Rating:  Summary: very good introduction! Review: I was quite impressed with Jason Cranford Teague's first book (on frames) so I was excited when I learned he had written a book explaining the ins-and-outs of DHTML. He did not disappoint. I desperately needed CSS information, and his was clear and easy to follow. I will definitely use this as a reference to check on my coding.
Rating:  Summary: Best bang for your buck Review: I've read quite a few books on DHTML and this is one of the few that I come back to over and over for solutions and ideas. The book is roughly half-and-half CSS and javascripted DHTML. Unlike many of the laughable attempts at DHTML books out there, this one focuses on effects that work in BOTH major browsers, with a chapter each on browser-specific effects. Also, unlike other books, heavy focus is placed on complete working examples with full code listings rather than hypotheticals. If you learn best tutorial-style, this book's for you.This book is not for novices at javascript. If you're new to scripting, start with Danny Goodman's javascript bible first. Likewise, know your HTML first. Most of the negative reviews written below can be ascribed to failure to read the book's notes and caveats before buying. Sure, there are a few typos, but the book's support site maintains errata and downloadable source code. And to the tosser who whines about "browser sniffing"--the list of interesting JS effects that can be created on both browsers without a bit of detection can be enumerated on one hand.
Rating:  Summary: If you need a FAST intro - get this book Review: If you are looking for a book that will get you up to speed with CSS and DHTML in one hour - this is the book for you. It has accurate, quick, get to the point examples of how to implement style sheets and DHTML without a lot of fluff. This book is excellent as a quick reference also. I like this book. I don't consider this the best DHTML book in my collection, but when I have a question and I need an answer immediately, I always reach for this one. P.S. Whenever I see a great review. I always wonder if the person who wrote it has a relationship with the author or the publishing company. Rest assured, I have NO relationship with the author or the publishing company or any other entity that could possibly profit from giving this book a good review. I bought this book. And I like it.
Rating:  Summary: Great for beginners to intermediate users Review: If you're not familiar with HTML then before taking on this book, read the Peachpit book on HTML. Then read this book, get the updates from the web and do all the examples - I used Netscape 4.7 and IE5. You'll be able to do quite a lot of web development after this. If you then want to delve into other areas such as Javascipt etc in more detail then get one of the more technical books around such as "Pure Javascipt".
Rating:  Summary: One Day Review: In just one day of receiving this book, I made my first page containing Cascading Style Sheets. I have read quite a few books explaining the concept of CSS and I didn't quite get the grasp of it. However, as with most of the Visual Quick Start line, I was up and running in no time. There is a typo in the External Style Sheets area that held me up but no-biggie. I did find the area on DHTML a bit confusing but I will keep in mind that this review is being written 48 hours *after* I received the book.
Rating:  Summary: This is not a book for professionals Review: JavaScript was dragged kicking and screaming into the ridiculous morass that is DHTML. Netscape has since abandoned its support for layers, so this book has become seriously outdated. DHTML is basically a dead end and it will soon go the way of the dodo. Even the tricks in this book aren't supported by newer versions of IE and Netscape, and most of the code examples in the book are incorrect anyway. You can go to the site to get the code for free, so there's no reason to buy a book full of incorrect code. When it was published it had cute tricks, but very few of them were actually practical. The only practical part of the book was the portion dealing with CSS (Cascading Style Sheets) which are now widely used. There are much better books on CSS than this one...O'Reilly's Definitive Guide on CSS springs to mind...and there are plenty of free web references you can visit to get up to speed on CSS. Start with microsoft.com and save your money.
Rating:  Summary: This is not a book for professionals Review: JavaScript was dragged kicking and screaming into the ridiculous morass that is DHTML. Netscape has since abandoned its support for layers, so this book has become seriously outdated. DHTML is basically a dead end and it will soon go the way of the dodo. Even the tricks in this book aren't supported by newer versions of IE and Netscape, and most of the code examples in the book are incorrect anyway. You can go to the site to get the code for free, so there's no reason to buy a book full of incorrect code. When it was published it had cute tricks, but very few of them were actually practical. The only practical part of the book was the portion dealing with CSS (Cascading Style Sheets) which are now widely used. There are much better books on CSS than this one...O'Reilly's Definitive Guide on CSS springs to mind...and there are plenty of free web references you can visit to get up to speed on CSS. Start with microsoft.com and save your money.
Rating:  Summary: A ponderous waste of time. Needs writing lessons. Review: Learning how to create web-pages is one of the most fun things you can do on the internet. It seems to me that this book doesn't believe learning DHTML should be fun, that it should have all the excitement of sitting in a lecture hall listening to one of those profs. who believes long, ponderous discourse is the only way to learn. This book is filled with everything you need to know about designing a web page using DHTML, only you will die from boredom reading what shouldn't be so terribly presented. The writer takes 10 sentences and too many words to say what I could have said in half the space. This is a perfect example of techical writers who write while simutaneously being facinated with their own knowledge of a subject. Therefore, they go on an on and on until the subject has become so diluted with irrelevant facts, that the big "Oh well, forget it" come out from the reader. Writer: Designing web pages is fun. Get it. You wasted my time and money.
Rating:  Summary: Outstanding! Review: Teague is really one of the bright young minds of the technology/publishing industry. His earlier book on Frames not only was an easy read, but actually presented compelling arguments for using (and not using) them. This book is an easy read, simple to understand, and probably the only DHTML book on the market that I've seen which I would even consider buying. Can you give a book six stars?
Rating:  Summary: A good primer, but lacks polish and attention to detail Review: The format of all of the Visual Quickstart Guides is very helpful in that it provides the reader with a visual representation of basically all of the concepts covered in the book. In the case of "DHTML for the WWW" this is extremely helpful since many of the concepts are fairly complex and would be difficult to comprehend without a visual aid. Overall, this book is a good guide for intermediate level HTML coders who perhaps aren't interested in coding for the rest of their lives, but who would like to take advantage of some of the advanced behaviours that DHTML affords. In addition to the basic concepts behind DHTML, the book provides a surprisingly good and thorough explaination of CSS. The downsides to this book are twofold, first, the examples provided are not, in large part, directly applicable to any real world applications. After having read the book, it would still take a fair amount of effort and ingenuity to develop a cascading menu, for example. This is made particularly difficult because of the book's second major fault, the fact that many of the code examples provided in the text are incorrect. If you buy this book MAKE CERTAIN THAT YOU CONSULT THE ACCOMPANYING WEB SITE BEFORE DOING ANY CODING! This will save you much time and frustration. The summary: worth buying, but it will leave you with as many questions as answers.
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