ISBN  1-861001-56-8   Price £18.49 UK
Alex Homer, Chris Ullman and Steve Wright     12 Chapters, 8 Appendices and a superb Index
 

Chapter List
 

            Introduction to HTML

            1  Creating an HTML Document
            2  Formatting Text
            3  Styles and Style Sheets
            4  Images and Inclusions
            5  Linking to Other Files
            6  Tables
            7  Frames
            8  Forms and HTML Controls
            9  Objects, ActiveX Controls and Applets
           10  Scripting
            11  Dynamic HTML in Navigator/Communicator 4
            12  Dynamic HTML in IE4
 
 

                Appendix A
                 The Wrox Ultimate HTML Database Listing
                Appendix B
                HTML Element Tags by Category
                Appendix C
                Special Characters in HTML
                Appendix D
                HTML Colour Names and Values
                Appendix E
                The VB. Script Language
                 Appendix F
                Javascript Reference
                Appendix G
                Style Sheets Properties
                Appendix H
                Support and Errata
 

Synopsis

If you have written some simple HTML with a Netscape browser or something else you will know that there's a lot more to it than just clicking on a button and hoping it works.  This is where this particular book comes in.  It can take you from a beginners or intermediate level and point you in the direction of where to go next.
 

Review
 

I have to admit that the second edition is a little bit out of date now but if you do use IE5 all of the time then any code or suggestions that are in this book will work.   As it says in the introduction at page 5    "HTML 4.0 is the latest recommendation.  This has led to some confusion over what is now a standard and what isn't..  The HTML standards have to gp through three stages before they become standard and can officially termed recommendations."   A lot of people are still using Netscape 2.02 and even MSIE 3 so any rush to use the latest HTML standards isn't the sort of thing that will win friends and influence people if you write web sites.

I'm not all that good at technical terminology myself.  I do find that complex chemical or biochemical structures can be understood and even the concept of wave-particle duality does make itself easy for me to understand.  But I do find that any book on programming does go overboard on non-standard and partial English phrases which no one understands.  Wrox Press do try to get away from this in the way that their books are presented.  Even so, I found that I had to go backwards and forwards through the publication to understand some basic HTML coding  practices.

In the end after much trogging away on the keyboard I came to the conclusion that writing web pages and HTML code is like maths.  You have to do it to understand how to do it and unfortunately there aren't too many lady friends who wish to join in and help :-(

Instant HTML is a book that I'd give to anyone who wanted to learn more about producing web sites.  The appendices at the back of the book give all the info that you can't find on the web when you want it.   If you want a book that will help you through those three in the Sunday morning sessions whilst hoping that you can finish a web site for breakfast time then please do go ahead and buy this book.
 
 

Review by Richard Ibbotson