Creating Cool Web Sites with HTML, XHTML, and CSS

HTML for the World Wide Web with XHTML and CSS: Visual QuickStart Guide, Fifth Edition

Database Design

HTML: Your visual blueprint for designing effective Web pages with HTML, CSS, and XHTML

Format: Paperback
Author: Paul Whitehead
ReleaseDate: 27 May, 2005
Publisher: Visual
Rating:

Could have done so much better.
The fact that the book covers the whole lot is a very good idea, the execution, however, leaves much to be desired. I bought this book because I wanted to learn CSS and, apart from this being the only book in my local store that covered CSS, I thought learning HTML and XHTML would be a bonus.

I am currently up to page 88, so this is not a review of the entire book, but I felt so strongly about warning people I had to write now. I am already looking on Amazon for alternatives.

1. Errors: There are errors in the text and the images, some more serious than others, that can leave you confused and scrambling around various resources for answers.

2. The visual style is the only saving grace behind this book, because it's only through the pictures that I can understand what's going on. The copy itself is like reading a bad technical manual.

4. The approach seems utterly uncohesive and at no point do you actually feel you're progressing towards building anything. Each page reads as if they took their appendices and simply explained them, rather than building up a more profound understanding of what is essentially learning a new language.

This series of books has some very good consumer feedback, and I am sure other titles are very good, because the idea behind the format is essentially a sound one, but it really looks as if a minimum of thought and care went into producing this one and I cannot recommend it to anyone.