HTML 4 for the World Wide Web: VQS

Like previous editions, HTML 4 for the World Wide Web: Visual QuickStart Guide has won universal praise for being the most succinct, indispensable guide to using HTML to design Web pages. Completely updated for HTML 4, this third edition covers such important innovations as Cascading Style Sheets and dynamic HTML, as well as the improved form, frame, and table features. It also includes a variety of tips on how to create good-looking pages and avoid common pitfalls of Web design. Perfect for beginners, the book presumes no prior knowledge of HTML and presents clear, step-by-step instructions for creating each element of a page, from titles and headers to forms and frames - all illustrated with examples of the code and the resulting page. But HTML 4 for the World Wide Web: VQS isn't just for novices. Thanks to its well-organized tabbed format and real-world coverage of HTML tags, even experienced Web designers will find it a valuable day-to-day reference.

Table of Contents:
Introduction. HTML and the Web. Users vs. Programmers. Different versions of HTML. Cascading Style Sheets. What is DHTML? TML browsers. The HTML VQS Website. 1. HTML Building Blocks. Writing HTML. HTML tags. Spacing. Special symbols. URLs. 2. Starting your Web Page. Designing your site. Organizing files. Designating a home page. Creating a new Web page. Looking at your page in a browser. Starting your Web page. Understanding the HEAD and BODY. Creating a title. Organizing the page. Starting a new paragraph. Creating a line break. 3. Text Formatting. Changing the font. Making text bold or italic. Choosing a default size for body text. Changing the text size. Using relative values to change text size. Choosing a default color for text. Changing the text color. Creating superscripts and subscripts. Using a monospaced font. Using preformatted text. Striking out or underlining text. Making text blink. Hiding text (Adding comments). 4. Creating Images. Making images smaller. Exporting GIF images from Photoshop. Using (mostly) browser safe colors. Converting to browser safe colors. Reducing the number of colors. Creating transparency. Creating fake transparency. Interlacing GIF images. Creating animated GIFs. Creating JPEG images. Blurring images to aid JPEG compression. Creating low resolution images. Creating PNG files. 5. Using Images. Inserting images on a page. Offering alternate text. Specifying size for speedier viewing. Linking icons to external images. Using low resolution images. Wrapping text around images. Stopping text wrap. Adding space around an image. Scaling an image. Aligning images. Using a banner. Adding horizontal rules. 6. Page Layout. Specifying the margins. Creating indents. Creating indents (with lists). Specifying the space between paragraphs. Creating blocks of space. Using pixel shims. Creating columns. Centering elements on a page. Positioning elements with layers. Using background color. Using background images. Using block quotes. Quoting short passages of text. Controlling line breaks. 7. Links. Creating a link to another Web page. Creating anchors. Linking to a specific anchor. Targeting links to specific windows. Setting the default target. Creating other kinds of links. Creating keyboard shortcuts for links. Setting the tab order for links. Using images to label links. Dividing an image into clickable regions. Creating a client-side image map. Using a server-side image map. Changing the color of links. 8. Lists. Creating ordered lists. Creating unordered lists. Creating definition lists. Creating nested lists. 9. Tables. Creating a simple table. Putting header cells across the top. Putting header cells on top and left. Adding a caption. Dividing your table into column groups. Dividing the table into horizontal sections. Adding a border. Choosing which borders to display. Spanning a cell across two or more columns. Spanning a cell across two or more rows. Changing a table's width and height. Changing a cell's size. Aligning the contents of cells. Changing a cell's color. Using a background image. Spacing and padding the cells. Controlling line breaks in a cell. Speeding up table display. Mapping out a table. 10. Frames. Creating a simple frameset. Creating frames in columns. Creating frames in rows and columns. Combining framesets. Creating an inline frame. Adjusting a frame's margins. Showing or hiding scroll bars. Adjusting the color of the borders. Adjusting the borders' thickness. Hiding or showing the borders. Keeping visitors from resizing frames. Adjusting the spacing between frames. Targeting links to particular frames. Targeting links to special spots. Changing the default target. Nesting framesets. Creating alternatives to frames. 11. Forms. About CGI scripts. Getting a script ready. Creating a form. Creating text boxes. Creating password boxes. Creating larger text areas. Creating radio buttons. Creating check boxes. Creating menus. Allowing visitors to upload files. Creating hidden elements. Creating the submit button. Resetting the form. Active images. Organizing the form elements. Formally labelling form parts. Setting the tab order. Adding keyboard shortcuts. Disabling form elements. Keeping elements from being changed. Using a form hosting service. 12. Multimedia. Helper applications. Non-supported images. Sound. Converting sound formats. Adding external sound to a Web page. Adding internal sound for Netscape users. Adding background sound for Explorer users. Video. Converting video to the proper format. Adding external video to your page. Adding internal video. Adding internal video for Internet Explorer. Creating a marquee. Inserting applets. 13. Setting up Style Sheets. The anatomy of a style. Applying styles locally. Creating an internal style sheet. Creating an external style sheet. Using an external style sheet. Defining styles for classes. Identifying particular tags. Special tags for styles. Defining styles for links. 14. Formatting Text with Styles. Choosing a font family. Embedding fonts on a page. Creating italics. Applying bold formatting. Setting the font size. Setting the line height. Setting all font values at once. Setting the text color. Changing the text's background. Controlling spacing. Setting white space properties. Aligning text. Underlining text. Making text blink. Changing the text case. 15. Layout with Styles. Offsetting elements within the natural flow. Positioning elements absolutely. Positioning elements in 3D. Displaying and hiding elements. Setting the height or width for an element. Setting the border. Adding padding around an element. Setting the margins around an element. Aligning elements vertically. Wrapping text around elements. Stopping text wrap. Changing the foreground color. Changing the background. Determining where overflow should go. Clipping an element. Setting list properties. Specifying page breaks. 16. Scripts. Adding an “automatic” script. Calling an external automatic script. Triggering a script. Creating a button that executes a script. Hiding scripts from older browsers. Adding alternate information. Setting the default scripting language. 17. Extras. The inspiration of others. Creating a counter. Changing a link's status label. Souping up mailto links. Creating drop caps. Using vertical rules. Creating buttons with tables. Using tables for layout. A shortcut for creating HTML tables in Word. Creating an automatic slide show. 18. Publishing. Helping visitors find your page. Controlling your page's summary. Controlling other information about your page. Keeping search engine robots out. Testing your page. Transferring files to the server. Transferring files to AOL or CompuServe. Changing permissions. Advertising your site. Appendix A: HTML Tools. HTML Editors. Free-use images for your pages. Graphics Tools. Image Map Tools. Appendix B: Special Symbols. Using special symbols. Table I: Characters. Table II: Symbols. Appendix C: Colors in Hex. Finding a color's RGB components-in hex. Hexadecimal equivalents. The Hexadecimal system. Appendix D: HTML and Compatibility. HTML Tags. Intrinsic events.