I picked up HTML from books and online tutorials about 10 years ago. I have
a working knowledge of CSS from articles, but I still feel more comfortable
with tables and text-type HTML editors. My usual HTML editor is NVU, but
more often than not, I will go to its source tab and edit the markup
directly.

I have two Web sites:
http://www.douglaidlaw.net/boykett/ that I am currently working on;
http://members.iinet.net.au/~tomlai1/ - my early efforts.

Both are probably "horrible" by professional standards.

Can anybody recommend a suitable book I could use as a reference manual
without going into "bells and whistles"? I am not interested in Flash,
only the occasional animated GIF. I looked into the 3d motion-effect
programs, but they are too much work and probably browser dependent, and
they are simply unnecessary for my needs.

TIA,

Doug.
--
If computers get too powerful, we can organize them into
a committee.
-Author Unknown.

Doug Laidlaw wrote:

Can anybody recommend a suitable book I could use as a reference manual

There's only one - the W3C HTML specification itself.

For CSS then the W3C site is useful, but hard to read. So Lie & Bos CSS
book is my favoured guide here, plus various web resources on IE errors
and the subtleties of positioning.

If you wanted a from-scratch tutorial I'd recommend the "Head First"
books. The style is odd though and they really need to be read at least
a chapter at a time, rather than dipped into.

Can anybody recommend a suitable book I could use as a reference manual
without going into "bells and whistles"? I am not interested in Flash,
only the occasional animated GIF. I looked into the 3d motion-effect
programs, but they are too much work and probably browser dependent, and
they are simply unnecessary for my needs.

Basically their are only a few things you need to remember when
designing a website:

Remove ANYTHING unnecessary - ESPECIALLY animated gifs - they can kill a
style.
Does it get your point across?
Is it accessible for impaired readers?
Does the style match for each text/page/section?
Is it easy on the eye?
Is it easily to navigate?

That is usually the things I'm thinking when designing the layout of a site.

What I notice when I visit your site is that each page looks totally
separated - their is no common style between them. Two pages could be
from different sites.

I hope I have imported good wisdom and I'm entirely up for criticism if
you think I haven't :D

Brendan Gillatt

Oops - impArted.

I hope I have imported good wisdom and I'm entirely up for criticism if
you think I haven't :D
>
Brendan Gillatt

In message <edpfae$tge$2@news.freedom2surf.net>, Brendan Gillatt
<brendan@brendanREMOVETHISgillatt.co.ukwrites

>Oops - impArted.

I think you'll find that the second requires the first to have taken
place! ;-)


--
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