Teach yourself Web Publishing with HTML 4 in 21 days

There are dozens of HTML design manuals in print for us to choose from - so what makes one any different from another? If you're a beginner, it's important that the steps are laid out in easy stages. For intermediate users, a full explanation of the latest Standard 4.0 is probably required. And for advanced users - well, I have the impression that experienced designers don't use manuals at all. They learn from doing, and meanwhile keep an eye on the standards which are available in their most indigestible but accurate form at www.w3c.org

Laura Lemay starts with the advantage that she was one of the first people to write a best-selling web pages design guide, which now appears in its latest edition to cover everything up to and including HTML Standard 4.0. She ironically refers to herself in the computer books mailing list as "Laura Lemay - Killer of Trees" and it's easy to see why this has become firmly established as a favourite - particularly for beginners.


Her secret is not at all hard to detect: it is one of clarity and simplicity. She explains the principles of hypertext and navigation, then gets down to the basics of tags, links, text formatting, and graphic images. Each topic is allotted a separate chapter, at the end of which there are questions and answers plus a nifty quiz to check that you have understood what you have covered so far.

She wisely leaves the more advanced topics of imagemaps, cascading style sheets, and dynamic HTML until later. Every suggestion is illustrated by an example which includes a screenshot plus the relevant code, and her page layout is clear without being padded to the point of absurdity as is often the case with manuals of this type.

I particularly liked the sections on good and bad design, as well as those on putting your site on the web and letting people know it's there. She chooses realistically simple examples which will not deter the beginner, and she offers sound advice on testing pages in a validator. There are several appendices covering the HTML Standard 4.0 specification, cascading style sheets, and sources of further information.

So - she covers all the basics in a clear manner, provides an up-to-date account of the problems of cross-platform compatibility [Netscape Vs Explorer] and points you in the right direction for more sophisticated design work when you're ready for it. If this is what you're looking for, add your name to the long list of her fans, and fuel the envy of her rivals.