Instant HTML

Wrox have burst onto the market [in the UK] with a direct and simple approach. They offer cheap-and-cheerful, no-nonsense guides to the latest aspects of programming. Their titles are obviously aimed at the busy would-be who hasn't got the time or money to wade through nine hundred page guides which cost the price of a night in a four-star hotel. 

Wright begins with a compact account of the HTML 3.2 protocols. The approach is emphatically clear, simple, and direct. The application of HTML code is illustrated with reference to both Netscape 4.0 and Internet Explorer 4.0, which is useful - given the lack of consistency which is still plaguing the two browser giants.  He also gives practical advice on the problem of keeping up to date on browser developments - as well as the dangers of keeping too up to date and therefore falling into the trap of browser-dependency. This is good quality guidance from someone who seems to have professional experience. 

The downside of these quick reference guides is that they skip over issues rather quickly. This title is for the intermediate user. The good side is that they do bridge the gap between the 500 page and door-stopping beginner's guide and the dry list of tags and syntax which we could download from the W3C site anyway. 

He covers graphics, tables, frames, forms, animation, and scripts. Wrox make a virtue of illustrating every step with screenshots, even though we do sometimes leap rather quickly from one stage to the next. They also limit the amount of code which is printed. There's just enough to understand the procedure being discussed. 

There are several appendices: a full list of HTML tags, special characters, colour names [the Hex equivalents would have been useful] and notes on VBscript, and JavaScript. The only thing I don't like about these Wrox titles is the heavily shadowed graphics used for bullet points which visually dominate the page. But as quick and no-nonsense guides they're good value for money.