djsplendid's Full Review: Sams Teach Yourself Html 4 in 24 Hours Books
The book is entitled Teach Yourself HTML 4 in 24 Hours, attainable goal yes, but not likely, you'll want to sleep and eat maybe even shower between some lessons so it'll take longer then 24 hours. However, the book is broken into 24 chapters each with an estimated lesson time of 1 hour. Granted, some people may be slower or faster, depending on your grasp of computers and one's rate of learning.
A friend of mine loaned me the book when I was first getting into web design. I haven't been able to thank him enough yet! I cracked the book open and here is what I came across
Hour/Lesson 1 "Welcome to HTML"
This chapter is a brief explanation as to what HTML is, why you should learn to code with HTML before going out and getting a program like Dreamweaver or Frontpage to do it for you and what web browsers are and how they work.
Hour/Lesson 2 "Creating a Web Page"
Well jump right in why don't we. In my opinion, this is the best way to go about learning something, get a brief history (chap. 1) and then dive right in and go from there. In this lesson you'll learn several things, understanding basic structure of an HTML page, saving your HTML in proper format, defining paragraphs and adding a heading to your page.
Hour/Lesson 3 "Linking to other web pages"
This lesson teaches you relative and absolute linking (absolute being from one page to another, relative being 2 pages on same computer/site) What makes an HTML page hyper and the all important anchor tag.
Hour/Lesson 4 "Publishing your HTML Pages"
This chapter I skipped and went back to when I was done the rest of the book. Most places are pretty self explanatory on how to publish, and all programs have a publish feature. There are important things in this chapter, like learning about web hosting, understanding what domain names are, testing pages and how to upload files to you site.
Hour/Lesson 5 "Text formatting and Alignment"
One of the most important chapters in my opinion. This chapter will learn you different methods to align text, working with special charachters, how to emphasize by using bold and italic and how to create margins. Nothing worse then a web page that isnt aligned properly. It's aesthetically unpleasing to the eye and most likely will drive visitors away from your site if not aligned properly.
Hour/Lesson 6 "Font Control and Special Charachters"
Teaches font color, how to size fonts and how to select font faces (which font you want to use)
Hour/Lesson 7 "Arranging Text in Lists"
This chapter teaches ordered lists (numbered), Unordered (bulleted) and definition lists.
Hour/Lesson 8 "Intra-page and Email Links"
Very important chapter here. Teaches you how to link your main page to your sub pages, also how to create and manager your e-mail links as well.
Hour/Lesson 9 "Putting Images on a web page"
Pretty much does what it says. All aspects of image alignment, placement and functionality are covered in this chapter.
Hour/Lesson 10 "Creating web page Images"
This chapter shows you how to use graphics tools, image resources, scanning and sizing images, image file types, how to optimize your images for speed (in loading the web page) and creating banners and buttons.
Hour/Lesson 11 "Making pages display quickly"
Browser based color techniques, selecting images, specifying width and height and providing preview images (thumbnails) are covered in this chapter.
Hour/Lesson 12 "Creating animated graphics"
Animation methods are covered here as well as other animation tools you can use.
Hour/Lesson 13 "Backgrounds and Color Control"
Hour Lesson 14 "Page Design and Layout"
This chapter shows how to use background images as design elements, using horizontal rules, Image spacing and how to set borders.
Hour/Lesson 15 "Image Maps"
Making sense of images, Server-side image maps, Client sized image maps and much more about your graphics are covered here.
Hour/Lesson 16 "Advanced Layout with Tables"
Tables in my experience are an extremely helpful tool for web design, however they can be a real pain. This lesson will help by teaching you how to lay out your design in tables, the mechanics of table layout and arranging your pages.
Hour/Lesson 17 "Using Style Sheets"
Covered, what style sheets are, how to implement them into your site and what class and groupings are to web design.
Hour/Lesson 18 "Interactive layout with frames"
I hate frames, never used them, never will. I just don't like how they look and break up a page. However, other people like and use them, this chapter explains all that to you.
Hour/Lesson 19 "Creating HTML Forms"
Forms are a very necessary and very functional part of web sites (those that need it) This chapter explains how to create, hot to design and how they work.
Hour/Lesson 20 "Organizing and managing a web site"
Hour/Lesson 21 "Embedding multimedia in web pages"
This chapter covers all types of different media options for web pages. Teaching you how to make it work in all broswers.
Hour/Lesson 22 "Applets, ActiveX and Objects"
This chapter is a little confusing however practice makes perfect. CGI/Perl scripting, Active X controls, java, plug-ins and custom programming are covered in this chapter.
Hour/Lesson 23 "Using Scripts to alter elements"
Mainly about java scripting related issues. Problems you may have, resources you can use, and different tricks for java are covered here.
Hour/Lesson 24 "Preparing for the future of HTML"
Well you made it to the end. Good for you. Now you can whip up some great web pages, know how they work and what you need to do to make them work properly. With Dynamic HTML (DHTML) XML and Flash, there are countless ways to make your web site more personal and stand out from the crowd. Theres always more to learn. If you feel this book hasn't covered some issues for you, you can always go to www.webmonkey.com they have complete online tutorials (The place I go when I need help)
This book gave me the basic grasp of HTML, which allowed me to teach myself DHTML and start learning java 2 as well. I'm on my way to my MCSE (Microsoft Certified Systems Engineer) and I have my friend, and this book to thank for it. If you're looking for a career in web design but don't have any clue about HTML and how it works, get this book immediately. At $19.99 you won't be disappointed!
More info on the book can be found at
www.samspublishing.com or www.mcp.com/info/1-57521/1-57521-366-4
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