OReilly head first HTML with CSS and XHTML dec 2005 ISBN 059610197x

If you've read a Head First book, you know what to expect: a visually-rich format designed for the way your brain works.. Using the latest research in neurobiology, cognitive science, an

By Elisabeth Freeman, Eric Freeman

Publisher: O'Reilly Pub Date: December 2005 Print ISBN-10: 0-596-10197-X Print ISBN-13: 978-0-59-610197-8 Pages: 694

1999 - but if you're going to create Web pages in the 21st century then you'll want to know and understand CSS.

Learn the real secrets of creating Web pages, and why everything your boss told you about HTML tables is probably wrong (and what to do instead) Most importantly, hold your own with your co-worker (and impress cocktail party guests) when he casually mentions how his HTML is now strict, and his CSS is in an external style sheet.

With Head First HTML with CSS & XHTML, you'll avoid the embarrassment of thinking Web-safe colors still matter, and the foolishness of slipping a font tag into your pages Best of all, you'll learn HTML and CSS in a way that won't put you to sleep If you've read a Head First book, you know what to expect: a visually-rich format designed for the way your brain works Using the latest research in neurobiology, cognitive science, and learning theory, this book will load HTML, CSS, and XHTML into your brain in a way that sticks.

So what are you waiting for? Leave those other dusty books behind and come join us in Webville Your tour is about to begin.

"Elegant design is at the core of every chapter here, each concept

conveyed with equal doses of pragmatism and wit."

Ken Goldstein, Executive Vice President, Disney Online

Professor David M Arnow, Department of Computer and Information Science, Brooklyn College

"If you've ever had a family member who wanted you to design a website for them, buy them Head First HTML with CSS and XHTML If you've ever asked a family member to design you a web site, buy this book If you've ever bought an HTML book and ended up using it to level your desk, or for kindling on a cold winter day, buy this book This is the book you've been waiting for This is the learning system you've been waiting for."

Warren Kelly, Blogcritics.org

By Elisabeth Freeman, Eric Freeman

Publisher: O'Reilly Pub Date: December 2005 Print ISBN-10: 0-596-10197-X Print ISBN-13: 978-0-59-610197-8 Pages: 694

by Elisabeth Freeman and Eric Freeman

Copyright © 2006 O'Reilly Media, Inc All rights reserved.Printed in the United States of America

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While every precaution has been taken in the preparation of thisbook, the publisher and the authors assume no responsibilityfor errors or omissions, or for damages resulting from the use

Thanks to Clemens Orth for the use of his photo,

"applestore.jpg", which appears in Chapter 5

ISBN: 0-596-10197-X[C]

To the W3C, for saving us from the browser wars and for their brilliance in separating structure

(HTML) from presentation (CSS)

Browser wars? You'll find out in Chapter 6

And for making HTML, CSS, and XHTML complex enough that people need a book to learn it.

Praise for Head First HTML with CSS & XHTML

"Head First HTML with CSS & XHTML is a thoroughly

modern introduction to forward-looking practices in Webpage markup and presentation It correctly anticipatesreaders' puzzlements and handles them just in time Thehighly graphic and incremental approach precisely mimicsthe best way to learn this stuff: make a small change andsee it in the browser to understand what each new itemmeans."

Danny Goodman

"Eric and Elisabeth Freeman clearly know their stuff Asthe Internet becomes more complex, inspired construction

of web pages becomes increasingly critical Elegant design

is at the core of every chapter here, each concept

conveyed with equal doses of pragmatism and wit."

Ken Goldstein, Executive Vice President & Managing Director, Disney Online

"The Web would be a much better place if every HTMLauthor started off by reading this book."

L David Baron, Technical Lead, Layout & CSS,

"I've been writing HTML and CSS for ten years now, andwhat used to be a long trial and error learning process hasnow been reduced neatly into an engaging paperback.HTML used to be something you could just hack away atuntil things looked okay on screen, but with the advent of

Head First HTML with CSS & XHTML teaches you how to

do things right from the beginning without making thewhole process seem overwhelming HTML, when properlyexplained, is no more complicated than plain English, andthe Freemans do an excellent job of keeping every

concept at eye-level."

Mike Davidson, President & CEO, Newsvine, Inc.

"The information covered in this book is the same materialthe pros know, but taught in an educational and humorousmanner that doesn't ever make you think the material isimpossible to learn or you are out of your element."

Christopher Schmitt, Author of The CSS Cookbook

Oh, great You made an XHTML book simple enough a

CEO can understand it What will you do next? Accountingsimple enough my developer can understand it? Next

thing you know we'll be collaborating as a team or

something

Janice Fraser, CEO, Adaptive Path

More Praise for Head First HTML with CSS & XHTML

"I *heart* Head First HTML with CSS & XHTML it teaches

you everything you need to learn in a 'fun coated'

format!"

Sally Applin, UI Designer and Fine Artist,

"This book has humor, and charm, but most importantly, ithas heart I know that sounds ridiculous to say about atechnical book, but I really sense that at its core, this

book (or at least its authors) really care that the readerlearn the material This comes across in the style, the

language, and the techniques Learning real

understanding and comprehension on the part of the

reader is clearly top most in the minds of the Freemans.And thank you, thank you, thank you, for the book's

strong, and sensible advocacy of standards compliance.It's great to see an entry level book, that I think will bewidely read and studied, campaign so eloquently and

persuasively on behalf of the value of standards

compliance in web page code I even found in here a fewgreat arguments I had not thought of ones I can

remember and use when I am asked as I still am 'what'sthe deal with compliance and why should we care?' I'llhave more ammo now! I also liked that the book sprinkles

in some basics about the mechanics of actually getting aweb page live FTP, web server basics, file structures, etc."

Robert Neer, Director of Product Development,

Movies.com

"Freeman's Head First HTML with CSS & XHTML is a most

entertaining book for learning how to build a great webpage It not only covers everything you need to know

about HTML, CSS, and XHTML, it also excels in explainingeverything in layman's terms with a lot of great examples

I found the book truly enjoyable to read, and I learnedsomething new!"

Newton Lee, Editor-in-Chief, ACM Computers in

design, so she needed a book like Head First HTML with CSS & XHTML to take her from beginning to end She now

has a list of web sites she wants to build for our son'sclass, our family, If I'm lucky, I'll get the book backwhen she's done."

David Kaminsky, Master Inventor, IBM

"Beware If you're someone who reads at night before

falling asleep, you'll have to restrict Head First HTML with CSS & XHTML to daytime reading This book wakes up

your brain."

Pauline McNamara, Center for New Technologies and Education, Fribourg University, Switzerland

Previous Praise for books by the authors

From the awesome Head First Java folks, this book usesevery conceivable trick to help you understand and

remember Not just loads of pictures: pictures of humans,which tend to interest other humans Surprises

everywhere Stories, because humans love narrative

(Stories about things like pizza and chocolate Need wesay more?) Plus, it's darned funny

Bill Camarda, READ ONLY

"This book's admirable clarity, humor and substantial

doses of clever make it the sort of book that helps evennon-programmers think well about problem-solving."

Cory Doctorow, co-editor of Boing Boing and author

of "Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom" and

"Someone Comes to Town, Someone Leaves Town"

Miko Matsumura, Industry Analyst, The Middleware Company Former Chief Java Evangelist, Sun

Microsystems

"I laughed, I cried, it moved me."

"Just the right tone for the geeked-out, casual-cool gurucoder in all of us The right reference for practical

development strategiesgets my brain going without having

to slog through a bunch of tired, stale professor-speak."

Travis Kalanick, Founder of Scour and Red Swoosh Member of the MIT TR100

Satish Kumar

Authors of Head First HTML with CSS & XHTML

Elisabeth Freeman

Elisabeth is an author and software developer She's been

involved with the Internet since the early days, having co-founded The Ada Project (TAP), an award winning web site forwomen in computing now adopted by the ACM More recentlyElisabeth led research and development efforts in digital media

at the Walt Disney Company where she co-invented Motion, acontent system that delivers terabytes of video every day toDisney, ESPN, and Movies.com users

Elisabeth is a computer scientist at heart and holds graduatedegrees in Computer Science from Yale University and IndianaUniversity She's worked in a variety of areas including visuallanguages, RSS syndication, and Internet systems She's alsobeen an active advocate for women in computing, developingprograms that encourage woman to enter the field

These days you'll find her sipping some Java or Cocoa on herMac, although she dreams of a day when the whole world isusing Scheme

Elisabeth has loved hiking and the outdoors since her daysgrowing up in Scotland When she's outdoors her camera isnever far away She's also an avid cyclist, vegetarian, and

Eric spent a lot of the '90s working on alternatives to the

desktop metaphor with David Gelernter (and they're both still

asking the question "why do I have to give a file a name?").Based on this work, Eric landed a Ph.D at Yale University in '97

I can't believe they put that in an HTML book!

In this section, we answer the burning question: "So, why DIDthey put that in an HTML book?"

If you have access to any computer manufactured in the lastdecade, the answer is yes

normal things you encounter? Everything it can to stop them

from interfering with the brain's real jobrecording things that matter It doesn't bother saving the boring things; they never

really do want you to keep this stuff around."

So what does it take to learn something? First, you have to get it, then make sure you don't forget it It's not about pushing facts into your head.

Put the words within or near the graphics they relate to, rather than on the

bottom or on another page, and learners will be up to twice as likely to solve

problems related to the content.

Browsers make requests for HTML pages or other resources, like images Web Server "Found it, here ya go"

Use a conversational and personalized style In recent studies, students

performed up to 40% better on post-learning tests if the content spoke directly to the reader, using a first-person, conversational style rather than taking a formal tone Tell stories instead of lecturing Use casual language Don't take yourself too

provoking questions, and activities that involve both sides of the brain, and

multiple senses.

The head element is where you put things about your page.

Does it make sense to create a bathtub class for my style, or just to style the whole bathroom?

Getand keepthe reader's attention We' ve all had the "I really want to learn

this but I can't stay awake past page one" experience Your brain pays attention to things that are out of the ordinary, interesting, strange, eye-catching, unexpected Learning a new, tough, technical topic doesn't have to be boring Your brai n will learn much more quickly if it's not.

Most of us did not take courses on metacognition or learning

theory when we were growing up We were expected to learn, but rarely taught how to learn.

sticking

So how DO you get your brain to think HTML & CSS are as important as a tiger?

you are able to learn and remember even the dullest of topics,

if you keep pounding on the same thing With enough

repetition, your brain says, "This doesn't feel important to him, but he keeps looking at the same thing over and over and over,

so I suppose it must be."

The faster way is to do anything that increases brain

activity, especially different types of brain activity The things

on the previous page are a big part of the solution, and they'reall things that have been proven to help your brain work in your

favor For example, studies show that putting words within the

pictures they describe (as opposed to somewhere else in thepage, like a caption or in the body text) causes your brain to try

to makes sense of how the words and picture relate, and thiscauses more neurons to fire More neurons firing = more

chances for your brain to get that this is something worth

paying attention to, and possibly recording

A conversational style helps because people tend to pay moreattention when they perceive that they're in a conversation,since they're expected to follow along and hold up their end

The amazing thing is, your brain doesn't necessarily care that

the "conversation" is between you and a book! On the otherhand, if the writing style is formal and dry, your brain perceives

We included more than 100 activities, because your brain is tuned to learn and remember more when you do things than

when you read about things And we made the exercises

challenging-yet-do-able, because that's what most people

a chance to rest, you can be more productive at learning for alonger period of time

make sure that when you're working hard, it's on the right

things That you're not spending one extra dendrite

processing a hard-to-understand example, or parsing difficult,jargon-laden, or overly terse text

We used people In stories, examples, pictures, etc., because,

well, because you're a person And your brain pays more

attention to people than it does to things.

starting point; listen to your brain and figure out what works foryou and what doesn't Try new things

cut this out and stick it on your refrigerator

1 Slow down The more you understand, the less you have to memorize.

don't just look at the exercises Use a pencil There's

plenty of evidence that physical activity while learning canincrease the learning

3 Read the "There are No Dumb Questions"

That means all of them They're not optional

sidebarsthey're part of the core content! Don't skip

them

5 Drink water Lots of it.

Your brain works best in a nice bath of fluid Dehydration(which can happen before you ever feel thirsty) decreasescognitive function

6 Talk about it Out loud.

Speaking activates a different part of the brain If you'retrying to understand something, or increase your chance ofremembering it later, say it out loud Better still, try to

This is a learning experience, not a reference book We

deliberately stripped out everything that might get in the way oflearning whatever it is we're working on at that point in the

book And the first time through, you need to begin at the

beginning, because the book makes assumptions about whatyou've already seen and learned

We begin by teaching basic HTML, then standards-based HTML 4.01, and then on to XHTML.

To write standards-based HTML or XHTML, there are a lot oftechnical details you need to understand that aren't helpful

when you're trying to learn the basics of HTML Our approach is

to have you learn the basic concepts of HTML first (without

worrying about these details), and then, when you have a solidunderstanding of HTML, teach you to write standards compliantHTML and XHTML This has the added benefit that the technicaldetails are more meaningful after you've already learned thebasics

It's also important that you be writing complaint HTML or

XHTML when you start using CSS, so, we make a point of

getting you to standards-based HTML and XHTML before youbegin any serious work with CSS

We don't cover every single HTML element or attribute or CSS property ever created.

We encourage you to use more than one browser with this book.

While we teach you to write HTML, CSS, and XHTML that is

based on standards, you'll still (and probably always) encounterminor differences in the way Web browsers display pages So,

we encourage you to pick at least two up-to-date browsers andtest your pages using them This will give you experience inseeing the differences among browsers and in creating pagesthat work well in a variety of browsers

We often use tag names for element names.

Rather than saying "the a element", or "the 'a' element", we

use a tag name, like "the <a> element" While this may not be technically correct (because <a> is an opening tag, not a full

confusion

The activities are NOT optional.

The exercises and activities are not add-ons; they're part of thecore content of the book Some of them are to help with

memory, some are for understanding, and some will help you

apply what you've learned Don't skip the exercises The

crossword puzzles are the only things you don't have to do, but

they're good for giving your brain a chance to think about thewords in a different context

The redundancy is intentional and important.

One distinct difference in a Head First book is that we want you

to really get it And we want you to finish the book

remembering what you've learned Most reference books don'thave retention and recall as a goal, but this book is about

learning, so you'll see some of the same concepts come up

more than once

The examples are as lean as possible.

Our readers tell us that it's frustrating to wade through 200lines of an example looking for the two lines they need to

understand Most examples in this book are shown within thesmallest possible context, so that the part you're trying to learn