Murach's HTML5 and CSS3: Training & Reference

by Zak Ruvalcaba, Anne Boehm

HTML5 and CSS3 (the latest standards for HTML and cascading style sheets) are packed with coding options that make it easier than ever to create web pages with the features users want today, from an up-to-date look and feel...to immediate validation of user entries...to audio and video samplings. At the same time, there are still older browsers and millions of existing web sites that require you to integrate HTML5 and CSS3 features with the earlier standards. So how do you learn all this? This book is exactly the practical approach you need. It teaches you how to use HTML5 and CSS3 the way they were meant to work, with HTML5 to provide the page content and CSS3 to format the content and lay out the pages. But it also teaches you how to use the HTML5 and CSS3 features alongside the earlier standards to ensure that your pages will work for the widest possible audience. So if you're going to be developing web pages...whether you're a web designer, a JavaScript programmer, a server-side programmer, or a rookie...this book is for you. It begins with a 6-chapter, quick-start course to get you working at the professional level right away. Soon, you'll be using HTML5 features...like the semantic tags that improve the structure of your content and your search engine rankings...along with CSS3 features...like text and border shadows, rounded corners, and background gradients that give your pages a cutting-edge feel. And you'll know how and when to blend them with the earlier HTML and CSS code. After that quick-start, you'll learn how to make your pages work better for your site visitors by enhancing them with audio and video files...using the jQuery Mobile library to deliver content on mobile devices...adding jQuery routines for special effects like slide shows and accordions...and using JavaScript to provide for features like geolocation, web storage, canvas, and drag-and-drop...the kinds of skills that go far beyond what you'll find in other introductory books.

Genres: Nonfiction, Reference, Technology, Computer Science, Computers, Textbooks

636 pages, Paperback

First published December 19, 2011

Reviews

[Heather · Rating 2 out of 5]

At first this book walked you through programing with HTML5 very well. But somewhere along chapters 5 to 7, it stop explaining some code. While it would show examples of codeing there were other parts of code that just "pop" up. But if you excluded it, the code in which you where trying to do something, wouldn't work. It got a little frustrated especially if you are trying to learn HTML5 and have no experiance with programing. You can't just add unless you know what it does. The excersies were very good. There are some parts of the book that are wrong or I should say need to be updated. HTML5 is always changing so its understandable. As long as your instructor(if you are taking a course)tells you that when you do the homework you might show more errors then expected. I also like that you can go to the website and download book files for this book and they are good to use when studying.

[Jeanne Boyarsky · Rating 5 out of 5]

"Murach's HTML5 and CSS3" covers HTML and CSS from the ground up. It's a great book for starting out as it shows basic constructs. It's also a decent book even if you know "old" HTML and CSS. The repetitive parts are easy to find/skim. Granted the book is heavy (600 pages) for skimming. There are good guidelines/tips on browser compatibility, SEO and accessibility.

The book has a bit of an identity crisis on whether you should know JavaScript. They say you don't need to know it. Then they show a bunch of JavaScript. Then they say it is ok if you don't know it. Then they talk about how to debug it. I think they meant you can copy/paste without being able to write your own.

I do learn some things from the book and the material was well presented. Unsurprisingly, it uses the standard Murach style. One side of the book is text and one side is examples/bullet points. I also like that the book used HTML 5 and CSS 3 properly rather than tacking it onto an older book as an afterthought.

Disclosure: I received a copy of this book from the publisher in exchange for writing this review on behalf of CodeRanch.

[Michael Sturgeon · Rating 5 out of 5]

The content is what I teach, yet I have been seeking a book like this for support for years. This is finallt "the" book and my students did very well in the two semesters I have used it thus far. I highly recommend it for beginners and for instructors of web design.

[Warren Tutwiler]

Lost interest in subject...for now. May revisit later, but will have to start again from the beginning.

[Randy Daugherty · Rating 4 out of 5]

Did you ever want to design a web-page but weren't sure how to go about it? This will walk you through the basics and then some. The first 8 chapters will help you learn HTML5 and CSS3 ,the remaining will help you take a basic web design and enhance it.
Offers ideas of which text editor to use or how to use one, using javaScript and JQuery.There are links to download exercises and other labs. This book offers you a good starting place for web-design and how to run a business/
Required for class, though it was one I enjoyed, will be keeping the book as reference material and to practice skill sets.

[Jennifer Short · Rating 5 out of 5]

I did have to do some additional research to find out how to do a couple of things that weren't covered in the book, but for a solid overview and resource book the Murach series is fabulous. They're easy to use and understand, and I like being able to download all the exercise files to reference if I get stuck working any of the exercises in the book.

[Lee Stoe · Rating 3 out of 5]

The book is very informative, but I feel its spreads are laid out backwards. The right and left pages should be swapped.

[Jodi · Rating 5 out of 5]

Really well done HTML 5 book. My students loved it.