected ones. This book is not terrible. I just think you could probably do better now. I would give it 2 1/2 stars if I could.

I swear the author of this book goes out of his way to make its readers feel incompetent. While full of useful information, this book is also just as full of typos and inconsistancies.

Do you want to know how frustrating it is to try and re-create a page using the code given to you in a book, have the page come out looking nothing like the example in said book, then finding out the reason for the discrepency is because the author actually coded their example differently? Well there's plenty of opportunities in this book!

I now have to learn inline CSS which I believe might have been covered to some extent in this book. I can't remember. That's how badly I want to forget this book! I'm sticking with CSS for Dummies!

I'm an ASP developer with just over a year's experience. This is the first book I've read on XML, and if I have a question, it will be the first place I look.

This book has it all, except solid examples that tie it all together. I now understand how vast and capable XML is, but I haven't gained an ability to put it to any real practical use.

Items I don't agree with:
1. The book is not 500 pages ...Page 223 marks the start of Appendix A, the XML 1.0 specification. The index ends on page 345. 122 pages of reference (over 33%).
2. The book's cover states I will learn to build web applications fast. Huh? There are no sample applications, only examples of how to use the syntax being discussed.
3. The cover states that I will learn by doing, as I work on a fictional e-commerce site. Huh? There are no exercises, and there is no e-commerce site being built.
4. The cover refers to real-scenarios. Again, where are they?
5. A chapter titled, "Common Examples of XML", was really an introduction to SMIL, SVG, and WDDX. Good stuff, but not what I was expecting.

This book needs a companion to deliver all that's been promised. I still don't have a clear picture of the XML DOM, the difference between a node and an element, nor do I have an idea of where I should be using XML (instead of (or with) the technologies I'm already familiar with (i.e. ASP, ADO, and JavaScript)).

Considering how the other reviews have labeled this book #1, is there any hope? Can anyone recommend a book that's better at painting the big picture?

The book starts out nicely explaining everything and it gets you motivated. From chapter 3 onwards, 19 pages later, its all guess work. He gives pieces of information with no coherent example that shows how all these pieces fit together. Its left up to your imagination to guess how it all comes together. Once more, I had to go back to internet tutorials (which I have found to be way better than a lot of computer programming books). XML is not rocket science. If you can't write a descent book about it, you ought to think about quiting the writing profession (stick to writing code). This was a waste of my time and money; needless to say a waste of paper and ink too.

This book is a really good basic book to get started. I've enjoyed it.

Just skip all the others and buy this one. Really.

Could have been good or even great. It starts clear, correct, and well-structured. Then about a third of the way through the book (which is really half the content because the last third is an absolete printing of the XML spec) the writing gets lazy. Comprehending the material becomes an absolute chore as all structure is lost.

The first part is the best intro to XML that I've read, but it's just an intro.

As a retired aerospace engineer closing with 70, I must be the quintessential cyberspace "Dummie". Looking for a change from retirement boredom, I decided to write a specialist e-guide on kayaking and river running in Thailand. Of course, I would need a website to carry it. So, I set out to build one and obtained two "Dummies" books on website building. They were very good books, both, full of great info. But they made it very clear that I'd have to have something a little more than a passing acquaintance with the site building code, HTML. I had a bad feeling. It sounded, boring, ominous and turgid, rather like eating breakfast cereal without the milk. But I pressed on and bought one of the books recommended which was "HTML 4 for Dummies" by Ed Tittel and Mary Burmeister, 5th Edition. What a surprise. I may be a computer slowcoach, late to the cyberspace gate, but I am a professional and I do recognize and respect professionalism when meet it. The book was a breeze to follow, well written and superbly structured, with countless tips and links to helpful websites. I read the book through with pleasure and plundered it for instruction as I built my website. Mr. Tittel is a pro. He knows his subject well and, writing with a deft sense of humor, he teaches, guides and instills confidence in the reader. So much confidence that I have decided to build more websites. And who knows, maybe even become a webmaster. I lent my copy to a friend and he feels the same. It now sits torn, dog-eared, taped-up and battle-scarred on my bookshelf.
So when I heard of the latest edition "HTML, XHTML and CSS for Dummies" with Mr. Tittel in collaboration with Jeff Noble I obtained a copy. This book has everything the earlier book had, but more. Expanded, naturally, and with more emphasis on CSS and other relevant advances it's a wonderful book. I cannot recommend this work highly enough. It even packs along a dedicated website! If you're a beginner and want to build a website and want a good grasp of HTML, grab this book. And you'll be glad you did.

I rarely buy books but I was stumped on trying to build a simple webpage for my daughter until I happened upon this book while searching Amazon. It has basically everything you need to know, with easy-to-find, easy-to-understand, and concise descriptions. This is a great introductory guide if you are learning the basics and fundamentals of HTML, XHTML, and CSS. I finally built my webpage and this book saved me tons of headaches!

Great book to create webpages with. It has all that you need and is easy to follow!

This book is so poorly written and poorly arranged that to understand it at all would require mastery of HTML, XHTML, & CSS - of which if you had mastery of, you would not need this book. It lays out the information in trailing, excessively long spans of type that do not so much as address what you have to do as what you could do with it, then introduces multiple colors of text to make you think it is something important, but then it just turns out the author must have a rainbow text fixation.

Altogether, I would highly suggest against this book, it is by far the worst excuse for a "for dummies" book ever conceived.

My wife and I thought the book did a good job teaching and reviewing webpage basics. We have already used what we learned on our family website and would recommend this book to others.