Product Description
The Definitive Guide to HTML & CSS–Fully Updated Written by a Web development expert, the fifth edition of this trusted resource has been thoroughly revised and reorganized to address HTML5, the revolutionary new Web st… More >>
HTML & CSS : The Complete Reference, Fifth Edition
Written by admin on August 27th, 2010 in Computers & Internet.
Tags: Complete, Edition, Fifth, HTML, Reference
This is my first experience with “The Complete Reference” series, and I am very impressed. I am new to html and css, and this book provides a fine introduction to both. The book has a nearly perfect balance of teaching content and reference. I read enough information to learn the basic syntax, and saw many examples of usage. Then, the reference starts; you know how to use them, here are all of the options – go for it! Now when I need to know how to do something, say positioning in css, I just look at the options, decide what I need, and test it. It really is that simple. The html and css sections are separate, but both are explained in the same format. Now that I have a basic understanding of these topics, and a great reference, I am free to move on to more advanced topics like Javascript and MySQL.
This is also the first book that I have seen that includes HTML5 and CSS3 coverage (all of the others are currently pre-order only). The coverage lists everything, but only goes into detail on the tags that are most likely to be supported, or are already supported. Since we are a couple of years away from seeing the new standards adopted, this coverage seems appropriate.
This is the type of book that I can really learn from quickly, and I hope I find more that are this good for other subjects.
Rating: 5 / 5
This is a comprehensive reference which covers all versions of HTML and CSS, including HTML5 and CSS3. It is written by a Web development expert who has participated in the development of the new standards, and who is very knowledgeable. I was very impressed by this book, which I think currently is the most comprehensive, complete and up to date reference book for CSS and HTML available. The book is an outstanding go-to guide for both for beginners and professional Web developers as it is fully updated for the latest CSS and XHTML standards and provides clear and concise examples.
The author, Thomas A. Powell, is president of PINT, Inc. [...], a nationally recognized Web agency. He developed the Web Publishing Certificate program for the University of California, San Diego Extension and is an instructor for the Computer Science Department at UCSD. He is also the author of the previous bestselling editions of this book and Ajax: The Complete Reference, and co-author of JavaScript: The Complete Reference. This broad expertise and background has clearly been important in the writing of HTML & CSS: The Complete Reference.
This excellent book covers all the elements supported in today’s Web browsers-from the standard (X)HTML tags to the archaic and proprietary tags that may be encountered. HTML & CSS: The Complete Reference, Fifth Edition contains full details on CSS 2.1 as well as every proprietary and emerging CSS3 property currently supported. I was positively surprised by the width of the coverage of CSS3. It also has good annotated examples of correct markup and style which show you how to use all of these technologies to build impressive Web pages.
Also, CSS and XHTML: The Complete Reference, Fifth Edition covers the newest browser versions including Firefox 3, Internet Explorer 8, Safari and Opera, and contains much updated information about the browser and cross-browser compatibility of the various HTML and CSS elements. In addition, helpful appendixes cover the syntax of character entities, fonts, colors, and URLs.
I was very favorably impressed by this book. It is well written and well organized, and even though it is has more than 800 pages, very little space is wasted. CSS and XHTML: The Complete Reference, Fifth Edition also contains good examples of useful Java. Overall the book is very up to date and so comprehensive that I think it will be useful for a long time, even though things change relatively fast as far as CSS and HTML is concerned. If you, like me, like to have a good reference book that is well organized, contains information on browser implementation and even some good examples, this is a very good choice which I strongly recommend!
Rating: 5 / 5
This book is a good book for reference only. It is not a how-to-do instructional guide. Go with something else if you are a beginner.
Rating: 2 / 5