Html 4

Sams Teach Yourself Web Publishing with HTML 4 in 21 Days, Professional Reference Edition, Second Edition (Teach Yourself -- Days)

Format: Hardcover
Author: Laura Lemay
ReleaseDate: February, 2000
Publisher: Sams
Rating:

Great book for beginners
I'm a rookie at web development and after being only half way through this book I feel like an expert(well almost). I found this book to be extremely helpful. If you are looking for a good book that teaches you from scratch with step by step examples, stop searching. This is the book you want. The reason I gave it four stars instead of five is because some of the graphics used in the book, I can't find them on the CD. However there are a lot of other ones on the CD.

First rate entry level HTML primer
Many entry level texts get you started using code that has been depricated by the W3C, knowing full well that future browsers may not support the coding methods they are teaching. Laura Lemay has become one of the premier writers of web development texts, and this book is a good example. Laura does an excellent job of introducing newcomers to the "art" of web development while at the same time, prepares them for impending changes in the coding standards. The basics are well covered with easy to understand examples. Advanced techniques are introduced in such a way as not to confuse the novice. While the book does not come with a CD rom with sample code, most books this size are considerably more expensive. In my opinion, the trade off was well worth it. This book is an absolute must have for the novice who is serious about learning HTML.

I was impressed..
You won't get full coverage on all these topics, though. This is quite a thick book which covers a lot, and it's a good introduction to a lot of subjects, such as HTML, Javascript, style-sheets, forms, dynamic HTML, and more. If you're creating your own site, you will probably want a bigger reference that covers everything. But as an introduction to these topics, this book is excellent.
I had no trouble finding the code to match this book (2nd edition). But it appears that it's not contained in the 2mb zip download that's offered, which is for a different edition. You just have to download the examples for each individual chapter.
I do have some criticisms, which have nothing to do with the author(s), but the editing. Maybe I imagined it, but the section on DHTML contained so many typographical errors that I wondered whether the editor was taking a long nap instead of correcting all the mistakes. Again - maybe I imagined the errors. I'm not nitpicking, since it makes some of the examples difficult to understand. Badly worded sentences should be avoided at all costs in books like these. You don't want the reader thinking, "Did he/she mean this, OR this?"
If you could combine the book with a few decent web references (this book has some great sites you can visit if you're after more information), then you could get pretty far with HTML. You really need to know all this stuff if you want to start with more advanced subjects in web development any way.