Absolute Beginner’s Guide to Creating Web Pages

Todd Stauffer0789728958, 9780789728951, 9780768661385

Absolute Beginner’s Guide to Creating Web Pages assumes that readers are true beginners – no prior Web page experience is necessary!This hands-on tutorial teaches readers the fundamentals of creating Web pages, along with more advanced ideas like message areas, chat, and e-commerce options to make the page look like it was created by a professional. The book begins by explaining the need for HTML and the basics of good Web page design. It then covers using HTML tags and tools, formatting text, adding images, and building links. Later chapters demonstrate how to add features to Web pages including tables, colors, frames, multimedia content, JavaScript, Style Sheets and Dynamic HTML. The author has also included several hundred pages of useful additional information, perfect for the beginning Web designer.

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Table of contents :
Absolute Beginner’s Guide To Creating Web Pages……Page 1
Warning and Disclaimer……Page 3
Contents at a Glance……Page 4
Table of Contents……Page 6
Acknowledgments……Page 11
Tell Us What You Think!……Page 12
INTRODUCTION……Page 14
INTRODUCTION……Page 0
Is This The Book for You?……Page 15
How This Book Is Organized……Page 16
On the Web……Page 17
Conventions Used in This Book……Page 18
For More Information……Page 19
The Fundamentals of Web Publishing……Page 22
How the Web Works……Page 23
What Is HTTP?……Page 24
What Is HTML?……Page 25
Hypertext and Hyperlinks……Page 26
Uniform Resource Locators……Page 27
The Different Protocols for URLs……Page 28
Who Sets HTML Standards?……Page 29
Why a New Standard?……Page 30
HTML Is Not Programming……Page 31
Markup Fundamentals……Page 32
Decorating with Style Sheets……Page 33
Adding Scripts to the Mix……Page 34
Summary……Page 35
A Crash-Course in Web Design……Page 38
Web Design Theory……Page 39
Organizing Your Page……Page 40
Images and Multimedia……Page 42
Interactivity and Scripting……Page 44
What Good Pages Look Like……Page 45
Planning a Site……Page 46
Considering Your Audience……Page 47
Organizing the Site……Page 49
HTML Trends and Issues……Page 51
Internationalization……Page 52
Summary……Page 53
The Basic Tools……Page 54
Text Editors……Page 56
HTML Editors……Page 57
Graphics Editors……Page 59
Multimedia Tools……Page 60
Finding a Web Server……Page 61
Dealing with an ISP……Page 62
What Software Does Your Server Run?……Page 64
Accessing Your Web Server Space……Page 65
Types of File Organization……Page 66
Naming Your Files……Page 68
Updating Your Web Site……Page 69
Summary……Page 71
Build Your HTML Template……Page 72
Add Document Elements……Page 73
The DTD……Page 74
Create an HTML Template……Page 76
The Document Head……Page 77
The……Page 78
The Body Section……Page 80
Entering Paragraph Text……Page 81
The……Page 83
Saving Your Page……Page 84
Testing Your Page……Page 85
Validating the Page……Page 86
Summary……Page 87
Organize the Page……Page 90
Add Headings……Page 91
Horizontal Lines……Page 92
Styling Your Text……Page 93
Physical Style Elements……Page 94
Logical Style Elements……Page 95
The Element……Page 98
Using for Tables……Page 99
The Element……Page 101
Marking Changes: and ……Page 103
Using Lists on Your Web Page……Page 104
Ordered and Unordered Lists……Page 105
Definition Lists……Page 107
Summary……Page 109
Visual Stimulus — Adding Graphics……Page 110
Images on the Web……Page 111
What Images Can You Use?……Page 112
What Images Should You Use?……Page 113
Creating and Translating Web Images……Page 114
Using Paint Shop Pro……Page 115
Using GraphicConverter……Page 118
The Element……Page 121
Alternative Text……Page 122
Aligning Text and Images……Page 123
Right- and Left-Aligning Images……Page 124
Width and Height……Page 125
Summary……Page 126
How Hyperlinks Work……Page 128
Relative Versus Absolute URLs……Page 129
The Element……Page 132
Creating Links……Page 133
Linking on the Same Page……Page 134
Building Links Using Images……Page 135
Using Special Links……Page 136
Creating a mailto: Link……Page 137
Creating a Link to an FTP Site……Page 138
Gopher Servers……Page 139
Links to Telnet Servers……Page 140
Open a New Window……Page 141
Changing Pages Automatically……Page 142
Summary……Page 143
Creating a Table……Page 144
The……Page 145
Captions and Summaries……Page 147
Table Rows……Page 148
Table Cell Elements……Page 149
Changing a Cell’s Span……Page 151
Cell and Row Colors……Page 152
The……Page 153
Summary……Page 157
Advanced Table Elements and Table Design……Page 158
Table Design Theory……Page 159
Using Images in Tables……Page 161
Nesting Tables……Page 162
Table Row Groupings……Page 168
Column Groupings……Page 170
Frames and Rules……Page 175
A Row-Centric Table……Page 177
Focusing on Columns……Page 181
Summary……Page 186
Get Splashy: Style Sheets, Fonts, and Special Characters……Page 188
What Are Style Sheets?……Page 189
Why Use Style Sheets?……Page 190
Understanding CSS and XHTML……Page 191
What Style Sheets Replace……Page 192
Creating Style Sheets……Page 193
The style Attribute……Page 194
Creating Special Classes……Page 196
Using the Element……Page 197
Linking Versus Embedding……Page 201
Text Styles……Page 202
Font Properties……Page 203
Background and Color Properties……Page 205
Alignment and Block Appearance Properties……Page 206
Styles for Links and Objects……Page 209
Special Table Styles……Page 210
Special Characters……Page 213
Summary……Page 214
Advanced Web Images and Imagemaps……Page 216
Optimizing Web Images……Page 217
Image Compression and Progressive Encoding……Page 219
Image Transparency……Page 220
Creating Animated Images……Page 222
Jasc Animation Shop……Page 223
Using Imagemaps……Page 224
Adding usemap to ……Page 225
The and Elements……Page 226
Summary……Page 229
Creating Sites with HTML Frames……Page 232
What Frames Are……Page 233
What’s Wrong with Frames?……Page 234
When Should You Use Frames?……Page 235
Creating the Frameset……Page 236
Naming and Targeting Frames……Page 240
Nesting Framesets……Page 242
Advanced Frames……Page 243
Special Targets and Removing Frames……Page 244
Offering Options to Users……Page 245
The Element……Page 246
Summary……Page 248
Adding Multimedia and Java Content……Page 250
Understanding Multimedia……Page 251
Understanding Multimedia File Types……Page 252
Linking Versus Embedding……Page 254
Adding Hyperlinks……Page 256
Embedding Multimedia……Page 258
Embedding QuickTime……Page 260
Windows Media Movies……Page 263
RealMedia Movies……Page 265
Working with Java……Page 267
Java Applets……Page 268
Summary……Page 269
Site-Wide Styles: Design, Accessibility, and Internationalization……Page 270
The Site-Wide Style Sheet……Page 271
The Basic Site……Page 272
Planning the Styles……Page 273
Style Sheet Power……Page 277
Accessibility Through Style Sheets……Page 279
Table and Block Directions……Page 281
Summary……Page 282
Adding HTML Forms……Page 286
The Basics of HTML Forms……Page 287
The Element……Page 288
Other Attributes……Page 289
Text Fields and Attributes……Page 290
The Element……Page 291
Password Entry Boxes……Page 293
Creating Menus……Page 298
Sample Feedback Form……Page 301
Form Design Issues……Page 303
Horizontal Lines……Page 304
Using Paragraphs……Page 306
Other Elements for Form Formatting……Page 308
Using Lists for Forms……Page 309
Form Structure……Page 310
Summary……Page 313
CGIs and Data Gathering……Page 316
CGI Languages……Page 317
A Simple CGI Script……Page 318
Referencing CGIs……Page 319
How Scripts Work……Page 320
Receiving Form Data……Page 321
The……Page 322
Your Script’s Output……Page 324
Finding and Using Scripts……Page 325
Working with Other’s Scripts……Page 326
Creating Your Own Scripts……Page 328
Summary……Page 330
Forums, Chats, and Other Add-Ons……Page 332
Forum Types and Technologies……Page 333
Choosing a Server-Side Forum……Page 334
Installing a Server-Side Forum……Page 337
Hosted Forum Solutions……Page 338
Add Live Chat to Your Site……Page 340
Counters and Web Statistics……Page 342
Accessing Your Web Statistics……Page 343
Adding a Web Counter……Page 344
Server-Side Includes……Page 345
Summary……Page 347
Index……Page 350
End of Book……Page 383