HTML 3

First Steps onto the Web

Chris Good plunges into HTML coding and needed a reference book...

With everybody and his dog producing Web pages these days I thought it was about time I buckled down to some serious HTML coding. After a few sessions I realised I needed an easy to follow quick guide for beginners.

I borrowed "Using HTML by Neil Randall" to knock up the WAG user group pages and went looking for a copy of this or something similar. After browsing (sic) through numerous weighty tomes on the selves of my local booksellers (some come complete with CD-ROMs/disks and advanced stuff on CGI/JAVA/VRML coding with price tags to match) I plumped for "How To Use HTML3 by Scott Arpajian" - one of the main reasons being it had a œ5 off sticker on the front!

Seriously though, compared to some of the other books available, this seemed to include everything I needed, large clear diagrams, easy to follow tutorials and a tag reference section in the back.

The style of the book is easy to follow. Each page includes a picture illustrating what the finished code should look like on-screen surrounded by smaller illustrations the sequence in which the code should be prepared. A running "Try it's" tutorial builds into a web page for the imaginary "LawnBirds Inc." and provides an opportunity to practice the code you've read about in the previous chapter.

The proprietary Netscape and Microsoft Explorer extensions as are video and sounds file handling. There's also a brief mention of JAVA code applets. Since CAB currently doesn't support JAVA this isn't a problem. Overall an excellent beginners book to Web authoring I'm off to look for something a little more advanced now.

Product name: How to use HTML3 by Scott Arpajian

Publisher: ZD Press
Contact: Ziff-Davis Press Line of Books, 5903 Christie Avenue,
Emeryville, CA 94608
ISBN: 1-56276-390-3
Price: œ22.99
Pros: Aimed at beginners
Cons: Rather PC/Mac oriented - but they all are!

Score: 80%


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