HTML 4.0 Made Simple (Made Simple Computer)

This practical text is for you if you want to create your own or company Web site. It assumes that you want to learn HTML quickly, thoroughly and without getting bogged down in theory. The book covers HTML version 4.0.

The essentials of HTML are easy to master - you can learn enough to knock up a small, but well-formed Web site over a weekend. It will take you a little longer to work right through this book, but we hope that you will find it worth the trouble.

All you need for simple text-and-images pages is covered in the first four chapters. From there on in lots more advanced material is covered to take you from a novice to experienced user. The next two chapters describe a range of techniques for positioning and formatting material. Tables and frames (Chapter 5) can be handled by almost all browsers nowadays, but if you choose to use style sheets (Chapter 6) you have to accept that only people with newer browsers will see your pages in all their glory. If you want feedback from your visitors - orders for your products, input from your club's members, or simply comments on your site - you need forms (Chapter 7). They can be fiddly to set up, but are worth it. In Chapter 8 the Authors look at adding sounds and animations to liven up your pages, then dip into Web programming languages to see how they can produce more active and interactive sites.

You don't have to wait until you've read right to the end of this book before publishing your pages. Jump to Chapter 10 when you've created enough to make a good site. You can always upload new or improved pages later - and you should do so regularly if you want to keep your visitors coming back for more.

The document and image files for the larger examples contained in this book can be found on the Made Simple WWW site, at: http://www.madesimple.co.uk in the samples area.

Mac's first steps into computing came 19 years ago when he taught himself Basic on a ZX81. He started his first book shortly afterwards, when he realised that (a) programming was fun, and (b) no-one was writing simple books on it. Since then he has programmed in, taught and/or written about 9 varieties of Basic, 3 Pascals, 2 Cs, Assembler, Cobol and Java, 5 spreadsheets, 3 databases, 4 word-processors, and 6 operating systems. He is looking forward to the time when developers stop producing new software and books don't go out of date in a couple of years. Mac can usually be found either in the kitchen or running a taxi service for his family. He lives in Southampton with 4 children, 2 cats and 40 fishes. Web page: homepages.tcp.co.uk/~macbride Mac is the author of the following Made Simple books: The Internet for Windows 95 (Second Edition) The Internet for Windows 3.1 (First Edition) The Internet for Windows 95 (First Edition) The Internet for Windows 98 The Internet (Colour Edition) First Edition the Internet (Colour Edition) Second Edition Office 95 Office 97 Office 2000 Works for Windows 3.1 Works for Windows 95 Windows 3.1 Windows 95 Windows 98 Internet Resources Microsoft Networking Explorer 3.0 Explorer 4.0 Explorer 5.0 Netscape Navigator Searching the Internet Java JavaScript Pascal UNIX Outlook 2000 Sage Accounts HTML 4.0 Mac is also the series advisor/editor.

Nat McBride is the son of prodigious Made Simple author and series editor PK McBride. He has been trying desperately NOT to follow in his father's footsteps having seen how late into the night he works... but appears not to have succeeded very well! He grew up surrounded by computers, remembers single-digit birthday banners produced on old ZX81 silver-paper printers, which made a noise like grinding gears and left a smell of burned metal hanging in the air, and after a brief foray into publishing, came home to internet work. He is now involved in producing a new website aimed at older users of the internet, called www.myhairnet.com Nat lives in Tooting, South London, and enjoys cooking, eating and drinking - whenever he can persuade anyone else that Tooting is close enough to visit for dinner... In summer he can also often be found nursing grazed knees with other rollerbladers in the park. Nat is the author of these Made Simple books: FrontPage 97 Front Page 2000 HTML 4.0 (co-author)