Rating: 
Summary: HTML: a defnitive winner
Review: I am developing an HTTP server that is to be the administrative interface to a small embedded computer and needed information on the basic syntax and processing of HTML forms. I am familiar with HTML and have created several simple web sites, but had never had a need for detailed information on HTML. I bought this book because, as a long-time UNIX system programmer and administrator, I have learned to trust O'Reilly and Associates. They did not let me down.
This is the first and still the only book on HTML I have seen that does not assume I am a slobbering computer-illiterate idiot. I don't need the book to explain to me how to click a mouse, I just need information about the syntax of HTML, and the results I should expect to see. This volume has lived up to my expectations in every way; I am here at Amazon to purchase another copy for my project team.
I particularly appreciate the sections about how the various web browsers differ, and the advice on how to develop HTML that is acceptable to all web browsers. HTML was supposed to free us from varying implementations, this book helps to keep us on that rosy path.
The layout of this book, like all O'Reilly titles, is clean and elegant. Many of the mass-market publications about computers in general and the internet in particular are full of grey boxes, purple or blue highlights, graphical computer screens, and other publishing gew-gaws that make it nearly impossible to follow what the text is saying. They are written in "info bites," apparently aimed at readers that cannot read for longer than a minute at a time. As a refreshing contrast, this book is written in a comforting narrative style, with examples highlighted by legible fonts, and screen shots of a real web browser displaying the results. The text flows from one topic to the next, making it possible to pick up the book the next time the network dies and read an entire chapter at a time.
If you are computer literate and already understand the basics of HTML, this book will answer serve as a valuable reference as you build your HTML skills. Highly recommended.
Rating:
Summary: Very Impressive
Review: My husband bought this book and I didn't understand why, until I read some other HTML guides. This is better! It's clear, concise, funny, opinionated and classy
Rating:
Summary: So you want to learn HTML, better read this first!
Review: There are two ways to learn to write HTML: 1) "steal" it from other sites on the net, which can lead to learning 90% bad habits from the 90% of sites that are poorly designed, or 2) you can learn it the right way, read this book, and more importantly, USE it. It's clear, well-organized, and aims at the audience better than any other text. It's not dumbed-down, nor techno-elitist;there are no whistles and bells that distract. Rather, it teaches the most effective coding while dolling out the newest features in the ever-evolving HTML specification, plus, the techniques will carry over in that continued evolution
Rating:
Summary: best practical book on HTML to date
Review: I really have to wonder about the person who (anonymously)
panned this book! Admittedly, I'm only half way through
it, but I have yet to see a technical error. They are
thorough. Everything is explained plainly. They go far
more into the details, side effects, and usability issues
than anything else I've read. They also give the sanest
advice about when and how to use tags (especially extensions)
I've seen in print in quite a while.
Most of the other HTML books I've seen *have* had plenty
of errors, gaping holes, or silly advice. This one's just
the opposite. If you only read one book on writing web
pages, read this one.
Rating: 
Summary: As the title says, this is the DEFINITIVE guide to HTML.
Review: There are plenty of web-links and books on HTML but none isas "definitive" as this book. It's highly readable cover-to-cover and just as valuable as a reference -- read a chapter here and a page there. Plenty of examples, plenty of illustrations: the book covers every aspect of the current HMTL 2.0 specification (and explains why there is not a 3.0 standard, no matter what others say). I especially was appreciative of the authors' reminders to set up web pages readable by any browser (not only Netscape and MS' I.E.) including Lynx, a text-only browser I still like to use.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent reference--a *must* for serious web developers
Review: The reviews for "HTML & XHTML" by Musciano and Kennedy are already overwhelmingly positive (save a few disgruntled readers here and there). I can see why readers heap so much praise upon this book. The author's intent is to show the reader how to write clean HTML, arguing that since web surfers can always change their browsers' appearance settings, content is still more important than style. I am a rookie at making web pages, yet after tinkering with HTML for a few days, I had already found myself thumbing through the book for reference. I am not a programmer, and I think novices could still appreciate this book. However, I *strongly* recommend that potential readers have some exposure to HTML and understand how it works before purchasing. (Check out Jennifer Niederst's excellent "Learning Web Design" if you need a tutorial on the Internet and HTML.) In any case, the book is mainly geared towards experienced programmers, but I honestly believe that anyone can get the most out of this book if they are willing to experiment with HTML continually through trial and error.
Rating:
Summary: A well written and useful book
Review: "HTML & XHTML The definitive guide 5ª Edition" from O'Reilly is a book that help both beginners and advanced users to design and create web pages, and is a complete guide of the standards HTML (Hypertext Markup Language) and XHTML (Extensible Hypertext Markup Language), considering different web browsers such as Netscape and Explorer. The book is a complete and up to date reference that includes syntax, semantics and style elements of HTML and XHTML. It offers numerous and clear examples and covers in detail all the elements of the latest versions of HTML and XHTML and all the extensions accepted by the most recent and popular web browsers. "HTML & XHTML The definitive guide" is a complete guidebook to create documents using HTML and XHTML, from the syntax and semantics up to general style guides, that help the reader to create attractive, accessible and informative pages. The book is written in a clear and simple style and is useful for a variety of readers, from the beginner up to professional web designers who need a complete reference of the standards HTML and XHTML. Even though some reviews of the book recommend it to intermediate and advanced users of HTML and XHTML, I consider that a beginner can too find it useful to create his or her first web page.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent and comprehensive HTML reference!
Review: This book truly is a comprehensive guide for not only HTML, but also briefly covers the new hybrid of XML & HTML called XHTML. While it doesn't dive deeply into XHTML, there's not that big a need to do so. Most HTML will work fine in XHTML. The standards for HTML keep changing and this book not only describes the changes, but also which tags have been "depricated" or made totally obsolete and which ones are fairly new. It's nice to know which tags are now considered "obsolete" as well as what kind of tags used to be used in HTML. I've been doing web design for three or four years now and I still managed to find quite a few new "tricks" in several chapters that I hadn't known about before. While the book may not be for total HTML novices, anyone with some HTML knowledge will learn quite a bit here. I certainly have. Besides a brief "history" of HTML, the book extensively covers topics like text manipulation, links, lists, cascading style sheets, forms, tables, frames and a chapter about JavaScript. There are also chapters devoted to XML & XHTML as well. This book is excellent, especially if you're looking for an in-depth HTML reference book.
Rating: 
Summary: A SATISFACTORY RESOURCE
Review: First and foremost, this edition of "HTML & XHTML: The Definitive Guide" is a well-written book. The use of simple language throughout the chapters make them very comprehensible. I really appreciate the way it handled the cascading style sheets, tables, forms, and so on.
However, I cannot understand the reason why the authors of this book included all the tags and attributes, and then decided to exclude all the attribute values. For this reason, I would not recommend it for anyone who is still learning the basics of HTML.
Intermediate (and advanced) learners should pay closer attention to it. It simplified both the Syntax and the Semantics. Also, the extensive coverage it gave Internet Explorer 6, Netscape Navigator 6.0, JavaScript, and a host of others, are satisfactory.
Overall, this textbook will prove a useful resource for any HTML non-beginner.
Rating: 
Summary: Adequate but frustrating to use
Review: I'll start with the good news: The Fifth Edition of this book does contain a few new pieces of information, and has also undergone a *very mild* visual update in the form of new "In this chapter" table-ettes on the first page of each chapter.
Paradoxically this book's "In this chapter" table-ettes illustrate one of the chronic problems that exists throughout the entire O'Reilly "Complete Reference" series -- an apparently theological aversion to providing simple cross-references to the specific page or pages containing cited material. Similarly (and every bit as annoying), the concise descriptions of the html tags contained in this book's alphabetically ordered index painstakingly omit a simple x-ref back to the pages that more fully describe the tag.
The second chronic failing of this book (in fact, the entire O'Reilly "Definitive Reference" series) is the near-total absence of useful examples. I suppose one could argue that a self-described "complete reference" is above such things, but some concise examples of how the referenced material does useful work would greatly improve the information transfer capabilities of this sort of book.
In the end, this book would be so much more useful and usable as a "complete reference" if only it had some simple x-refs and a few illustrative examples. As it stands, this book is reasonably useful if you also happen to have (a) a grasp of HTML and XHTML fundamentals in the first place, and (b) access to supplemental resources such as Internet search to fill in the gaps left by the non-existent examples. (And oh yes, the patience to thumb back and forth from page to page in lieu of actual printed cross references...)
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