XHTML Books

This book provides a great overview of XHTML, from its origins and relationship to HTML, to adjacent technologies designed to work in conjunction with it. You'll primarily learn (1) how to migrate legacy HTML markup and (2) how to write new XHTML from the ground up. This book does well to cite available software to help you with both the conversion as well as the creation of XHTML. Towards the end of the book, the authors go into application-specific XML vocabularies and technologies designed to transform or style XHTML.

Novices will do great with this approach, but experienced web developers already knowledgeable with XML technologies may find the coverage of XSLT, CSS, etc. redundant with their other readings and/or life experiences. I've been in web dev for 6 years, so I was able to stop reading after Chapter 5. Perhaps this book may be construed as too shallow for the experienced developer. Or, perhaps there really isn't much more to say about XHTML to justify a thicker book. I won't know personally until I read at least one other book on the subject.

If you are new to XHTML -- as well as XML technology in general -- this book is great way to learn about the related technologies quickly.

I got this as I felt that XHTML was going to help me in my job.

Now I'm hoping the knowledge I've found in this book will help me
GET a job.

It's a good way to help an HTML designer make the transition to XHTML, but a good XML reference may be in order!

You do need some knowledge of HTML(at least know how to do a CSS!)

This book has good explanations. If you are planning to migrate from HTML to XHTML this is a good choice. Other than migrating, this book offers great working examples in the provided CD. The book covers CSS with XHTML, Intoduction to XML technologies like XForms, Xlink, and XSL. So get this book to be ready for the future. Note : Some chapters are hard to understand. You might have to read again to understand it correctly.

What is XHTML? Is it just another trendy acronym for web developers to toss around? Is it the child of a marriage between Hypertext Markup Language (HTML) and Extensible Markup Language (XML)? Is it worth worrying about?

The authors of XHTML have chosen to answer in a variety of ways. This book takes several approaches to explaining XHTML. They range from a high-level view of "Where did XHTML come from?" to an attribute-by-attribute listing of valid XHTML syntax to an in-depth look at Cascading Style Sheets (CSS). There are also several chapters of "What's next?" topics, each touching on an aspect of internet development (multimedia, forms, graphics, and scripts).

So what is XHTML? It is the Extensible Hypertext Markup Language. It's brings order to chaotic world of HTML by forcing adherence to XML standards. It promises to separate presentation from information (data). It can force a web page to act like data, with the benefit that anything that can access data can use your web page (like text-to-speech devices, mobile devices, and more). It's a W3C standard that has progressed beyond the 1.0 specification referred to in this book (and this book was published in 2001!).

This book could have easily been called XHTML and CSS - because they devote many pages to the key role that CSS will play in the deployment of XHTML. CSS is the way that the presentation elements are extracted from the HTML document - leaving only the data behind.

The book mostly succeeds in bringing XHTML to a wide audience. It tries to be an introduction, migration guide, and language reference. I recommend it to anyone interested in taking their internet development to the next level.

Know your goals. If you expect to have mastered XHTML after this book, look elsewhere. As said by another reviewer all the details are not covered and one is referred to other sources, but it is a good place for beginners to start. You will have to visit online tutorials to complete this book and you'll still need to purchase a XHTML book that can be used as a reference.

The author's expertise provides one with an excellent historical section, but I personally found it to be more on the side of information overload.

XML related subjects are mentioned, but only seasoned HTML'ers will be able to comprehend the explanations, which I found too brief to really be enriching.

For those with some HTML experience there are better books out there and one should continue their search for another XHTML book. Beginners will be will served with this book.

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.

This is an excellent textbook for a beginning web design course. The hands-on exercises encourage active learning. The Student Files provide solutions to these so that students can self-assess their progress. There are four case studies that continue throughout the book that provide opportunities for students to apply their newly-learned concepts and skills. What really sold me on this textbook is the way it integrates XHTML, CSS, AND accessibility!

WASTE OF TIME
This book is a complete waste of time and it will sap your joy. You will learn far more with almost any other book. It is poorly written, the editing is non-existent, the educational constructs are poorly formed, the B.S. content is over the top, and the typos are serious enough to sabotage your web pages. In fact, the educational tone seems designed to sabotage your understanding of what you already know. Most of the details in the book are common sense and yet presented as ultra-orthodox truths from antiquity, as when the author refers to 10 years ago as "the last century."

LACK OF INFORMATION
The presentation of information is difficult to follow because the pages are clouded with stylistic jargon ripped-off from other publishing companies which have maintained a fine reputation for educational success because they know how to educate. To see successful authoring, go to any book store and see how many books there are in the following series: DUMMIES, IDIOTS, VISUAL, MADE SIMPLE, VISUAL QUICKSTART, or MICROSOFT PRESS. These series are designed to educate, empower, and inform. This book is designed to obfuscate.

STYLE OVER SUBSTANCE
For instance, take a look at the cover of this text book (as posted here on Amazon) and you will see a paint roller. This is the author's special icon to let you know you are still reading the same book. Section after section you see a paint roller, to open a section and to close a section. Apparently Web Design is colorful. Other icons, such as FAQ's are just "cute" but useless, because they are not FAQ's but just page decorations. Font decoration is random, extra spacing is random, and highlighting is random.

SUGGESTIONS
What the book needs is a table of contents that is useful, and a glossary so the book can be used as you read it. The index is skimpy (the most important part of the book) and each preview section and review section is non-usable. If you read as much as I do, I know that you have a method for learning, and for most people that method involves: Preview, Skim, Read, Review, and then use the book as a reference. This book does not have previews (more like hopeful affirmations) does not have reviews (except to tell you you're done with the chapter, ABSOLUTELY DOES NOT encourage skimming (the pages are meaningless jumbles of jargon) and the reading sections, when available, are short, and punctuated by meaningless faux-FAQs, comprehension-testers, points to ponder, and other monotony breakers, instead of real information. There is no way to review later because the book withheld active, authentic learning in the first place. You cannot even save this book as a reference because the tables are incomplete and incoherent, and the appendixes are poorly organized.

SUCCESSFUL OPTIONS
If you are required to use this book as a text-book for a class, just drop the class. You are smarter than that. Google the words "web design" and you will get all of this information for free! You don't need THIS book, just get a good book. The problem is, if your instructor requires THIS book then you will spend all of your time doing examples and not learning XHTML and CSS.

YOU CAN DO IT!
If you don't have other time-demands in your life then this book can walk you step-by-step through some ideas about web programming, but it will treat you like a Junior High School student. If you ARE a Junior High School student then you are WAY TOO SMART for this book. This is a text-book written for Junior College students who want to get a job, and their school is designed to make it hard to graduate. This book will not prepare them for a job. It only weeds out the students who don't have the guts to finish the course. If you want to be weeded out you won't make it as a programmer. If you want to be a programmer you won't put up with this book. If you really want to learn for fun, then get one of the other books listed above. Don't even buy this one for $.01 plus shipping. There's nothing in it worth looking at.

EDUCATION
My Bio and Bias: I am a doctor who teaches medical school, I have been programming computers for over 35 years, I am a life-long learner, I am a professional teacher, and my students would not put up with this book, nor would they put up with me if I required this book. My students, my peers, my friends, and most importantly, you...do not deserve this kind of condescension.

I highly recommend this book to newbie web designers/developers! The book introduces XHTML and CSS, web standards, web accessibility and web design best practices. The book's website at webdevfoundations.net contains related links, additional/new information, and chapter updates. The author did a great job starting me out with a basic foundation in web design concepts and skills I'm continuing to use!

Basically, if you're going to buy a tech book, 95% of the time, just go find the O'Reilly book and you're set - you'll learn, you keep it on the shelf as a reference, and you'll use it until, most likely, the subject dies off (although my Pocket Perl guides still get daily use.) What does that have to do with this book, you ask? Forced to buy it for a class so that a lazy instructor could use it for lessons and not have to put together course material, this thing is slow, poorly written, full of mistakes (and on the fourth edition no less!) and once I'm done with the class, will be worthless - if I can't sell it for probably 20% of the outrageous price it was new, I guess I'll start a fire next winter with it, because it provides almost nothing that would make you want to keep it as a reference at all. It's really just a class outline with study sections, homework and assignments for students, for instructors who are too lazy to want to actually put effort into teaching a class. Really, even if it was $10 is wouldn't be worth reading, but at the price, it's just yet another sad example of "academic publishing" where you pay a high price for a book that you should only buy if forced for for school (as I have) and then hope, nay... pray, that you may be able to get at least a tenner or Jackson back, if you're lucky, because it's mostly worthless as a textbook, and when the class is done, it's not even worth the paper wasted to print it. Avoid unless you've no other choice... or if you have absolutely not the slightest clue about the subject and want to buy a book that will make you feel like an expert when you're done - until you try to get a job or use what you're "learned" and Reality slaps you down hard and you realize this doesn't even begin to plumb the depths of a very deep, hard-to-grasp and rapidly changing subject. The author should be embarrassed.

Great book! It was easy to learn to design web pages with XHTML and CSS with all the hand-on examples and practice exercises in this book. This college textbook presents XHTML, CSS and web accessibility techniques, explores web design best practices, and even includes web promotion techniques for web designers! The companion website has links to useful websites and updates to the chapter. I highly recommend this book for web design or web development courses.

I have had NO previous experience in IT whatsoever. The book was very simple written, step by step.
I learned the basics of XHTML very quickly. Now, I am experienced web page builder and don't write codes anymore (I use web page building Applications), but believe me, I open that book almost everyday to refresh my memory.

I have had NO previous experience in IT whatsoever. The book was very simple written, step by step.
I learned the basics of XHTML very quickly. Now, I am experienced web page builder and don't write codes anymore (I use web page building Applications), but believe me, I open that book almost everyday to refresh my memory.

There is a very good 150 page book in here waiting to get out of this bloated expensive tome. Unfortunately, the endless padding just makes information retrieval extremely slow. Not content to show us bits of code to illustrate particular points, Holzner gives us complete pages of irrelevent mark-up almost every time. Rather than using a tabular approach to show what elements can be used with each tag, the author dribbles through the entire descriptive list in every chapter. The cardinal sin, though, is Holzners repeated use of depricated elements and tags in his illustrations. Surely a book on XHTML should show the XHTML way of doing things rather than harking back to earlier standards. Yes, I know the tags still work in most cases, but they won't for much longer and there is ALWAYS an alternative approved XHTML way of doing things. The book is also very poorly designed: symbols for the various browsers and W3C standards would have made things much clearer. A huge disappointment.

I liked the immediate solutions menu at the beginning of each chapter that list the most likely sought problems and the pages where you can find the answers. Also, the chapters on JavaScript were informative.

On the down side, why would anyone write an XHTML book w/ out concentration on cross-browser functionality? Many of the examples were solutions for just IE or for just Netscape. The whole point of validated XHTML is to reach the widest possible audience which means coding to a defined standard; browser specific code is mostly pointless. Also, as someone mentioned, the use of deprecated tags in examples caused me to be wary of the code throughout the whole book. Finally, why wait till page 503 to cover CSS? That should have been demonstrated early on to discourage the use of inline formatting within pages. And the CSS coverage, a chapter crucial to web development (ie, separation of data and presentation), was weak.

I guess for someone starting out it's ok to use this as a guide. But I urge anyone reading this book to avoid the use of deprecated tags or your web pages will render different ways in difft browsers.

After browsing through this book, I quickly went back and started reading it from the beginning. This is a great book for beginners in web authoring and an excellent ref. for experienced authors. As a self taught web author, I have purchased and read many books. For those just beginning, this book is worth the price. As for advanced authors, this book is a valuable ref. which includes the the newer XHTML 1.1 .. check this out. You will not be regret it. Well structured and complete and easy to read and understand. You will comprehend all that you read.

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.

Found this book to be a concise guide to learning html, css, and xhtml conforming to the latest standards. I had dabbled with web pages before, and though I could eventually hack something together, I knew it wasn't the way the pros did it. This book provided a good conceptual framework on how to separate presentation from content, the key reason to use CSS.

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.

I ordered this book along with Head First HTML with CSS & XHTML. I was worried based on reviews that this might be a little over my head. My only program experience is with VBA macro writing. I wanted Head First's book to protect myself from getting lost.

What I found is there was no problem understanding this well-presented and clear text. In fact, I much prefer it to the "dummy downed" Head First book. Had I to do it over, this would have been my only purchase.

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.

The errors in this text annoyed me to the point of wanting to drop my course. I took this class online so it was difficult to get feedback from professor. The case studies were helpful, and despite it all I have learned a couple of things about web development.

Ive taken the online course of this class and while over all the book is very imformative, there are several HTML errors every now and then which for me really has no excuse as this is the 3rd edition. The author DOES correct these errors on a website she maintains, but as this is a text book for a subject that requires exacting work, it can be quite a hinder to the learning process when the students are forced to check the professors own work when the coding does not work for them even after following the example to the letter. I highly recomend this product none the less, but you may want to have a friend on hand to double check the text if you are experiencing a problem with no reason.

Web Development & Design Foundations With XHTML (3rd Edition)
I used this text for a college Web design class. The lessons were easy to follow and laid out in a logical sequence. The case studies that are built upon as new material is learned are useful. I appreciate the attention paid to accessibility issues. I do have two major complaints though. First: There are far too many errors for a third edition, as noted by others. A great deal of study time is wasted before a student realizes that the text is wrong. Coding solutions provided by the publisher in the "Student Data Files" don't always validate, for example, and there are several mistakes not yet updated in the "erata" sections on the publisher's web site. Second: the extensive "Hands On Exercises" at the end of each chapter are less than helpful at the college level without at least some sample solutions. College instructors don't usually waste time on going over this type of material, so it's often a waste of time doing them. Suggestions for the publisher: Fewer "Hands On" exercises, more solutions and please fix all those text errors you've been hearing so much about!

Comments from reviewers of this book:

"The layout of Felke-Morris's text is excellent. I have always
disliked texts with crowded pages, distracting sidebars, and many colors. Felke-Morris' text focuses the student on salient content and uses color, text boxes, and the like to enhance and emphasize, rather than distract. Felke-Morris' hands-on exercises are something my current text does not even have. I really like these exercises because they give students a chance to learn and practice small chunks of material before applying the knowledge to a larger project."

"Great coverage of web accessibility standards! Glad to see a tutorial on File Management. Many students coming into this course struggle with those
concepts."

"Great inclusion of ethical issues and accessibility tips (these are areas that I do find myself supplementing with our current text)."

"Superior aspects of Felke-Morris include:
--Inclusion of web site pages and/or addresses that have been referred
to in the text as either examples of techniques, or places to find more information, or used as a part of the end-of-chapter section on Web Research. These are a real strong point of the text.
--Use of the same four example sites through the text as end-of-chapter Cases. As each chapter is completed, each site is enhanced using the current chapter's skills and concepts.
--The inclusion of Hands-On Practice and Web Research sections."

It was greate doing business with you. I received the book as you promised. Thanks, Nader

This is a very good book. I have been looking for a book like this for a long time.

This book, like most other primers on XHTML, tries to take the minor differences between standard HTML and XHTML, and turn it into a full blown manuscript. The truth is, if you already know HTML, then you already know most of what you need for XHTML.

XHTML differs little from HTML, except for the following points (I'm using brackets here on purpose so as not to mark up this review) :

- XHTML is case sensitive, e.g. the tags [h1] and [H1] are not equivalent.

- tags must be nested properly, e.g. [b][i]your text here[/b][/i] is incorrect in a "well formed" document.

- certain tags that take no attributes must be terminated with a slash, e.g. [br /]

- XHTML can use "modules" (and good luck trying to understand that chapter in the book).

That's about all you need to know about XHTML. Throw in a DTD definition and you're done. But the book does a poor job of explaining just what a DTD is and why you need one, other than the XML gods just saying you need one.

Much of the book is also C.I.P.U. to HTML users. CSS is given two short chapters with little explanation of why you need CSS and how it can help you manage your web pages. And then it's onto XML, with the same lack of explanation. But, as with most CSS and XML primers, this is typically the case. Everybody is touting the value of XML, but almost nobody can tell you why or how to use this new technology. And this book is no different.

I gave the book two stars because of its one outstanding feature, the references in Appendix C & D. The book is worth having around just for those two sections. In that sense you might want to pick up a used copy for much less than a new one.

This book did a great job describing xhtml,and like most special edition books I really liked. It was easy to understand. However, they didn't do the best describing modularization. I understood it more when I read it on w3.org. It also should've gone a bit further. I was especially disappointed it didn't say anything about xforms which was like the coolest part of xhtml. That doesn't this book isn't worth the money though. Its a great reference, but if you're looking to harness the full potential of xhtml and its newer features go elsewhere.

This book takes a detailed look at HTML and XHTML and all the various topics that relate to these markup languages. Even at the book's start, it discusses specifications and Document Type Definitions (DTD). In the book's second part, it talks about lists, links, tables, framesets, and forms, some of the "easier" things you can do with HTML and XHTML. Part three gets into adding images and multimedia, and what to watch out for when adding these items. Cascading Style Sheets get a thorough lookover in the book's fourth part, from using them with HTML & XHTML to adding style and positioning. The book also has a huge XMHTL reference section at the back of the book. This book is a wonderful reference guide for anyone working with HTML and XHTML, as well as providing good tutorial information throughout its pages.

If, as I recently did, you were to buy Molly Holzschlag's outstanding "Special Edition Using HTML and XHTML" and "Eric Meyer on CSS: Mastering the Language of Web Design," you might wonder if you had awoken on some strange planet in which pricey web books were actually worth the money, and tech authors wrote at a level that both challenged, elucidated, and entertained.

Molly Holzschlag's book, simply put, succeeds on every possible level. The style is clear and personable and the information is cogently and logically presented. As a web standards "insider," she gives you the history behind the development of markup languages rather than just throwing out the standard grid of what breaks in which browsers -- because, as this book so clearly demonstrates, the "why" matters a great deal, and you can't really get your mind around that without a few little history lessons along the way.

But it is not just a collection of dry facts and background info; the book is hands-on all the way, and constantly uses work-along examples to teach how to use XHTML to author web pages.

As Holzschlag states in the intro, the perfect reader for this book is the intermediate user -- someone who has used HTML before, and is quite familiar with web authoring, but maybe wishes to finally learn to do things the "right way," now that the W3C has made some headway with specifications. The book hits its intended audience mark dead on. The info is not dumbed down, yet important concepts are explained in detail. If you encounter a concept that is over your head, chances are there will be a sidebar link to the W3C website for additional information you need to catch up. This seems to me a very good compromise between leaving seasoned professionals bored, and lower-level intermediates in the dust.

There are several excellent reference charts (such as for ASCII symbols, character sets), and a comprehensive XHTML tag reference, making this a perfect all-around desk reference as well as a tool for getting up to speed on XHTML.

I believe this book would be particularly useful for the web designer wishing to move towards using XHTML for content and CSS for style and layout. In that case, I suggest "Eric Meyer on CSS: Mastering the Language of Web Design" as a companion volume to round out the CSS side of things (Actually, Holzschlag herself references Meyer's book several times).

If you really want to make the switch to cleaner markup, and prepare yourself for what's coming on the web (and if you don't think you want to, this book might also convince you why you *should* want to...) you could hardly do better than this book.

There is a reason you can purchase this book here for around ... For that price you can't go wrong but if you pay more than that you will have wasted your money. If you are new at web design and need a basic understanding of css xml and xhtml it provides that but you could have found that one the web for free.
When I purchase Magic Books I want projects that after I complete I can use. I didn't find them here. This is basic, basic, basic and it doesn't come with a cd.

-Buy and study this book if you want to construct low-key and conventional Web sites of today. The examples and illustrations are presented in a workmanlike fashion and are quite clear.

-Do not buy this book if you want to see current advanced techniques in action and learn the bread-winning skills of tomorrow.

The book is a collaboration of several authors, with content organized into various projects, such as 'Providing Online Customer Support' and 'Setting Up a Storefront.'

The authors get high marks for what they unanimously preached: Build your site upon validated HTML or XHTML; separate structure from presentation through the use of Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) to control fonts, colors, and layout.

The authors get low marks for what they unanimously practiced: Design your site with nested tables for layout, mocking the spirit of W3C coding recommendations; build to the weaknesses of Netscape 4; use JavaScript to write HTML, vitiating the separation of structure from content; use CSS merely to "spice up" your site, not transform it into sleek, modern efficiency.

The quality of project content was mixed. Holzschlag's 'Managing a Weekly Publication' was a delight to read for its description of the sources of the many compromises one must make with site code. Unfortunately, her project also began the litany of 1-pixel gifs to buttress the shaky edifice of old-fashioned nested tables.

Kuhlman's 'Creating a Complex Community Site' was a strong contribution, with clear instructions for the beginner in setting up an Apache server and using PHP.

Schmitt's projects were less valuable and an exercise in self-aggrandizement. Attend: 'Showcasing a Corporate (his own) Identity' which managed to show how to make a logo in Photoshop without ever really showing it in a lavishly illustrated book; and 'Designing a Great Personal (his own) Site.'

And yes, the book is extremely well illustrated. The organization is a bit confusing since the Table of Contents does not list chapters and each section is a numbered project but the example code files in the book's Web site are named by (non-existing) chapter. One can only guess. Each "chapter's" code must be downloaded separately and is composed almost entirely of code snippets, not whole pages --so you cannot see the code in action-- and these snippets have no listing numbers in the illustrations, so once again, you must open many files to find the code you want.

The authors are acutely aware of the current technology/style discussions and debates. They provide links to the sharpest, most relevant documents and sites. If you are just beginning, the lessons in those links will have you in the thick of it in no time!

I gave this book a 4 rating since it is far better than the average book on WWW site construction and HTML. You may decide I was too generous - or not.

It took me about a week on and off to work my way through XML, HTML, XHTML magic and it was very easy going indeed.

Physically the book is an excellent size and shape, it lies open on the desk without the need for mobile phones and coffee cups to keep it from flapping shut and the layout and colour scheme make for relaxed reading and easy scanning.


The books starts with a chapter on mark-up; HTML, XHTML, XML and CSS. I've read quite a few mark-up books by now and the idea of yet another intro to these disciplines made me grit my teeth a bit, but in actual fact this one is very good - simple, clear and accompanied by a generous amount of code examples.

As with all the chapters this finishes with a section entitled 'More Magic' which lays out tips, guidelines and often further reading for those interested. These sections have some great links to explore.

The book then moves on to discuss the 11 real-world projects which make up the bulk of the content. Each gives: a Project Snapshot outlining the problem; Technical Specs which tell you the mark-up and skills you will be using; Structuring the Site which gives advice on how to lay out the project; and finally the code work itself.

As others have noticed here, it's nice to see Molly and Co pushing W3C standards-compliant work, the more the better. On the other hand it's also nice to see that they too have to break the rules occasionally to achieve a goal. There I was thinking it was just me :o)

The sites the various authors create in the book are visually pretty basic, but they are functional and seem to be excellent starting off points for a project, saving the reader hours and hours trawling around the web trying to find inspiration or coding examples to copy.

The areas I found most useful were the CSS and JavaScript tips - I found quite a few examples of code I'd not seen before but will certainly use in future.
The 'XML for the Wireless Web' project was also something new to me and looked very interesting (if not a bit too complicated to just dabble in).

Also provided is an Index of Techniques, which list (by discipline) the techniques used in the book. This is very useful when referring back to the book with a specific task in mind such as 'Creating Printer-Friendly Pages with CSS'.


One grumble though, which I think others have also noted, is to do with the web site that accompanies the book. There was some initial confusion as to how the files (organised by Chapter) related to the book (organised by Project). In the end I worked out Chapter 1 equates to the Introduction, Chapter 2 to Project 1 and so on. A small thing but confusing at the time when you're keen to push ahead. I raised this issue with Molly and she agreed that the support web site could be altered to make it a bit clearer. This should happen soon :o)

Other weak points were the occasional project which seemed to combine very simplistic work (such as basic work with Frames) and flashes of more advanced JavaScript. 'Showcasing a Corporate Identity' by Christopher Schmitt is one such chapter and I couldn't work out who they were aimed at. Still, this is a book for a wide range of abilities so I guess everyone will find some things too easy and some a challenge.


To sum up, this is a jolly good book covering a wide range of topics. If you wanted to complete only one of the tasks described within then you'd be better off buying a more topic-specific book, but as a book to have in your library to provide a starting point for a range of projects I think it's a worthwhile buy, especially for the less experienced.

The book XML, HTML, XHTML Magic by author Molly E. Holzschlag and contributing authors Martin L. De Vore, Steve Franklin, John Kuhlman, Christopher Schmitt and Jason Cranford Teague promises to deliver eleven examples of how to incorporate current markup languages in real-world projects.

Those projects range from managing news sites, weekly publications, community sites, wireless web applications and community sites to even personal home pages - always referring to the web designer who has to be somewhat familiar with at least HTML, some CSS and problems that serious designers cope with, like cross-platform compatibility.

Always trying to follow the guidelines of the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C), the book succeeds in giving useful hints and tips that even the professional coder might appreciate.

Sitting on a plane back to Dusseldorf, I had enough time to review the eleven projects of the book. Most of the them I found extremely interesting to follow, while it was evident from the beginning that they represent the magic of mixing the different technologies and specifications existing today to get a better and reliable result in the final project. They are taken from real-life, are platform-balanced - it seems to me that half the contributors prefer the Macintosh platform while the other half uses Windows - and so they win a great amount of authenticity.

Every project starts with a short overview of what will happen in the chapter, followed by the technical specs and used technologies that the reader should be somewhat familiar with. Once again, this book is a real-life book for real-life designers. Dealing with hard-coded HTML and pure text editors when editing the code is not only a burden for the designer but more a way to control the results the best way possible - if this is what you think and most importantly if you already work that way, the book is for you, if you fully rely on WYSIWYG editors and think coding HTML by hand has become obsolete you should go elsewhere. That may be a harsh requirement that strikes out some possible readers of the book but in my eyes it is the only way to get a high-quality book like this.

A chapter ends with a More Magic section that gives you further things to explore if you found interest in the themes that were discussed. As of now I have used some of the ressources already and am satisfied.

The layout of the book is modern, easy to follow, planned and extremely awesome, concentrating on a b/w and orange color scheme with clear type, good source code listings as well as nice illustrations, quotes and images at the beginning of every chapter.

Finally, what you find in this book: 11 projects taken from real-life that should be considered examples to show what one is able to achieve in terms of mixing today's standards. A good impression of how to deal with problems that HTML, CSS, JavaScript as well as PHP and Perl bring up when put together. A good ressource for spicing up your own knowledge, confidence and work. And a bit of a lifestyle guide for the independent coder that seeks confidence in what he is doing. Magic.

What you will however not find in this book: A technical reference for each different markup language that is being talked about. A full reference of tags, attributes etc. that the specifications allow you to use. But to be honest, that never was the intention of Molly Holzschlag or her contributors writing this book.

Do I recommend this book? Yes, I do.

I've always wanted a book that had a little bit of everything for the Jane of all trades in me including HTML, XML, XHTML, PHP, ASP, CSS, etc. Impossible, I always thought -- it would be too much for such a book to exist. This book proved me wrong. It touches upon a little of everything using real-life projects from something simple as creating a personal Web site to a real challenge in using XML for the Wireless Web. Guess what? It's only two hundred something pages. Holzschlag and five other talented Web professionals have done a superb job showing how to do each project step-by-step to resolve the problem as identified at the beginning of each project chapter. Following the problem definition are the needed technical specs and the technologies or skills to complete the project. In general, this book is for those familiar with HTML, a text editor such as Notepad, and web graphics production. For some projects, it recommends a basic understanding of JavaScript and CSS. Wherever you are in your Web design knowledge, you can follow along with the book. Try out the projects in the book the help of the companion Web site loaded with graphics and code for downloading.

This book probably won't win any book awards but I actually found it very helpful. Since I am a HTML idiot(can never remember any tags) this book worked perfect. I know there are other 400 pages HTML books out there but if you're like me, you probably finish reading 1/3 way through the book before putting it back to the shelf. If you just need a quick instant HTML lesson so you can finish that HTML page, this book is an option.

Great easy to read and follow book. I used it for a web paging class. I am dissapointed that the same book is broken into two books. There is an introductory version of this book with chapters 1 thur 8 and a comprehensive version of this book with chapters 1 thru 14 or so. I accidently bought the introductory version when I needed the comprehensive version. When ever this book is advertised which version it is needs to be clearly stated and maybe more than once so buyers know what they are getting.