Speak the right language and the Web is yours

Decipher the code, use the right tools, and conquer the online world of the World Wide Web. This comprehensive guide demystifies HyperText Markup Language (HTML) and Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) so you can create sophisticated and interactive Web pages, robust applications, and as many other ways of interacting on the Web as you can think of. You’ll even learn to code cool content for many mobile devices that include a browser. Inside, find all the tools, tips, and techniques you need to succeed.

• Explore the underlying structure of all Web pages
• Learn the basics of text structure, meta tags, links, and more
• Write scripts, master dynamic HTML, and use CSS editing tools
• Create Web pages for mobile devices with XHTML Basic
• Harness new Web 2.0 features with microformats
• Add colors, backgrounds, multimedia, and interactivity
• Clean up, test, and validate your code

Companion Web Site
Code samples from the book are available for download at www.wiley.com/go/htmlxhtmlandcssbible4e

* Preparing readers for the key Web authoring standards of HTML, XHTML, and CSS, this book shows the role of each of these topics in Web 2.0 type pages such as blogs and social networks
* Shows the way to the future with the role of HTML, XHTML, and CSS in social networking sites, Web 2.0, and the coming modernization of XHTML 2.0
* Engages the reader through its approachable writing, visual examples showing the results of the code being discussed, and an improved organization that reduces the need for extensive cross-referencing
* Some of the specific topics covered include validating HTML and XHTML; dynamic content with CSS; the relationship between HTML, XHTML, XML, and XHTML 2.0; creating Web pages for mobile devices with XHTML Basic; and helpful solutions to common Web coding problems
* Covers a gamut of HTML topics, such as: documents, elements, entities, values and units, META tags and headers, links, images, tables, frames, forms, multimedia, and internationalization/localization

• Preparing readers for the key Web authoring standards of HTML, XHTML, and CSS, this book shows the role of each of these topics in Web 2.0 type pages such as blogs and social networks
• Shows the way to the future with the role of HTML, XHTML, and CSS in social networking sites, Web 2.0, and the coming modernization of XHTML 2.0
• Engages the reader through its approachable writing, visual examples showing the results of the code being discussed, and an improved organization that reduces the need for extensive cross-referencing
• Some of the specific topics covered include validating HTML and XHTML; dynamic content with CSS; the relationship between HTML, XHTML, XML, and XHTML 2.0; creating Web pages for mobile devices with XHTML Basic; and helpful solutions to common Web coding problems
• Covers a gamut of HTML topics, such as: documents, elements, entities, values and units, META tags and headers, links, images, tables, frames, forms, multimedia, and internationalization/localization

• An expanded, updated, and retitled edition of HTML Bible, examining HTML, XHTML-a set of extensions to HTML to make it more like XML-and cascading style sheets (CSS), which provide a simple way to add consistent formatting to HTML Web documents
• Focusing on reader feedback and changing industry trends, this new edition is a major overhaul that addresses the extensive changes in Web development
• Shows readers the best, most efficient way to use HTML and examines which peripheral technologies are worth learning for the long run
• Features "before and after" pictures that show the results of improved Web page coding
• Offers continued coverage of key topics, including site administration, dynamic data-driven pages, and many others, in addition to new sections on hot new topics such as blogs and content management

Not a Reference
If you are an experienced coder looking for an strict HTML, XHTML, or CSS reference, I suggest you move on to another title. If you are a novice in HTML using a WYSIWYG editor and want to start getting into the HTML code itself, then this is a good book for you. I bought this book to refresh myself in HTML, and CSS being away from it for several years. I program in VB and VC++ and have many programming references that are excellent and very concise. Unfortunately this book is neither. The writers persistently wander off on long winded tangents that seem to ramble on and on.... and on! The analogies had me scratching my head wondering just what exactly the comparative was? There are many small chapters in the last half of the book that are nothing but fluff and offer no real information.
In closing, there is useful information in this book for the novice. However it is not complete or in any particular order. Happy hunting.

Beginners Bible
This is a bible for beginners, written in clean and simple language. For me, it has been the ideal reference. For somebody just beginning in web design, I recommend pairing "Head First HTML..." with this book, as the "Head First" series takes more time teaching certain basic concepts.

It is both a reference and a chapter by chapter teaching guide. All in all, it has been very helpful.

DO NOT BUY!
This book is not worth your money. It is poorly written, does not explain code, and is very incomplete. Bible in its title is very misleading...

Perfect Textbook for Beginners
I have used this book as a textbook for an "Introduction to HTML" class I taught. I looked at several references prior to choosing on one, and this was by far the best formatted and most appropriate for those with little to no existing knowledge of HTML.

The previous reviewer’s complaints are mostly unfounded, in my opinion. The appendix contains a more or less comprehensive listing of all HTML tags and their usage, etc. The chapters are well organized, easy to read, and comprehensive. If this book spreads itself a little thin at times trying to cover so much ground, it is necessary due to the inherently connected nature of HTML, XHTML, and CSS. Covering only HTML would not be useful for beginners who want to gain a basic understanding of these technologies. I assume the "HTML 4 Bible" by the same publisher is more what the previous reviewer was probably looking for.

I highly recomend this book to anyone wishing to learn HTML.

Not enough XHTML, too much deprecated HTML
I bought this book hoping that it would teach me to build a correct XHTML web site. I must say that I’m very pleased with it but probably for the wrong reasons. It does focus on XHTML but not as much as one would expect. Being XHTML the current version of HTML it is incredible the amount of text dedicated to cover HTML 4. Although the autor’s point out once or twice that this or that procedure is not correct anymore, they keep insisting on using those deprecated methods on many of the examples troughout the book. On the other hand the book covers so many subjects that are helpfull even if they only scratch the surface. Usability, Accessibility, XML and and other essential subjects are addressed in a way that is very easy to understand and gives you a start on those subjects.
Good if you are a novice web developer, not very helpfull if you already know the basics and want to learn Strict XHTML.

Slightly disappointing
This book is OK, but it really spreads itself too thin. I have tried and failed to find the information I need in it more times than I can remember.

Maybe it’s ok if you’re just starting out and you need a reference, but even then you might want to look at other options first.

Well Explain
This is one of the best books i’ve ever read. It explains everything very well, with simple words, even if you don’t understand (yet) very much of the subject. The topics covered are just what you need to know, and every single detail of html, xhtml and css are covered, nothing will miss you !
Nice book

OK as a reference, not for complete beginners.
I have a bit of experiencing writing Web pages but wanted to learn how to progress in a more structured way, taking in CSS.
I bought this book and started reading from the beginning. Boy, is it repetitive. It made me wonder whether the author had been paid per word. I read the first two chapters and decided that was enough. Thankfully, Amazon runs a great returns policy.
In summary, as a reference book for dipping into on an ad-hoc basis, it may work well for you. If you want a book to read from the beginning to gain a better understanding of HTML etc. then my suggestion is that you try something else.

Excellent All Rounder
Have been developing web pages for coming up on ten years now, and was very much aware that I had probably picked up a lots of bad coding habits on the way. I have read a lot of web-related books but it was good to read through this up-to-date book just to see what ways I should be doing things differently, and it served that purpose very well. But beyond that it was good because I picked up things I simply hadn’t thought about before. A very, very comprehensive guide for beginners as well as more seasoned web developers and web designers.

Brilliant book
If you are looking to learn XHTML and CSS (you will need CSS if you are to learn XHTML) this book is exactly what you should buy, it is brilliant in every way, very long though. It touches alot of other web design things, like server side scripting, java script and much more.

Although I would recomend buying "Sams Teach Your Self HTML and XHTML in 24 Hours" first then reading this, the Sams book is a very good introduction to web design and teaches you XHTML/HTML very well if you are just starting off. This book goes more indepth with XHTML/HTML, then teaches you CSS and then basicly gives you a breif glipise at about every other thing you need to know about web design.

Go buy this book, NOW!

Disappointed
The title is misguiding. It’s everything but an HTML, XHTML & CSS Bible. Title should read "Become a webmaster in a month". I expected to have: - The full HTML Specification with an example for each definition - Same for XHTML (DTD, rules to respect, validation, etc...) - Same for CSS and *PLEASE*, at least the basics of tableless CSS layout If the book were to expose the aforementioned information, it would exceed the 800 pages, and the author wouldn’t have had to put some more information that is useful, I agree, but it’s off-topic, sorry. The author should stress a lot more on standards. Standards are important, and one can’t call a book a "Bible" if it only covers 75% of HTML, 50% of XHTML and hardly covers basics of CSS. It lacks information on the PNG file format (open source). Mention of the Opera Browser is almost non-existent, even if it’s the most standard-compliant browser. Using tables to create a layout is old-fashioned and many good books (by Dan Cederholm, Jeffrey Zeldman or Eric Meyer) proove that one should *NOT* use tables for layout so that structure and content are clearly seperated from presentation. Without this discipline, the web won’t be able to evolve toward XML. The book talks about image retouching, which again is off-topic, pretty much like SMIL, multimedia, FTP, maintainance, databases, weblogs, PHP & MySQL. I noticed several errors, and then I stopped writing them down. These are some of them: - p.93 PNG, is stored without being compressed doesn’t loose color or image quality, and does support transparency. At least this can be achieved in Photoshop CS. - p.108 I find it sad that the author doesn’t show how image maps are done with circles and polygons - chap.9 "Special characters" should show a sample for every single entity - p.184 The author puts the e-mail address into the code. How is it possible?! With all the spam problems people keep complaining, how come the author doesn’t display the e-mail address thanks to a javascript to hide it from spambots? - p.188 in Part III instead of in Part II - p.210 He forgot that the label tag can nest the radio button and the text without ID. - p.284 div.div1 table should read div.div1>table - All examples are shown in IE or Netscape 4. Why not show modern browsers (Opera 7.8, Mozilla 1.8, Firefox 1.0) - p.379 user agent is not Opera but Firebird This is not a bad book, it has a lot of useful information, but what drove me nuts is that I wanted a "Bible" for these 3 languages. I had to buy other books. I hope now people who buy this book know it’s a general-purpose book on web design.