HTML & XHTML: The Definitive Guide, 6/e (Paperback)

Description

"...lucid, in-depth descriptions of the behavior of every HTML tag on every major browser and platform, plus enough dry humor to make the book a pleasure to read."
--Edward Mendelson, PC Magazine

"When they say 'definitive' they're not kidding."
--Linda Roeder, About.com

Put everthing you need to know about HTML & XHTML at your fingertips. For nearly a decade, hundreds of thousands of web developers have turned to HTML & XHTML: The Definitive Guide to master standards-based web development. Truly a definitive guide, the book combines a unique balance of tutorial material with a comprehensive reference that even the most experienced web professionals keep close at hand. From basic syntax and semantics to guidelines aimed at helping you develop your own distinctive style, this classic is all you need to become fluent in the language of web design.

The new sixth edition guides you through every element of HTML and XHTML in detail, explaining how each element works and how it interacts with other elements. You'll also find detailed discussions of CSS (Cascading Style Sheets), which is intricately related to web page development. The most all-inclusive, up-to-date book on these languages available, this edition covers HTML 4.01, XHTML 1.0, and CSS2, with a preview of the upcoming XHTML2 and CSS3. Other topics include the newer initiatives in XHTML (XForms, XFrames, and modularization) and the essentials of XML for advanced readers. You'll learn how to:

• Use style sheets to control your document's appearance
• Work with programmatically generated HTML
• Create tables, both simple and complex
• Use frames to coordinate sets of documents
• Design and build interactive forms and dynamic documents
• Insert images, sound files, video, Java applets, and JavaScript programs
• Create documents that look good on a variety of browsers

The authors apply a natural learning approach that uses straightforward language and plenty of examples. Throughout the book, they offer suggestions for style and composition to help you decide how to best use HTML and XHTML to accomplish a variety of tasks. You'll learn what works and what doesn't, and what makes sense to those who view your web pages and what might be confusing. Written for anyone who wants to learn the language of the Web--from casual users to the full-time design professionals--this is the single most important book on HTML and XHTML you can own.

Bill Kennedy is chief technical officer of MobileRobots, Inc. When not hacking new HTML pages or writing about them, "Dr. Bill" (Ph.D. in biophysics from Loyola University of Chicago) is out promoting the company's line of mobile, autonomous robots that can be used for artificial intelligence, fuzzy logic research, and education.

Chuck Musciano began his career as a compiler writer and crafter of tools at Harris Corporations' Advanced Technology Group and is now a manager of Unix Systems in Harris' Corporate Data Center.

 

Preface

1. HTML, XHTML, and the World Wide Web

      1.1 The Internet

      1.2 Talking the Internet Talk

      1.3 HTML and XHTML: What They Are

      1.4 HTML and XHTML: What They Aren't

      1.5 Standards and Extensions

      1.6 Tools for the Web Designer

2. Quick Start

      2.1 Writing Tools

      2.2 A First HTML Document

      2.3 Embedded Tags

      2.4 HTML Skeleton

      2.5 The Flesh on an HTML or XHTML Document

      2.6 Text

      2.7 Hyperlinks

      2.8 Images Are Special

      2.9 Lists, Searchable Documents, and Forms

      2.10 Tables

      2.11 Frames

      2.12 Stylesheets and JavaScript

      2.13 Forging Ahead

3. Anatomy of an HTML Document

      3.1 Appearances Can Deceive

      3.2 Structure of an HTML Document

      3.3 Tags and Attributes

      3.4 Well-Formed Documents and XHTML

      3.5 Document Content

      3.6 HTML/XHTML Document Elements

      3.7 The Document Header

      3.8 The Document Body

      3.9 Editorial Markup

      3.10 The <bdo> Tag

4. Text Basics

      4.1 Divisions and Paragraphs

      4.2 Headings

      4.3 Changing Text Appearance and Meaning

      4.4 Content-Based Style Tags

      4.5 Physical Style Tags

      4.6 Precise Spacing and Layout

      4.7 Block Quotes

      4.8 Addresses

      4.9 Special Character Encoding

      4.10 HTML's Obsolete Expanded Font Handling

5. Rules, Images, and Multimedia

      5.1 Horizontal Rules

      5.2 Inserting Images in Your Documents

      5.3 Document Colors and Background Images

      5.4 Background Audio

      5.5 Animated Text

      5.6 Other Multimedia Content

6. Links and Webs

      6.1 Hypertext Basics

      6.2 Referencing Documents: The URL

      6.3 Creating Hyperlinks

      6.4 Creating Effective Links

      6.5 Mouse-Sensitive Images

      6.6 Creating Searchable Documents

      6.7 Relationships

      6.8 Supporting Document Automation

7. Formatted Lists

      7.1 Unordered Lists

      7.2 Ordered Lists

      7.3 The <li> Tag

      7.4 Nesting Lists

      7.5 Definition Lists

      7.6 Appropriate List Usage

      7.7 Directory Lists

      7.8 Menu Lists

8. Cascading Style Sheets

      8.1 The Elements of Styles

      8.2 Style Syntax

      8.3 Style Classes

      8.4 Style Properties

      8.5 Tagless Styles: The <span> Tag

      8.6 Applying Styles to Documents

9. Forms

      9.1 Form Fundamentals

      9.2 The <form> Tag

      9.3 A Simple Form Example

      9.4 Using Email to Collect Form Data

      9.5 The <input> Tag

      9.6 The <button> Tag

      9.7 Multiline Text Areas

      9.8 Multiple-Choice Elements

      9.9 General Form-Control Attributes

      9.10 Labeling and Grouping Form Elements

      9.11 Creating Effective Forms

      9.12 Forms Programming

10. Tables

      10.1 The Standard Table Model

      10.2 Basic Table Tags

      10.3 Advanced Table Tags

      10.4 Beyond Ordinary Tables

11. Frames

      11.1 An Overview of Frames

      11.2 Frame Tags

      11.3 Frame Layout

      11.4 Frame Contents

      11.5 The <noframes> Tag

      11.6 Inline Frames

      11.7 Named Frame or Window Targets

      11.8 XFrames

12. Executable Content

      12.1 Applets and Objects

      12.2 Embedded Content

      12.3 JavaScript

      12.4 JavaScript Stylesheets (Antiquated)

13. Dynamic Documents

      13.1 An Overview of Dynamic Documents

      13.2 Client-Pull Documents

      13.3 Server-Push Documents

14. Mobile Devices

      14.1 The Mobile Web

      14.2 Device Considerations

      14.3 XHTML Basic

      14.4 Effective Mobile Web Design

15. XML

      15.1 Languages and Metalanguages

      15.2 Documents and DTDs

      15.3 Understanding XML DTDs

      15.4 Element Grammar

      15.5 Element Attributes

      15.6 Conditional Sections

      15.7 Building an XML DTD

      15.8 Using XML

16. XHTML

      16.1 Why XHTML?

      16.2 Creating XHTML Documents

      16.3 HTML Versus XHTML

      16.4 XHTML 1.1

      16.5 Should You Use XHTML?

17. Tips, Tricks, and Hacks

      17.1 Top of the Tips

      17.2 Cleaning Up After Your HTML Editor

      17.3 Tricks with Tables

      17.4 Tricks with Windows and Frames

A. HTML Grammar

B. HTML/XHTML Tag Quick Reference

C. Cascading Style Sheet Properties Quick Reference

D. The HTML 4.01 DTD

E. The XHTML 1.0 DTD

F. Character Entities

G. Color Names and Values

H. Netscape Layout Extensions

Index