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Select one of the following for your text: Raggett on HTML 4, second edition, by Dave Raggett, Jenny Lam, Ian Alexander, Michael Kmiec. Menlo Park, California: Addison-Wesley, 1997. ISBN: 0-201-17805-2. Dave Raggett was the lead architect for HTML 4. His book is not only authoritative, but also betrays a sense of humor if you recognize the puns. (Even the Glossary is humanized if you take time to read it.) This is the text that I prefer. HTML 4 for the World Wide Web by Elizabeth Castro. Berkeley, California: Peachpit Press, 1998. ISBN 0-201-69696-7. This book is not so detailed at Raggett's book, but includes all the basics with helpful illustrations. Some may find it easier to use than Raggett's book. The appendix showing which tags are supported by HTML 4 and which by Explorer and Netscape is especially useful. The problem with this book is that the author recommends some non-structural uses of html tags that the W3C specifically asks authors to avoid. The Project Cool Guide to HTML by Teresa A. Martin and Glenn Davis. New York: John Wiley & Sons, 1997. ISBN 0-471-17371-1. This book is a good basic text. This book includes more style tips than the other texts. However, it does not include the material about style sheets and java script that this class will cover. Martin and Davis cover that in a The Project Cool Guide to Enhancing Your Web Site. New York: John Wiley & Sons, 1997. ISBN Useful but not required: The Non-Designer's Web Book by Robin Williams and John Tollett. Berkeley, California: Peachpit Press, 1998. ISBN 0-201-68859-X. This text is an excellent basic guide with many suggestions for design of your site and preparation of graphics. Unfortunately the book suggests many non-structural uses of html tags that the W3C discourages. |
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The Basics: 1. Chapter 1 of Raggett on HTML 4 explains the very basic operations of the web and definitions, so that you can drop alphabet acronyms like the pros. You'll be url-ing right along with this. If you already know the web, review the sections on "math and html" anyway. What if you don't have this book? Don't worry; simply read the material available on the Internet. 2. Chapter 2 of Raggett on HTML 4 is the inside story about how the universal language developed. The tensions between those trying to corner the market with a proprietary code and those trying to maintain a genuinely universal standard is treated with restraint. If you want more about topics in units 1 and 2: Chapter 1 of Robin Williams' Web The NonDesigners Web Book is a clear explanation of what the web is and how it works. Or visit some of the following nine web links: Jeffrey Zeldman has an excellent resource site called "Ask Dr. Web". Read the first 7 pages of this site for a good introduction. See which browsers access Yahoo recently, a sampling of what browsers people use. See the website Browserwatch to get more sense of the variety of browsers people use. "HTML Standards Compliance: Why Bother? by Alan Richmond at the Web Developers Virtual Library is worth your time. The Web Standards Project is an effort by web designers to maintain the universal language. Take a look at their site and read their Mission Statement and the FAQ sheet. If you want to read more about the history of the internet, see Doug Engelbart's site. The conclusion to his 1962 essay may expand your thinking about the purpose and potential of computers and the web. You may enjoy this History of Computers site. If you want to get some idea of how the W3C works, see how its committee prepared the draft for the W3C Guidelines on Accessibility and the Web. |
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The required basics: 1. Chapter 3 of Raggett on HTML 4 explains the basic structure of html. Chapter 1 and 2 of HTML for the World Wide Web covers most of this same material, as does Chapter 2 of The Project Cool Guide to HTML. 2. Sections 12.2 and 12.5 (only these two sections!)of Chapter 12 of Raggett on HTML 4 explain the "title" and "meta" elements. Chapter 18 of HTML for the World Wide Web discusses "meta" elements.
If you want more detail see these three links to W3C guidelines: explanation of the various DOCTYPE definitions at W3C guidelines describing html structure at W3C guidelines about the web page head at W3C |
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The required basics: 1. Chapter 4 and Chapter 5 of Raggett on HTML 4 explains how to mark up paragraphs and headings, as well as emphasize specific characters. This material is covered by Chapter 3 in HTML for the World Wide Web and Chapter 3 of The Project Cool Guide to HTML. 2. Chapter 6 of Raggett on HTML 4 explains the variety of ways you can use lists to structure the content of your web page. Chapter 8 of HTML for the World Wide Web also covers lists. Chapter 3 of The Project Cool Guide to HTML covers lists.
If you want more about the difference between structural and graphical approaches to design, see these two web links: Dan Tobias on structural tags ,which he tends to appreciate and emphasize. David Siegel on graphic lay-out , which he considers more important. If you want more detail about markup: see these three web links to W3C: describing paragraphs and lines at W3C guidelines describing headings at W3C guidelines describing phrase elements at W3C
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The required basics: 1. Chapter 7 of Raggett on HTML 4 describes links and anchors. This material is covered by Chapter 7 in HTML for the World Wide Web and Chapter 4 of The Project Cool Guide to HTML. If you want more about using links see these four web sites: The Web Review tutorial about links. There are several essays in this series. Dan Tobias essay on the difference between absolute and relative URLs. Web Designers Virtual Library on links , a series of articles guideline to links at W3C |
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The required basics: 1. Chapter 8 of Raggett on HTML 4 describes how to insert images and the ways to have text wrap around your graphics. If you want more about using graphics see these nine web sites: Dr. Web's Graphics Clinic is fairly comprehensive. Dave Siegel's design tips on color, compression, etc. Lynda Weinman's site on color. Webmonkey's Image Editing 101 This tutorial about finding images on the web will make you think more carefully about naming your files and includes some information about copyright issues. This source lists several sites for copyright information. Here is one of the many places to look for free clip art Webpedia's gif animation tutorial guideline about images at W3C. and in print: The Non-Designer's Web Book, chapters 9, 10, 11 and 13, by Robin Williams and John Tollett has an excellent introduction to graphics production for the web. |
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The required basics: 1. Chapter 10 of Raggett on HTML 4 about tables. If you want more about using tables see these six web sites: W3C's caution about tables for layout. David Siegel's tutorial about tables. The Web Developer's Virtual Library tutorial on tables. Jason Cook's advice on optimizing your tables. Webmonkey caution about nesting tables. guidelines about table tags at W3C. |
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The required basics: 1. Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI) Quick Tips for Accessible Web Pages summarize what is necessary to achieve universal design. These points are explained more fully in the Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI) Checklist for Accessibile Web Pages 2. "Selfish Reasons for Accessible Web Authoring" by Kynn Barlett, at www.aware.hwg.org maintained by the HTML Writers Guild 3. CNET Article about Legal Issues and Web Access 4. Look over the features at the WGBH web site that make it accessible. Notice that while the site is accessible, it also uses fancy java script rollovers and multimedia. "Accessible" does not mean "dreary." 5.Listen to what a screen reader sounds like by selecting the link that says "Listen to pwWebSpeak in action with the SoftVoice synthesizer (240k WAV file)" at the pwWeb Speak site. For more information about accessibility see the following eight web sites: Open Studio article about Web Accessibility at The Arts Online-Digital Canvas Jakob Nielsen's article with link to New York Times (NYT) from Alertbox. In order to visit the NYT article and hear the screen reader sample it includes, you will need to do a free registration at the New York Times. The City of San Jose Accessibility Standard is an example of what many public agencies are requiring. Ideas about Color Blind Design by Andrew Oakley The Santa Monica College Universal Access page done by Ellen Cutler is an excellent summary, example and source. Webable.com list of resources for accessibility. There are many good sites worth exploring listed here. National Center for Accessible Media directions for captioning QuickTime movies See examples of QuickTime movies captioned at the National Center for Accessible Media site. |
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The required basic: 1. Chapter 13 of Raggett on HTML 4 about frames. If you want more about frames, Elizabeth Castro's HTML 4 for the World Wide Web has a more gentle approach to frames than Dave Raggett. Her chapter includes helpful illustrations. The following four web sites may also prove useful: Chuck Musciano's articles in Web Review about Frames the webreference tutorial about frames is a bit dry and anti-frame the Web Access Initiative techniques for frames the article on how to change two frames at once in Webmonkey |
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The required basics: 1. Dr. Web's tutorial on style sheets 2. Fear of Style Sheets at A List Apart If you want more about using style sheets the following 5 resources are useful: Steve Mulder's tutorial on css at Webmonkey Web Review maintains a report on which browsers support which tags in the style sheet guidelines Project Cool has a list of tags supported by Netscape and tags supported by Explorer. the list of articles on css at W3C is a good place to continue study. It includes several tutorials on style sheets that may appeal to you. And in print the Project Cool Guide to Enhancing Your Web Site by Teresa A. Martin and Glenn Davis has a very good chapter about using Cascading Style Sheets. There is a web site that goes with the book with good examples of style sheets. |
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The required basics: 1. Chapter 11 of Raggett on HTML 4 2. "The Most Simple Introduction to CGI" at bignosebird.com explains the basics of how Common Gateway Interface scripts work on the web. If his explanation is too simple and silly or you don't like the garbage-can metaphor, try 3. Tutorial on CGI offered through the Web Developers Virtual Library. If you want more about forms and cgi scripts, check these 3 web sites: a listing of Tutorials on CGI the bignosebird introduction to forms And in print there is the book Perl and CGI for the World Wide Web by Elizabeth Castro. Berkeley, CA: Peachpit Press, 1999. This book is more about the cgi scripting than about how to create the forms in your web page. |
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The required basics: 1. Jeff Ziegler's Introduction to JavaScript at Webmonkey, which includes several examples or 2. the Project Cool Quick Start Guide to JavaScript. 3. Jeffrey Zeldman's article about Execution versus Content For more detailed tutorials about JavaScript check these three web sites: Thau's five-day JavaScript tutorial at Webmonkey. Beyond QuickStart, the Project Cool JavaScript tutorial. Joe Burns' 30-lesson JavaScript tutorial at HTML Goodies. And in print, JavaScript for the World Wide Web: Visual Quickstart Guide by Tom Negrino and Dori Smith published by Peachpit Press is excellent. The book has a companion site at accompanying web site with Java Script examples is useful. For further reference the Netscape site about JavaScript is useful. And, of course, the W3C about scripts is detailed.
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Chapter 14 and 15 of Raggett on HTML 4 deals with image maps and the <object> tag. Unfortunately, browser support for the <object> tag is quite uneven. Chapter 9 of The Project Cool Guide to Enhancing Your Website by Teresa A. Martin and Glenn Davis explains some methods of adding audio and video to your web site. Webmonkey has an explanation of audio files HTML Stylehouse tutorial about how to do image maps
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Copyright by dwang, 1999. All rights reserved.