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HTML Dog: The Book

Friday 3 December, 2004 (11:49AM GMT)

XHTML & CSS: A Web Standards Approach book coverWell, it's not really HTML Dog: The Book, it's XHTML & CSS: A Web Standards Approach, published by New Riders and written by yours truly.

Cutting to the chase, this is the most comprehensive guide to practical, web standard (X)HTML and CSS you'll find. Across the ten chapters ("Getting Started" (syntax, etc.), "Text", "Links", "Images", "Layout", "Lists", "Scripts & Objects", "Tables", "Forms" and "Multi-media"), it acts as a guide and a reference to everything you need to make web pages of the highest quality, covering all of the standard, practical XHTML tags and CSS properties, explaining how to apply structure to content and how best to present it with CSS.

It makes a koala look like the evolutionary ancient mammal it is.

Frankly, I've been a tad peeved with inadequate books that cover this sexy new thing called CSS while overlooking the importance of good markup and with those that focus on HTML with little more than a few pages about CSS bolted on as an apparent afterthought. Good, modern web pages are made with solid XHTML and CSS. They work together. They're best buddies. Partners. Lovers. Symbionts. And what's the best way to use them? With web standards. No font tags allowed. Tables for layout? Pah.

It will probably appeal most to intermediate to advanced designers, as a handy, junk-free reference. But it's just as suitable for ambitious beginners, who want to apply best practices from the outset.
I've written something that I would find useful now, but also something that I think would have come in handy when I first learnt about HTML, CSS and web standards.

I'm especially proud and excited to be working with New Riders, who already dominates my web design bookshelf and together I think we've come up with something that can stand proud in their impressive canon.

Some form of accompanying micro-site will be going up on HTML Dog in the coming months, which will contain more information and should hopefully contain something for everyone - whether you own the book or not.

I'm sure it would make a great stocking filler. Unfortunately even Santa doesn't have to power to arrange that (not this year, anyway)- it won't be available for a few months yet (we're talking March/April at the moment). But you can pre-order it now from amazon.com,
amazon.co.uk, amazon.ca, amazon.fr, amazon.de and amazon.co.jp.

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