Suitable for almost anyone who develops Web applications, HTML 4.01 Programmer's Reference provides a thorough tour of HTML and related standards, covering every tag and attribute in the new 4.01 standard.

The strength of this book is that it serves as a guide to some of the best thinking in Web-page design using the latest in approved (and emerging) Internet standards. The authors explain HTML literally from the ground up and cover the structure of Web pages, starting with headers to body tags. Subsequent sections drill down into formatting text and common features like tables, links and images. Throughout the book, the authors provide advice on the right way to do things for good cross-browser Web design. There's plenty on more advanced (and vendor-specific) features in both the Microsoft and Netscape browsers, for example, on frames and cascading style sheets.

The book consistently teaches best practices on what works and what doesn't. Later sections look at "deprecated" or obsolete tags. An appendix that lists every HTML tag and its level of support from HTML 2.0 through 4.01 and on browsers from Netscape and Microsoft from v. 3 through v. 6 more than justifies the cost of this reference.

Besides HTML 4.01 support, the book also offers a glimpse of new or emerging standards that every Web developer arguably should be aware of. From aural style sheets (which provide tags that work with sound and voice), to XHTML 1.0/1.1 and XHMTL Basic (the designated heir to WAP/WML for wireless), HTML 4.01 Programmer's Reference provides a look into the future of Web content. Its cross-browser perspective on some best practices for designing Web content adds yet more value. --Richard Dragan

Topics covered: Comprehensive reference for HTML 4.01 and related standards; Introduction to the HTTP protocol and Web standards for HTML; Body and head elements for Web pages (including Microsoft and Netscape browser extensions); Text formatting tags (including white space and line breaks, lists and comments); URLs explained; Hypertext links (anchors and hrefs); Using images as links; Using bitmap and vector graphics (including GIF, JPG, and PNG formats explained); Forms and HTML controls (including form, input, button, textarea, select, option and label tags); Form submission; HTML tables (including column grouping); Frames and framesets (including floating and inline frames); Scripting tutorial (including events; Embedding objects; Style sheet basics (including cascading, rules, and background options); Character styles with fonts; Positioning elements with style sheets (the box model); Styling lists and tables; Aural style sheets (including the Web Accessibility Initiative, WAI, plus tips for making HTML accessible); Reference for deprecated and obsolete HTML elements; History of current browsers; Microsoft--and Netscape--specific HTML tags (including marquee and layering tags), techniques for cross-browser coding on multiple platforms (the OS and browser spectrum) and detecting a browser and an OS; Scripting; Cross-browser style sheets (tips and best practices); Internationalisation techniques; Dynamic HTML (DHTML) and the Document Object Model (DOM) for Microsoft and Netscape browsers; Emerging Internet standards (including XHTML 1.0/1.1, XHTML Basic, and SMIL 1.0); Reference appendices for all HTML tags (including browsers supported); MIME types; CSS properties and core DOM features

2002-10-11 Excellent tutorial and reference for the standard

I have just finished this book and found most of it very useful. Although it is labelled as a reference, the first 13 chapters can be worked through as "lessons". The "real" reference appendices are also very good although I couldn't see the point of the CSS Property Reference when the preceeding appendix was much easier to use. The "New and Upcoming Standards" chapter was fascinating, with good links to further info.

Negative points are that the number of different authors (eight) is sometimes apparent, and the last few chapters have more detail than necessary for many HTML writers. They certainly can't be accused of skipping over anything.