Html 3.2 Cd With Javascript for Windows 95

Neou, Vivian; Recker, Mimi

ISBN 10: 0132701251 ISBN 13: 9780132701259

Publisher: Prentice Hall Ptr, 1996

Synopsis

With HTML 3.2 CD with JavaScript for Windows 95, you'll learn how take advantage of the best technologies from Netscape, Microsoft and others, to develop highly-interactive, highly-effective Web sites.
But that's just the beginning. You'll also get a complete library of Web servers, page templates, tools, graphics, and multimedia applications for buildings great Web sites fast!
You'll find detailed, up-to-the-minute coverage of HTML 3.2, the latest version of the Web's fundamental page development language. Discover how to use HTML tables, frames and other advanced features. Learn how to fine tune your images for the Web, create animated images, and embed images, video and sound in your Web pages. And learn to write CGI scripts to make your documents even more interactive.
Then, learn how to use JavaScript, the Netscape scripting language that lets you add sophisticated interactivity easily and cost-effectively - without Java or CGI programming.

About this title

Review

For beginners anxious to get beyond the simple home page, HTML 3.2 CD with JavaScript is a comprehensive guide to creating sophisticated, dynamic Web sites. The book expects that you are already familiar with the basics and it breezes through what the Web is and how browsers work. Instead, the book covers HTML 3.2 in depth, and provides a pull-out so you can reference commonly used tags quickly. The HTML sections and the examples of how the code is rendered in a browser are clearly presented. Throughout HTML 3.2 CD with JavaScript, the differences between Netscape Navigator and Microsoft Internet Explorer are discussed--important items for Web designers to note.

About 50 pages are devoted to explaining the JavaScript basics--, including generic programming concepts, techniques, and examples,--to non-programmers. There is just enough to get you started on programming common JavaScript applications, such as scrolling marquees and mouse rollovers.

The authors recognize that arming a novice with a little HTML can be a dangerous thing. Thus, a generous portion of the book is devoted to helping you use your newfound knowledge to design pages that look good, are easily navigable, and download quickly. Most of the how-to sections are accompanied by "how- to-do-it-with-style" tips. Also, the bundled CD-ROM is packed with examples from the book, free Web graphics and templates, and a great collection of shareware and freeware (HTML editors, graphics software, and even an HTTP server). It will save you a lot of download time.

From the Inside Flap

When Thomas Jefferson first conceived of public libraries, he could not have imagined a world where people would have instant access to vast, globally distributed repositories of information. Today, the Internet is making this possibility a desktop reality. However, until recently much of the information on the Internet was difficult to locate and use. Fortunately, the World Wide Web and its browsers, such as Netscape and Internet Explorer, are leading the way in providing easy-to-use, seamless methods for navigating, and finding information on, the Internet.

The World Wide Web, commonly known as the Web, has made many gigabytes of digital data available to Internet users with a few mouse clicks. Data on the Web consists of documents. These documents, sometimes called Web pages, may contain text, images, video, audio, even executable programs. The Web is thus called a multimedia system. In addition, Web documents often have embedded cross-references or links to other Web documents. This automatic cross-linking of documents to other relevant documents is called hypertext. Because the Web links data presented in many media, it is called a hypermedia system.

For example, a document on the Web about tandem bicycles may include pictures of the authorUs bicycle, a recording of A Bicycle Built for Two, and some information about spoke tension in wheels. The author of the document may know of another document located somewhere on the Internet that has extensive information about bicycle wheels. Rather than quoting the other document or merely listing its location, the author of the tandem document makes a link to the document about wheels. Now, when reading the tandem document, the reader can click (or issue the appropriate command) on the link to view the wheel document.

Documents on the Web such as the one we just described are written in HyperText Markup Language (HTML). If you want to make your own documents available through the Web, you need to learn how to use this language. HTML conforms to the Standard Generalized Markup Language (SGML) standard, which is an international standard (ISO 8879) for defining structured document types and the markup languages used to represent those document types.

The HTML Number Jumble

Like most things in the computer world, HTML has gone through many revisions. Some revisions have been given official blessing by a standards committee, others have been vendor initiated, and still others have expired without gaining any official recognition. Thus, there is HTML 2.0, HTML 3.0, HTML 2.0 with Netscape extensions, HTML with Microsoft Internet Explorer extensions, and so on.

The latest entry in the game is HTML 3.2, which was still being revised at the time this book was written. We cover the incarnation of this version at the time of the writing of this book. However (we will explain why in the next chapter), it is not enough to simply learn about a specific version of HTML, because different browsers support different versions. We will guide you through the morass of HTML versions and vendor-specific extensions so that you can create documents that will be presented in the best possible manner for your audience.

Who Needs HTML?

The most obvious use for HTML documents is to make information available on the Internet. The World Wide Web is the fastest growing Internet resource, and HTML is its "language." This book will provide guidance for your HTML project; whether you are writing an extensive document to advertise your company's products or want to link some personal documents into the Web.

Even if you do not plan to publish documents on the Internet, HTML can still be useful. Documents written in HTML can be viewed on almost all computer platforms thanks to the vast number of WWW browsers available (both free and commercial versions) for almost every type of computer system. Thus, HTML is an excellent choice for authoring on-line manuals or company documents for in-house use.

What About JavaScript?

An additional layer of interactivity has been introduced to the Web through the addition of browser support for a number of scripting and programming languages. These languages allow more information to be processed directly by the browser, making response to user requests quicker and easier.

The most popular and widely supported scripting language for the Web is JavaScript. Incorporating JavaScript in your HTML documents will allow you to add even greater levels of interaction to your documents.

What This Book Can Do for You

By the time you are done reading this book, you should be able to write sophisticated, snazzy-looking documents in HTML. YouUll learn about all the basic formatting commands, as well as how to use links and forms. WeUll also teach you how to add pictures and sound to your documents. We go beyond the plain mechanics of HTML document creation, we also show you how to organize and lay out your documents so that they look as good as possible.

We'll introduce you to the basics of JavaScript and lead you through several basic scripts, including a simple database and an order form verifier. You'll find all of our examples on the CD, so you can incorporate them into your documents.

But that's not all! We also show you how to convert existing documents into HTML. You will learn how to set up a Web server so that you can publish your HTML documents on the Web. Best of all, you will find the tools to do all of these things on the included CD, you don't need to get anything else to produce and publish HTML documents.

Conventions Used in This Book

When we refer to actions within browsers, we will say to "click" on the item. If you are not using a mouse with your browser (for example, if you are using a line-mode browser), you should use the command that is equivalent to "clicking" on an item with a mouse.

We use a couple of icons throughout the book to point out important information:

We use this tips icon to point out useful tips and tricks. You should pay close attention when you see this icon.

We use this warning icon to draw your attention to areas where you can get into trouble. Follow our advice to keep from drowning in the rapids!

In chapters where HTML elements are discussed, we close with a section called The Good, the Bad and the Ugly. In these sections you will find a summary of the design tips and warnings introduced in the chapter.

Contents of the CD

This book comes with a cornucopia of HTML tools. You will find everything you need to turn a PC into a complete HTML authoring and publishing system, even servers and connectivity tools that will enable you to publish your HTML documents on the Internet. HereUs a summary of the CD's contents.

HTML Editors and Converters

Hotdog Pro, the best shareware editor available

Microsoft Internet Assistants for Microsoft Word, Excel and Access, free add-ons for these Microsoft packages that allow you to easily produce HTML documents from existing documents and data.

Microsoft PowerPoint Player and Publisher

HTTP Servers and Associated Software

fnord, a great free HTTP server

Perl, a popular scripting language for CGI applications

Example Perl CGI applications

Utilities

Color Manipulation Device, a color picker for setting background, text and link colors

MapThis!, a free image-map maker

PaintShop Pro, an image creation and manipulation tool

Gif Construction Set, a tool to create animated GIFs and much more

Graphic Workshop, an image creation and manipulation tool

LView Pro, an image manipulation tool

HTML Document Treasure Chest

One of the best ways to learn about HTML is to look at HTML documents. We've provided a "treasure chest" of HTML pages, including:

Templates for personal home pages

Sample business home page templates

JavaScript examples

HTML element demonstration pages so you can see how different HTML elements look in different browsers

Form templates (order forms and response forms)

HTML document to download over 10 Windows Web browsers--including Microsoft Internet Explorer, Netscape Navigator, Oracle's PowerBrowser and more

Free icons and images and much more!

We have incorporated real links to documents on the Internet in some of the documents. These links all worked at the time the documents were written. However, the Internet is constantly changing, and since documents often move or are deleted, we cannot guarantee that all of the links will work when you try them.

What You Should Know

This book will teach you everything you need to know about HTML. Before starting this book you should already have a basic understanding of the Internet and World Wide Web. Although we will go over some basic Internet and Web applications in this book, you should get and read one of the general reference books on the Internet if you plan to do HTML publishing on the Internet.

However, you may just want to use HTML to develop in-house documentation or information manuals; for that, you should find everything you need in this book.

Edition details

• Publisher: Prentice Hall Ptr
• Publication date: 1996
• ISBN 10: 0132701251
• ISBN 13: 9780132701259
• Binding: Textbook Binding
• Language: English
• Number of pages: 464