Learning Web Design: A Beginner's Guide to HTML, CSS, JavaScript, and Web Graphics

I am only up to Chapter 5, so this review is limited to early impressions... I am a person who prefers to learn on my own. When it comes to software I frequently just dive in and paddle around until I eventually grok the concepts behind it and learn how to make it work. After a number of false starts and blind alleys, I'll acquire some proficiency. A well-written manual can be a terrific aid to the process. A badly-written manual can still be helpful once I understand enough about the software to extract useful information from material that has been badly organized, illustrated and explained. (Or out-of-date, or simply WRONG!) HTML (HyperText Markup Language) -- the language that formats web pages -- isn't well suited to my default mode of learning. But I need to update and maintain my two websites, so I felt I had to buckle down and learn the lingo. For that I needed something beyond a good manual, I needed a good textbook designed for the rank amateur. I bought Jennifer Robbins' book based on the excellent reviews posted on Amazon. I'm only up to page 80, but I am already creating HTML code that produces simple, but very serviceable web pages. Just how far and how deep I go into HTML is yet to be determined, but paging ahead in the book I can see that the topics covered go very deep indeed. The key point here is that Jennifer is an honest-to-god hands-on teacher who also has a gift for writing. She doesn't dawdle around -- you get into the real stuff pretty fast -- but she provides enough background, examples and explanation that your eyes don't cross and your brain check out. Its a delicate balance between the meat and the filling, and Jennifer manages it like an artist. Now HTML code, like all computer code, is not particularly intuitive, and when you throw in the syntax it becomes less so. But Jennifer introduces you to the elements in a logical order, a bit at a time, progressively building upon previous material to take you up to the next level of complexity. Quite quickly you acquire enough skill to produce pages that have a bit of polish. This text does NOT teach you how to use any of the many web-page-creation programs that are out there. This book introduces you to the bedrock code that underlies all web pages, however created. In that respect it is less 'E-Z', but more durable and broadly applicable. There are a thousand ways to create web pages. There are more web-page-creation tools all the time and they are constantly evolving. But the code they produce, the root HTML, is a far more stable product, and to understand it is to truly understand what is being created. Finally -- and this is important -- Jennifer provides exercises at the end of each chapter that are meaningful tests of your comprehension and retention, while not so challenging as to be discouraging. Long ago I learned that if you haven't worked the exercises you haven't learned the material, so I find it particularly gratifying that the exercises are well designed and useful. Buy this book, work through it page by page and chapter by chapter, and you will not regret the time or the money spent.

I'm sure a few of my colleagues and clients, if they discovered I recently purchased this book, would be rather stunned. Considering I was responsible for some pretty pioneering web content from near the early days of the web. However, the authorial skill of this book is so spectacular, and Robbins' knowledge depth is so continuously impressive, that I am page, by page presented with some new hidden epiphany, that years of acclaimed pro-level work had somehow not revealed to me prior! I intentionally bought this used and what an unimaginable value! Special highlights include the discovery that Robbins may have coded one of (or thee) very first website in history, (If I remember my reading right) and the humbling realization of what I can do with the <pre> tag relative to Ebook development, wow! This book is the radioactive spider bite that can turn you into a true webslinger! Special note, O'Reilly has got to be one the highest quality publishers in history, I'm jealous! The author, the content, and the design and construction of the physical version of this book is absolutely awesome! A true joy and inspiration to read!

I'm working through this book now having had it for a few months. Overall, it's presented well towards me as somewhat familiar with programming. If you've never dabbled in programming or design before, it's not bad either, but it definitely moves quickly. There are occasionally a few parts that feel like they might be out of date, but there are also tons of sections that have obviously been updated since the previous incarnation was published. Her style of writing is friendly and colloquial, I've enjoyed reading it so far both academically and somewhat as a pleasurable activity. I would say that the activities are easy and also help you stretch your abilities a bit, however they are not that challenging. At the end of the day, it's (so far!) a great introduction to web design including touching on HTML, CSS and (hopefully soon) a bit of Javascript.

The many 5-star reviews here by web design experts led me to choose this book to help build my website. But this is the viewpoint of a beginning web-builder, albeit someone who has had a lot of experience of learning from books. The book is NOT about user experience, the aesthetics of web design, search engine optimization, etc.. After a sprinkling of facts about the history, workings, and administration of the web in the first chapters, it is all about techniques of generating text and image content with HTML5 and CSS3. A couple of concluding chapters briefly introduce JavaScript. HTML5's role is proposed to be confined to structure or semantics (meaning), leaving all formatting to CSS (except, of course, some default text formatting, else text could not display in HTML alone). This is in contrast with earlier versions of HTML, where one was not discouraged from using as much HTML formatting as allowed before formatting with CSS. Jennifer Robbins is a remarkable teacher. She anticipates the questions and misunderstandings some readers may have, and deals with them before they become obstacles. Although she calls this a beginner's book, she writes for aspiring web professionals, and her thoroughness reflects this intent. The exercises are well-designed, and the end-of-chapter questions helpful in determining if you really "got it" (answers are in the back of the book). I like the many references to books and web articles extending the scope of her book; she seems well-informed on the cutting edge of web design. Her writing is clear, and difficult concepts are well-explained. Digital files of all the book's examples are available on O'Reilly's website. (I appreciate that O'Reilly does not require a code to download the files. Actually, it's a good marketing strategy, because a lot of people will buy O'Reilly's books when they find out how good all their stuff is!) I love this book!

I've used other books to learn HTML4 and JavaScript but never felt like I had a good enough handle on the concepts. I basically learned to code by rote. However, this book explains the why's and wherefores of each code, scripting and cascading style sheets so you really get a much deeper handle on what the tags mean. That makes them much easier to remember. It's very easy to follow, great for a beginner, but it's a tremendous refresher or "fill-in-the-questions" you end up with even if you can code but don't really have a deep understanding of what you're doing. Helps get you over that learning curve with a much stronger grasp and confidence. The book is very well organized and easy to read and understand the concepts. It doesn't go very deeply in to scripting, but sets you up quite well to maybe move on to a more comprehensive and advanced coverage of it. So far this is the best guide I have found for learning HTML, especially HTML 5, cascading style sheets, strong intro to JavaScript, and the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) organization and standards, which are critical for acceptable web design.

I have been on a path to teaching myself web design. (focusing on front-end for now) I haven't finished this book yet but I can say I am GLAD I read this before jumping to the abundant amount of tutorial options online. When I discovered the depth of learning Web design I had already finished my Associates in liberial arts and was on my year break. A few friends told me about using the tutorials online but I was skeptical. So I searched through amazon and bought this text book. After reading most of it I finally decided to try the tutorials to get some various hands on practice. I used sites like Udemy, Codecademy, treehouse, and some youtube videos. What I notice was although it was really great practice it didn't really break down everything intellectually. Most of the the sites give you a gloos over of some things then instruct you on what to do next. Which was real "monkey" teaching in my perspective. I felt if I hadn't read Jennifer's "learning Web design" I would be lost in understanding the concept of what I was doing. I was able to bridge gaps that weren't entirely explained on some of the sites because Jennifer takes the time to thoroughly break it down not only by terms,but detailed information on why certain processes are taken. Everything is then followed up by great examples (most are hands on) and a test section to further ensure you get the jist of what you just read. I would definitely recommend this book to any beginner who is intimidated about where to start while being self taught.

I didn't have a clue where to begin. I knew I wanted to learn "programming," but didn't even know what "programming" meant. Somehow I learned that I should start learning Python. A few days into learning it, I realized - I really wanted to be able to make websites but I didn't know the first thing about it. I looked through about a dozen books on the subject before settling on HTML & CSS: Design and Build Websites, by Jon Duckett, which I highly recommend. I tore through that book - a super concise but wonderfully understandable book - still a reference to me and a fantastic entry-point with my learning style. (It didn't have a lot of frills or demonstrations - just everything you need to know to start building sites). Then I found Learning Web Design... I couldn't be happier with the book. I'm glad to have started with the book I did only because it was very quick reading (not many words) and got the right words in my head - giving me a framework for a slower and more thorough study, which this book provided in spades. Examples are great, writing is clear and very plain english. This book takes you from know-nothing to making websites very comfortably and it only took me a couple weeks to get through. If you're looking for a starting point and a thorough guide that you'll enjoy reading, I highly recommend this book.

Not quite the content I expected. The writing style makes it an easy read. It's a good reference book for html tags and has filled in some elementary knowledge gaps. However, examples given in the book seem more oriented towards formatting text on a web page and I'm looking for deeper explanations for how to exchange data between a web page and a database. I would have liked to have seen more page display results for the sample html presented. It would be a good starter book for someone who doesn't know html at all. For myself, I need something that goes a little deeper.

Il libro e proprio come la volevo e come avevo bisogno. E bel organizzato ed e descritivo dal inizio di una programa cosa dobbiamo conoscere prima di programmare. Grazie mille

This book is very helpful, even for a total beginner in this field. I got to make very simple web pages on my own. I got a free program they recommend that I use to do a little Desktop Publishing with now when I need it - I did have some previous experience with that. I am not pursuing web design because it is not my thing at all, too hard for me personally, but it was fun finding out the ropes, even though I did not succeed in some of the projects. I learned more about types of files etc, and my computer generally.

Pour des raisons diverses j'ai a me frotter avec HTML. Ce livre m'a permis dans quelques heures de lecture de comprendre la mécanique du langage et de l'utiliser dans quelques cas simples. Je recommande ce livre à toute personne voulant s'initier à HTML.

I used to design web pages in the 1990's, when pictures were just being introduced to the web. All we had back then was HTML. I made use of tables and yes, the Comic Sans® font. When CSS started to come along, I lost interest. I soon realised that web design was becoming a multi-disciplined environment, and I was neither a programmer, or a designer. I started to learn web design again in 2012. I bought some very good books that were either too specific, or very tedious to read - I could name them, but there's no point as they are very good books if you have enough ground knowledge. To the book: 1. The page layout makes it very readable, because it's been written by a Designer - Programmers take note! Many books on Web Design/Programming are rushed out with little regard to their readability, and layout. 2. The use of colour in the book is put to good use. You'd be surprised at how many similarly priced books have no colour at all. 2. It's takes the reader from the very basics to quite advanced topics in a structured way. 3. The latest edition includes information about Responsive Web Design (designing for all screen sizes). It's also bang up to date for CSS3 and HTML5. Web Design is on the move again - now is good time to learn. 4. It's been written by a woman - i.e. no silly jokes. 5. The plethora of links to other books, and online resources is very useful. I wholly reccommend this book, to anyone that wants to make a start in Web Design, or who needs updating on the latest tools.

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