UK Web Site Design and Search Engine Optimisation
HTML and XHTML
When it comes to programming guides, then you can usually rely on O’Reilly to provide a good entry into the world. This HTML & XHTML definitive guide is no exception. Despite a slightly bemusing fondness for kumquats, this book is a very useful primer into the world of HTML and web page creation.
After this book gives a brief introduction into the web, it dives straight into writing HTML. It gives clear and easy to follow examples, and it describes how the language works in simple terms without becoming condescending.
It covers everything from the basic tags, to layouts and style elements. This introduction progresses naturally through first steps, to harder concepts such as Cascading Style Sheets, tables and forms. While the book touches upon some of the more complicated topics such as CSS and javascript, in order to get a better understanding of these you will need to use another resource.
This book is ideal for beginners who would like to know where to start programming in HTML, although it can also be a useful reference point for more experienced programmers.
HTML and XHTML: The Definitive Guide by Chuck Musciano and Bill Kennedy. Published by O'Reilly.