The Web Page Design Cookbook

William Horton et al set out in this manual with an honourable intention - to create "a book for people who want to create Web pages without making a career out of it". This could be very welcome to those who don't have the time to learn all the intricacies. After all, we drive cars without becoming motor mechanics, don't we. 

They offer a general introduction to HTML and then a series of chapters which show how sample pages are constructed. These are closely linked to templates available on the accompanying CD. This contains not only ready-made pages and examples, but a very impressive array of shareware readers and editors. HotDog and HotMetal are included, along with an Acrobat reader, and the popular I-View program.


The book has extensive multiple indexes which offer a full list of Internet and Web authoring tools and resources, with both URLs and ftp addresses. Later chapters deal with the complexities of forms, frames, and tables. There is also a bibliography of helper applications, utilities, mailing lists, newsgroups, and even printed books. So, it makes a good reference and resource manual. 

The problem is that although the authors are clearly knowledgeable, they don't seem to have thought about how to present their information. The culinary metaphor of their title is pursued ad nauseam, and it hinders rather than assists comprehension. The reader is having to work out the validity of the comparisons as well as trying to understand HTML.

For instance, "We stored the templates (we called them recipes) on the CD-ROM in a series of directories - entrees if you will, because this is a cookbook." The chapters have titles such as "Tableware and Cutlery", "Ingredients", and "Nutrition". This sort of writing is simply not helpful. 

There are also serious flaws with their structure. The very first lesson raises the frightening spectres of photo enhancement, colour saturation, and interlaced GIF files - yet on the other hand it's page 230 before they deal with the basic grammar of HTML.

This confusion is also reflected in the fact that the discussion of a sample will be followed by two or three pages of the relevant HTML code printed out in mind-numbing 10 point Courier. This will be enough to deter any faint-hearted beginner - and yet those at a more advanced level are likely to be irritated by the trivial details, and the "Now let's get started" chirpy tone. 

This is a compilation of badly mixed parts which is unlikely to be useful for the audience they claim to have in mind. But if you see a copy which has been remaindered, buy it for the sake of the appendices :-)