Creating Cool Web Pages With Html Paperback – January, 1996

There are a lot of "The Web's so cool and if you just buy our book you can make a million dollars" kinds of books out there. I've gotten tired of them very quickly. For one, the Web is just new, it's not the salvation of mankind. For another, they always have some underlying motive (beyond making money), and usually its ramming their own web pages down your throat. Taylor doesn't do this. In fact, he makes you feel very welcome as he explains, in a pleasant narrative style, this big blob of networks called the Web. He's not condescending about it, he's not pushy about it, but he is excited about it, and it appears genuine. The book itself details the standard beginner stuff, with some advanced carrots that leave you drooling for more (I know how to do tables but how do I set up a counter?). Many of these books will disappear rapidly over time because of the advent of HTML editors like Netscape Gold, but this book will stick around - there's plenty in there for the advanced user too. One complaint: Dave, stop using Microsoft Internet Explorer!

As a professional web developer, I am always looking for ways to brush up on my skills and stay competitive. So of course, when I saw this book, I was eager to see if it could provide me with any new techniques for the creation of web pages, particularly "cool" ones, using the popular new Hypertext Markup Language.Sadly, I found it very disappointing. The author advocates many methods of web page creation that are inaccessible, woefully out of date, or just plain wrong. When I suggested implementing some of the coding techniques in the book, I was literally laughed at by my colleagues.The book does not cover even the most rudimentary basics of semantic markup, and even suggests using the FONT and TABLE tags to apply styles without even the briefest mention of CSS.I will certainly not be recommending this book to my fellow web developers any time soon.(In all seriousness, I read this book when it was new, and it got me started tinkering with web pages. Now I work for Yahoo. The 5 star rating is honorary.)