[.ca] XHTML For Dummies (ISBN 0764507516)

From Amazon.co.uk:
If you are looking for an HTML book, don't stop reading yet. XHTML is also the latest version of HTML, and most of the information here applies equally to both. The main practical difference is that XHTML is stricter, but learning to do it right from the very beginning is no bad thing. This introduction provides the information you need to create advanced Web pages by working directly with XHTML code. Beginning with a full explanation of what XHTML and HTML are all about, XHTML for Dummies goes on to explain elements and attributes, the building blocks of an XHTML page. Next there is an introduction to styling a page with CSS (Cascading Style Sheets), followed by a look at document structure and then text presentation. Further chapters cover hyperlinks, graphics and lists. The mysteries of special characters are uncovered, and there is a full guide to XHTML tables. The later chapters are more advanced, and tackle clickable image maps, Web forms and using frames. Two chapters of tips cover common pitfalls and suggestions for good page design. Topics like Java, multimedia, scripting and dynamic HTML are introduced, with explanations of what they are and pointers to further resources rather than any real tutorial content. This sums up the book's approach, which is to ensure a good and up-to-date understanding of XHTML rather than attempting to cover every aspect in detail. It does this well, providing an excellent foundation. There is also an accompanying CD-ROM, packed with tools and utilities as well as all the examples from the book. --Tim Anderson

very good book:
This would have gotten 5 stars, except the author does not do an adequate job of fully explaining the difference/relationship of XML and XHTML, and tends to use the terms interchangably. (I still don't fully understand it, and will be looking elsewhere for a fuller explanation.) Also: the author mentions HTML-Tidy in an historic sense, but doesn't mention that there is a windows version of HTML-Tidy incorporated in the HTML-Kit program available free from the www.chami.com website, which automatically converts HTML to XHTML (among a ton of other great things). (Maybe this wasn't available from Chami at publication.) However, the rest of the book is clear, comprehensive and extremely well done and easy to understand, unlike most tech books on programming. I would recommend it for anyone wanting to learn the subject, but who is proficient in HTML. Anyone who has never hand-coded HTML would want to get Laura Lemay's Teach Yourself Web Publishing with HTML first, build a couple web pages from scratch learning HTML, then get this book and polish it off.

The title should be "XHTML for highly motivated dummies":
If you're a true dummy (as I am sometimes), this book really is not for you. You would need to be a "dummy who is highly motivated and has lots of time to learn XHTML." You would want to be a "dummy who already has some familiarity with HTML but wants to get to the next level" or a "dummy with an extraordinarily high IQ but low self-esteem or garbled speech or dilated pupils, hence the (misplaced) dummy label." If however, you have the intelligence, the patience, the time, energy, motivation and personal ambition to wade through this long and highly technical (but written in plain language) book, you could conceivably learn XHTML, make lots of money as an XHTML programmer, and nobody, I mean NOBODY, would call you a "dummy" again.

Not for Your Average Dummy:
While this book is written in plain English and follows the usual Dummies model it is not a start-from-scratch tutorial. The author does not state this explicitly but in order to use this book effectively (because of the way it is written) you really need to have HTML under your belt before you take on XHTML. This book is written from that perspective and is really more of a reference book for looking up various XHTML elements or rules. It is not very useful as a beginning tool for learning how to code in XHTML unless you are already familiar with the rules and ways of HTML. Other important aspects like Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) are given such cursory treatment that it really makes you feel like more of a dummy after reading it. Other aspects such as the relationship between HTML, XHTML and XML are explained in a ways that just didn't make sense to me but then maybe I'm just a bigger dummy than the author anticipated. If you have a working knowledge of HTML then this book will probably suffice but if you are just getting started then perhaps it would be better to look elsewhere for an XHTML how-to.

Look Elsewhere:
Slap "for dummies" on a book and you will get the dummies to buy it. :) This book just wears you out with all the extra chit-chat that really never gets to the point. I have read a few dummies books for programming languages and they are really not all that good because you can buy more comprehensive books that cover everything.

Good intro to XHTML:
Don't even bother learning HTML 4 - XHTML will replace it eventually so you might as well go with the wave of the future. XHTML for Dummies is a solid INTRODUCTION to XHTML. If you have already reached the intermediate level, then this book is for you. However, if you want to design websites and don't know where to start, then give this book a shot.