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| Head First HTML with CSS & XHTML | 
 enlarge | Authors: Eric Freeman, Elisabeth Freeman
Publisher: O'Reilly Media, Inc.
Category: Book
List Price: $39.99
Buy New: $22.75
You Save: $17.24 (43%)
New (54) Used (27) from $16.98
Avg. Customer Rating:  240 reviews
Sales Rank: 2020
Format: Illustrated
Media: Paperback
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 694
Shipping Weight (lbs): 3.3
Dimensions (in): 9.2 x 8 x 1.7
ISBN: 059610197X
Dewey Decimal Number: 006.7
EAN: 9780596101978
ASIN: 059610197X
Publication Date: December 8, 2005
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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| Customer Reviews:
 Beginners Only. February 19, 2006
16 out of 24 found this review helpful
A quick caveat if you're thinking of buying this book. ITS FOR BEGINNERS ONLY. The 'beginners and experts alike' tagline is a misnomer. Nothing new here, and what is presented is done so in a very patronising manner. If other books haven't helped this one might.
 Sloppy testing of first exercise diminishes book's usefulness March 9, 2006
16 out of 25 found this review helpful
When I purchased this book I wanted more than a hip, new-age way of getting me to absorb the material, I wanted the exercises in the book to work. Like myself, the 30 or so other reviewers were influenced to purchase the book by the pictures, cartoons, and sometimes irreverent prose. None of us could test out the book's exercises in the store. I can't vouch for the other reviewers, but once I got the book in front of my computer I began at the beginning and in the first exercise, Uh oh, problems. I am not alone. One just has to go to the HeadFirstLabs online forums to read that the exercise apparently wasn't tested on the world's most popular browser, IE6. If the first, and what logically should prove to be the simplest exercise in the book is flawed, what disappointments and frustrations do the following 620 pages have in store for us IE users.
 Better than it looks August 25, 2006
15 out of 17 found this review helpful
I passed over this book initially because it looked too goofy, and the first half of the book seemed to take a lot of pages to cover HTML, which I basically already knew. I picked up Richard York's Beginning CSS instead, because it seemed more serious, and it looked a lot more dense with technical detail.
What a mistake. Beginning CSS was incredibly obtuse and difficult to get through, and the examples were just ugly (not to mention they don't work properly in any browser). A couple hundred pages in, I got lost in all the "direct adjacent sibling combinators" and "@import notations" and I gave up.
Then I decided to give Head First HTML a shot. It's about the same thickness as Beginning CSS, but it's much much much easier to read. The type is bigger, and there are lots of illustrations and puzzles and what-not. Most importantly, it's written much more clearly. The examples are easy to code, they look great, and they actually work in real web browsers.
I got through the book in about a week and a half, and boom, I know how to write standards-compliant XHTML & CSS. Obviously, I still have plenty of room for advancement, but I know enough to put together some pretty decent web pages. The book is up-to-date (it even mentions iWeb, which was just released earlier this year), and it really does make the learning process easy and, dare I say, fun.
Wirtten for ADD types August 17, 2007
15 out of 21 found this review helpful
Like so many other instructional books these days, this one is written for those who can't read a page of text unless there are several sidebars, illustrations, cartoons, etc., on every page. Today's authors apparently feel they have to pander to young people addicted since childhood to video games and incessant multitasking by littering their books with what are in effect non-stop popups. I find it very annoying. This isn't a bad book, and there is a lot of information in it, but why oh why does it have to be so noisy? A little strictly sequential thought never hurt anyone, but it only comes with disciplined focus and practice! We should be encouraging linear thought, not allowing it to be marginalized in this way.
Maybe I'm just old fashioned . . . well, yes, I suppose I am.
But if you want a serious book, get Schultz and Cook's Beginning HTML with CSS and XHTML instead. A much more quiet and calm approach to what turns out after all to be a not very complicated subject.
Wish I could give this 6 stars... January 20, 2006
14 out of 14 found this review helpful
Head First HTML with CSS and XHTML is totally unlike any other HTML book I've ever read -- or owned. Most are basic references -- "if you want this, do this" type books. Very dry and dull, not something you're going to sit and read in one setting. Not helpful to someone who is not technologically inclined who wants to learn how to "do a website."
This book is written to teach. It's written so that you remember what you read, using techniques that teachers are being taught to use in the classroom. And it's one that I would actually use in the classroom if I were still teaching Computer Applications.
The first thing you notice about the book is that it's colorful. Normally, the only color in an HTML book is the chart of colors and their hex codes (which, ironically, this book doesn't have). Even the acknowledgements include color pictures of the people they are thanking. And everything in the book is worth reading through -- including the acknowledgements and the table of contents. There's a healthy use of humor throughout that makes it worth actually reading through, rather than just using as a reference.
And that's the point. The authors are quick to say that if you're looking for another HTML reference book, to keep looking. This is a book for people who want to learn.
I wasn't sure how much I'd really learn from this book -- after all, I'd just read and reviewed Creating Web Sites: The Missing Manual. But while that book gave me a good basis for understanding CSS, this book has expanded my understanding considerably. I've got a CSS reference book that has been seldom used; I think I'll be dusting it off soon, because I know enough to be able to use it now.
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.
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