Most web design books concentrate on a single technology or piece of software, leaving the designer to figure out how to put all the pieces together. This book is different. Web Designer’s Reference provides a truly integrated approach to web design. Each of the dozen chapters covers a specific aspect of creating a web page, such as working with typography, adding images, creating navigation, and crafting CSS layouts. In each case, relevant XHTML elements are explored along with associated CSS, and visual design ideas are discussed. Several practical examples are provided, which you can use to further your understanding of each subject. This highly modular and integrated approach means that you learn about technologies in context, at the appropriate time and, upon working through each chapter, you craft a number of web page elements that you can use on countless sites in the future.

This book is ideal for those making their first moves into standards-based web design, experienced designers who want to learn about modern design techniques and move toward creating CSS layouts, graphic designers who want to discover how to lay out their designs, and veteran web designers who want a concise reference guide.

The book’s advocacy of web standards, usability, and accessibility with a strong eye toward visual design means itís of use to technologists and designers alike, enabling everyone to build better websites. And for those moments when a particular tag or property value slips your mind, the book provides a comprehensive reference guide that includes important and relevant XHTML elements and attributes, XHTML entities, web colors, and CSS 2.1 properties and values.

With this book:

• Use XHTML elements effectively and efficiently to create lean, standardscompliant, highly compatible web pages
• Style web pages with CSS
• Create effective page layouts, highly flexible navigation areas, great online typography, and more
• Learn how to balance quality contemporary design with future-proof web standards
• Use the essential reference guides to remind yourself about XHTML elements, CSS properties, and their associated attributes and values

Summary of Contents:

• Introduction to Web design with XHTML and CSS
• Web Page Defaults
• Working with Text
• Working with Images
• Creating Navigation
• Introduction to Layout
• Tables for Tabular Data and Layout
• Layouts with CSS
• Working with Frames
• Getting User Input
• Adding Multimedia
• Testing and Uploading Web Pages
• XHTML and CSS Reference Sections

Web Designer’s Reference provides an intriguing, comprehensive reference for Web design, using XHTML, CSS, and presentation-oriented JavaScript. This book is divided primarily in two sections: the Tutorial section, which includes Modular discussion and tutorial-based chapters; and the Reference section, which features essential reference guides to XHTML and CSS.

This book focuses on best-practice design, XHTML and CSS. The text is peppered with JavaScript discussion, but the book remains presentation-oriented to increase worth and illustrate the big picture. Emphasis will be placed upon current Web standards, which means using XHTML throughout. This unique book integrates technologies and follows through, teaching you how to design sites from the ground up. With plenty of practical examples, you may explore creative avenues with material you have learned. And the open-ended nature of the exercise enables you to integrate them into your own work, to save you time and money in the long run!

Great reference book, but a little outdated
This is a really great reference book on CSS and Web design in general. I read through the book twice so that I could really understand the material. Most of the chapters are interesting to read although certain sections were a little dry. He includes really nice examples to get you started and alerts you of common mistakes and how to avoid them.

My only gripe is that the book was published in 2005 and is now outdated in the sense that the browsers he mentioned are now basically obsolete. Firefox is not even mentioned at all. Also he covers web design tools like Front Page which is now history.

A second edition of this book is definitely needed, however the core concepts haven’t changed that drastically, so I would still recommend this book.

Nothing special here
A really average book. Most of the things inside it can easily be picked up on an on line tutorial. Targeted to the novice user, who is unfamiliar with CSS. Most of the techniques presented are just basic stuff, and not really worth paying for, just to own them in print.

For the apprentice, not the beginner
This books, in my opinion, is definitely not for the newcomer. If you’ve never done web design, this book is going to be overwhelming for you. It touches on a lot of topics.
If you’re a web designer or many years or even a relatively new one with a few simple web sites and a good beginner’s book, this is a very good book. It’s like learning from a master but as an apprentice. The master doesn’t exactly spoonfeed you with information but lays it out on the table and expects you to pick up the spoon and scoop away the knowledge.
I’d say you definitely should read this book if you’re aiming to be a proper, high-class, professional web designer/developer. However, if you’re brand new, then this book deserves to wait a bit.

Want to, or already, build sites; buy this book
Reference book, not really. It has a short reference for most used items in the back, but the book is more for putting things together.

Very well written, with examples that are actually useful for future projects. My book shelves are full of HTML, CSS, and JavaScript books. This book has a lot less "fluff" and more information that a person can really use.

Honestly, the only reason I bought this book is due to the high praises given on this site. Why would I need another XHTML or CSS book? I am very glad I decided to purchase the book.

Beginner, hobbyist, or professional, I know every level of designer will get something out of this book.

Sorry about the spelling and grammer, kind of rushed.

Outstanding book for newbies and folks upgrading skills
This is a very well thought out book. The chapters and examples start very basic and build and build into some fairly impressive pieces. Javascript and PHP is used in limited fashion. Most examples are exclusively XHTML and CSS.

My favorite part of this book is how the examples are laid out for the reader. They start simply and the reader is encouraged to build layer upon layer in CSS until plain text becomes a well presented page. Well worth the money IMHO!

Nice guide to modern web designing

It seems as if nearly everyone and his brother is writing books supporting standards-compliant web design with XHTML and CSS. I have read and reviewed a half dozen this year alone. People are obviously trying to tell us something - plain HTML has to go!! "Web Designers’ Reference: An Integrated Approach to Web Design with XHTML and CSS" by Craig Grannell is the latest of these pronouncements.

The reasons are clear and compelling. The World Wide Web Consortium which promulgates web design standards has decreed HTML as obsolete. Newer, more compliant browsers, will in time not support the older tags and code; the new standards facilitate much better use by the disabled of screen readers and non-graphic browsers. Not least, the newer code makes writing and revising code easier and more efficient, as well as more capable.

These are certainly good reasons for web designers to move to the new code. Nevertheless, surveys show that most web pages are not compliant and that thousands of designers continue to use deprecated code. I confess that I am one of them. After a number of years learning and getting used to HTML, the need to learn new and more code is onerous. The inertia of habit is a factor I’m sure.

For those web designers like me, Mr. Grannell’s book is a welcome addition to the literature because it systematically deals with the topics under discussion. In its coverage of XHTML, CSS, Javascript, and complementary coding like php, it provides a nice framework guiding "old dogs" like me into standards-compliant code. Not only does it provide some historical perspectives on these codes, it compares the old with the new in regard to all of the important elements of web design.

The author is an experienced web designer and operates a design and writing agency. He also writes articles for a number of computer magazines.

Grannell’s goals are to teach cutting-edge, efficient coding, and how to master standards-compliant XHTML 1.0 and CSS 2.1. There are a dozen chapters. He breaks down the elements of web design into modular components so that one can focus on each element separately, like page structure, content structure, layout, navigation, text control, user feedback, and multimedia. Relevant technologies are explained in context of producing a typical website.

If one finally decides to move forward, as many suggest, this is a very good volume by which to get your start. It will facilitate a fresh start for the "old dogs". For new designers, this is a nice primer to learn what is expected, in an overall sense, of good, advanced web design.

This is a well-produced book with clear writing, comprehensive approach, dozens of practical examples, and downloadable files with the code examples used in the book. The author writes in a logical sequence much like an engineer would. It is a heavy text-book-like read, only lightly sprinkled with style and personality. It should appeal primarily to novice designers, but has enough advanced information to satisfy an experienced designer who is looking for that fresh start.

The structure of the book facilitates the "fresh-start" idea. It starts with a web design overview giving an experienced user’s tips on what software to use to write code, what browsers to design for, how to build pages from the very top to the bottom. (XHTML, unlike HTML, requires a preliminary document-type definition (DTD) to validate. Only after the introductory section does the first HTML tag appear.)

Like others writing in this area, he firmly advocates design for standards compliance, usability, accessibility, and last and least, visual design. Marketing Department people may want to choke on that priority list but there is no inherent conflict between function and aesthetics. Grannell does not spend a lot of time on the aesthetics aspect.

The middle chapters concentrate on modular construction of pages - the XHTML introduction, the structural elements like text blocks and images, the logical structure of the links and navigation flow, and finally, the stylizing with CSS. Comparisons of pages styled with HTML vs. CSS compellingly demonstrate the benefits and advantages of CSS. There will be no going back once you’ve decided to upgrade your technical approach.

Basic CSS concepts are explained and illustrated with code samples and screenshots. Grannell describes how to use CSS for text control, navigation, and layouts. There is a broad section on frames and another on forms and interactive components.

The last chapter covers testing and tweaking including how to create a 7 item browser test suite. Much time is used throughout the book in discussing overcoming browser quirks. There is detailed technical information, especially in regard to the XHTML introductory section of the page, which I have not seen elsewhere.

There are three welcome reference appendices at the end covering XHTML tags and attributes, web color coding, and a very comprehensive entities chart noting currencies, European characters, math symbols and more.

Much of this material is covered elsewhere in the growing set of publications about standards-compliant code. This book has the virtue of having a useful overall perspective on web design and acts as a framework for new designers and converting designers to renew and upgrade their technical approaches.

Nice guide to modern web designing


It seems as if nearly everyone and his brother is writing books supporting standards-compliant web design with XHTML and CSS. I have read and reviewed a half dozen this year alone. People are obviously trying to tell us something - plain HTML has to go!! "Web Designers’ Reference: An Integrated Approach to Web Design with XHTML and CSS" by Craig Grannell is the latest of these pronouncements.



The reasons are clear and compelling. The World Wide Web Consortium which promulgates web design standards has decreed HTML as obsolete. Newer, more compliant browsers, will in time not support the older tags and code; the new standards facilitate much better use by the disabled of screen readers and non-graphic browsers. Not least, the newer code makes writing and revising code easier and more efficient, as well as more capable.



These are certainly good reasons for web designers to move to the new code. Nevertheless, surveys show that most web pages are not compliant and that thousands of designers continue to use deprecated code. I confess that I am one of them. After a number of years learning and getting used to HTML, the need to learn new and more code is onerous. The inertia of habit is a factor I’m sure.



For those web designers like me, Mr. Grannell’s book is a welcome addition to the literature because it systematically deals with the topics under discussion. In its coverage of XHTML, CSS, Javascript, and complementary coding like php, it provides a nice framework guiding "old dogs" like me into standards-compliant code. Not only does it provide some historical perspectives on these codes, it compares the old with the new in regard to all of the important elements of web design.



The author is an experienced web designer and operates a design and writing agency. He also writes articles for a number of computer magazines.



Grannell’s goals are to teach cutting-edge, efficient coding, and how to master standards-compliant XHTML 1.0 and CSS 2.1. There are a dozen chapters. He breaks down the elements of web design into modular components so that one can focus on each element separately, like page structure, content structure, layout, navigation, text control, user feedback, and multimedia. Relevant technologies are explained in context of producing a typical website.



If one finally decides to move forward, as many suggest, this is a very good volume by which to get your start. It will facilitate a fresh start for the "old dogs". For new designers, this is a nice primer to learn what is expected, in an overall sense, of good, advanced web design.



This is a well-produced book with clear writing, comprehensive approach, dozens of practical examples, and downloadable files with the code examples used in the book. The author writes in a logical sequence much like an engineer would. It is a heavy text-book-like read, only lightly sprinkled with style and personality. It should appeal primarily to novice designers, but has enough advanced information to satisfy an experienced designer who is looking for that fresh start.



The structure of the book facilitates the "fresh-start" idea. It starts with a web design overview giving an experienced user’s tips on what software to use to write code, what browsers to design for, how to build pages from the very top to the bottom. (XHTML, unlike HTML, requires a preliminary document-type definition (DTD) to validate. Only after the introductory section does the first HTML tag appear.)



Like others writing in this area, he firmly advocates design for standards compliance, usability, accessibility, and last and least, visual design. Marketing Department people may want to choke on that priority list but there is no inherent conflict between function and aesthetics. Grannell does not spend a lot of time on the aesthetics aspect.



The middle chapters concentrate on modular construction of pages - the XHTML introduction, the structural elements like text blocks and images, the logical structure of the links and navigation flow, and finally, the stylizing with CSS. Comparisons of pages styled with HTML vs. CSS compellingly demonstrate the benefits and advantages of CSS. There will be no going back once you’ve decided to upgrade your technical approach.



Basic CSS concepts are explained and illustrated with code samples and screenshots. Grannell describes how to use CSS for text control, navigation, and layouts. There is a broad section on frames and another on forms and interactive components.



The last chapter covers testing and tweaking including how to create a 7 item browser test suite. Much time is used throughout the book in discussing overcoming browser quirks. There is detailed technical information, especially in regard to the XHTML introductory section of the page, which I have not seen elsewhere.



There are three welcome reference appendices at the end covering XHTML tags and attributes, web color coding, and a very comprehensive entities chart noting currencies, European characters, math symbols and more.



Much of this material is covered elsewhere in the growing set of publications about standards-compliant code. This book has the virtue of having a useful overall perspective on web design and acts as a framework for new designers and converting designers to renew and upgrade their technical approaches.

Excellent for tutorial as well as a cookbook
I was looking for some time for a book that would teach me the rudiments of contemporary web design (with XHTM and CSS), as well as provide examples or cookbooks to let me get to where I wanted; that is, pretty sites with
a separation between the layout and the content (MySQL, etc).

After going crazy looking at piles of books, I finally got a look inside this one. Perfect! You get the basics, and the issues (browser bugs, etc), recommendations on design choices, and some very attractive examples (which are lacking in many of the beginner books I’ve seen). There’s even a great table example.

I’d expect that after using this books for a while I may jump up to the advanced books, like Zen or Meyer’s books, but this is a really nice place to start.

Should be renamed: Web Designer’s Handbook
This is honestly a book that I take with me everywhere with design in mind. I have about 5 or 6 CSS/XHTML books and honestly this is still the first one I reach for. The author’s a well-edited (no errors), his examples are carbon-copy from his site, and he covers all the basics in this book in English. If you want to finally quit reinventing the wheel and learn how to apply standards that are re-shaping the web, this is the book. Nuff said, thanks Craig.

USEFUL
I don’t usually write reviews, but I liked this book so well, that I wanted to share my enthusiasm. This book, while short and to the point, is packed with good information and great examples of how to really use CSS and how to create standards compliant Web sites. There is a really good reference section at the end, as well.