
Web Design in a Nutshell
A Desktop Quick Reference
By:Â Jennifer Niederst Robbins
Paperback | 7 March 2006 | Edition Number 3
At a Glance
826 Pages
Revised
44.69 x 156 x 229
Paperback
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 orÂAre you still designing web sites like it's 1999? If so, you're in for a surprise. Since the last edition of this book appeared five years ago, there has been a major climate change with regard to web standards. Designers are no longer using (X)HTML as a design tool, but as a means of defining the meaning and structure of content. Cascading Style Sheets are no longer just something interesting to tinker with, but rather a reliable method for handling all matters of presentation, from fonts and colors to the layout of the entire page. In fact, following the standards is now a mandate of professional web design.
Our popular reference, Web Design in a Nutshell, is one of the first books to capture this new web landscape with an edition that's been completely rewritten and expanded to reflect the state of the art. In addition to being an authoritative reference for (X)HTML and Cascading Style Sheets, this book also provides an overview of the unique requirements of designing for the Web and gets to the nitty-gritty of JavaScript and DOM Scripting, web graphics optimization, and multimedia production. It is an indispensable tool for web designers and developers of all levels.
The third edition covers these contemporary web design topics:
- Structural layer: HTML 4.01 and XHTML 1.0 (9 chapters), including an alphabetical reference of all elements, attributes and character entities
- Presentation layer: Ten all-new chapters on Cascading Style Sheets, Level 2.1, including an alphabetical reference of all properties and values.
- Behavior layer: JavaScript and scripting with the Document Object Model (DOM)
- Web environment: New web standards, browsers, display devices, accessibility, and internationalization
- Web graphics optimization: Producing lean and mean GIF, JPEG, PNG, and animated GIFs
- Multimedia: Web audio, video, Flash, and PDF
Organized so that readers can find answers quickly, Web Design in a Nutshell, Third Edition helps experienced designers come up to speed quickly on standards-based web design, and serves as a quick reference for those already familiar with the new standards and technology.
There are many books for web designers, but none that address such a wide variety of topics. Find out why nearly half a million buyers have made this the most popular web design book available.
| Foreword | p. xv |
| Contributors | p. xvii |
| Technical Reviewers | p. xix |
| Preface | p. xxi |
| The Web Environment | |
| Web Standards | p. 3 |
| What Are Standards? | p. 3 |
| Current Web Standards | p. 6 |
| Standards-Driven Design | p. 9 |
| For Further Reading | p. 11 |
| Designing for a Variety of Browsers | p. 12 |
| Browser History | p. 12 |
| Browser Roll-Call | p. 14 |
| Gathering Usage Statistics | p. 19 |
| Learning from Browser Statistics | p. 20 |
| Dealing with Browser Differences | p. 22 |
| Know Your Audience | p. 25 |
| Test! | p. 25 |
| Designing for a Variety of Displays | p. 27 |
| Designing for Unknown Monitor Resolutions | p. 28 |
| Fixed Versus Liquid Web Pages | p. 30 |
| Designing "Above the Fold" | p. 37 |
| Mobile Devices | p. 37 |
| A Beginner's Guide to the Server | p. 42 |
| Servers 101 | p. 42 |
| Unix Directory Structures | p. 46 |
| File Naming Conventions | p. 50 |
| Uploading Documents (FTP) | p. 50 |
| File (MIME) Types | p. 53 |
| Accessibility | p. 56 |
| Types of Disabilities | p. 56 |
| Overview of Assistive Technology | p. 57 |
| Who Is Responsible for Accessibility? | p. 59 |
| Web Content Accessibility Guidelines | p. 60 |
| Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 2.0 (WCAG 2.0) | p. 64 |
| Standards Variations and Section 508 | p. 64 |
| Web Accessibility Techniques | p. 65 |
| Testing for Accessibility | p. 68 |
| Internationalization | p. 72 |
| Character Sets and Encoding | p. 73 |
| Character References | p. 78 |
| Language Features | p. 80 |
| Style Sheets Language Features | p. 84 |
| For Further Reading | p. 85 |
| The Structural Layer: XML and (X)HTML | |
| Introduction to XML | p. 89 |
| XML Basics | p. 90 |
| How It Works | p. 91 |
| XML Document Syntax | p. 93 |
| Well-Formed XML | p. 96 |
| Document Type Definition (DTD) | p. 97 |
| XML Namespaces | p. 103 |
| XML on the Web | p. 104 |
| Web-Related XML Applications | p. 105 |
| Where to Learn More | p. 112 |
| HTML and XHTML Overview | p. 113 |
| The Role of HTML | p. 114 |
| Markup Basics | p. 115 |
| Introduction to XHTML | p. 119 |
| Which Standard Is Right for You? | p. 122 |
| Well-Formed XHTML | p. 123 |
| Web Authoring Tools | p. 126 |
| Good Authoring Practices | p. 128 |
| Document Structure | p. 130 |
| Minimal Document Structure | p. 130 |
| Document Type Declaration | p. 132 |
| The Root Element | p. 135 |
| The Document Header | p. 136 |
| The Document Body | p. 142 |
| Text Elements | p. 144 |
| Choosing Text Elements | p. 145 |
| The Building Blocks of Content | p. 146 |
| Inline Elements | p. 149 |
| Deleted and Inserted Text | p. 152 |
| Generic Elements (div and span) | p. 153 |
| Lists | p. 156 |
| Presentational Elements | p. 161 |
| Character Entity References | p. 167 |
| Creating Links | p. 169 |
| Simple Hypertext Links | p. 169 |
| Linking Within a Document | p. 171 |
| Targeting Windows | p. 173 |
| Alternative Protocols | p. 173 |
| Linking Documents with link | p. 175 |
| Images and Objects | p. 178 |
| Inline Images | p. 178 |
| Image Maps | p. 186 |
| Embedded Media | p. 192 |
| Java Applets | p. 201 |
| Inline (Floating) Frames | p. 203 |
| Tables | p. 205 |
| Table Uses | p. 206 |
| Basic Table Structure | p. 207 |
| Row Groups | p. 213 |
| Columns and Column Groups | p. 214 |
| Table Presentation | p. 216 |
| Accessible Tables | p. 220 |
| Responsible Layout Tables | p. 226 |
| Frames | p. 232 |
| Introduction to Frames | p. 232 |
| Basic Frameset Structure | p. 234 |
| Frame Function and Appearance | p. 239 |
| Targeting Frames | p. 241 |
| Frame Design Tips and Tricks | p. 244 |
| Forms | p. 247 |
| The Basic Form Element | p. 248 |
| Form Controls | p. 250 |
| Accessibility Features | p. 263 |
| Disabled and readonly | p. 267 |
| Affecting Form Appearance | p. 267 |
| The Presentation Layer: Cascading Style Sheets | |
| Cascading Style Sheets Fundamentals | p. 273 |
| CSS in a Nutshell | p. 273 |
| The Benefits of CSS | p. 274 |
| How CSS Works | p. 275 |
| Rule Syntax | p. 275 |
| Adding Styles to a Document | p. 278 |
| Key Concepts | p. 283 |
| Specifying Values | p. 291 |
| Browser Support | p. 293 |
| For Further Reading | p. 294 |
| Selectors | p. 297 |
| Type (Element) Selector | p. 297 |
| Contextual Selectors | p. 298 |
| Class and ID Selectors | p. 299 |
| Attribute Selectors | p. 301 |
| Pseudoselectors | p. 302 |
| Font and Text Properties | p. 307 |
| Typography on the Web | p. 307 |
| Font Family | p. 310 |
| Font Size | p. 312 |
| Other Font Settings | p. 318 |
| Text Transformation (Capitalization) | p. 322 |
| Text Decoration | p. 323 |
| Line Height | p. 325 |
| Text Alignment Properties | p. 327 |
| Text Spacing | p. 332 |
| Text Direction | p. 335 |
| Basic Box Properties | p. 337 |
| The Box Model, Revisited | p. 338 |
| Width and Height | p. 341 |
| Margins | p. 344 |
| Borders | p. 347 |
| Padding | p. 352 |
| Color and Backgrounds | p. 355 |
| Foreground Color | p. 355 |
| Background Color | p. 357 |
| Background Images | p. 358 |
| Floating and Positioning | p. 368 |
| Normal Flow | p. 368 |
| Floating | p. 369 |
| Positioning Basics | p. 375 |
| Absolute Positioning | p. 385 |
| Fixed Positioning | p. 389 |
| Relative Positioning | p. 390 |
| CSS for Tables | p. 392 |
| The Essence of Tables | p. 392 |
| Styling Tables | p. 396 |
| Borders | p. 398 |
| Table Layout (Width and Height) | p. 401 |
| Table Display Values | p. 403 |
| Lists and Generated Content | p. 406 |
| CSS for Lists | p. 406 |
| Generated Content | p. 412 |
| CSS Techniques | p. 419 |
| Centering a Page | p. 419 |
| Two-Column Layouts | p. 421 |
| Three-Column Layouts | p. 424 |
| Boxes with Rounded Corners | p. 432 |
| Image Replacement | p. 436 |
| CSS Rollovers | p. 440 |
| List-Based Navigation Bars | p. 443 |
| CSS Techniques Resources | p. 446 |
| Managing Browser Bugs: Workarounds, Hacks, and Filters | p. 448 |
| Working with "Troubled" Browsers | p. 448 |
| The Browsers | p. 449 |
| Hack and Workaround Management 101 | p. 459 |
| The Behavioral Layer: JavaScript and the DOM | |
| Introduction to JavaScript | p. 465 |
| A Little Background | p. 465 |
| Using JavaScript | p. 466 |
| JavaScript Syntax | p. 468 |
| Event Handling | p. 484 |
| The Browser Object | p. 486 |
| Where to Learn More | p. 487 |
| DOM Scripting | p. 488 |
| A Sordid Past | p. 488 |
| Out of the Dark Ages | p. 489 |
| The DOM | p. 489 |
| Manipulating Documents with the DOM | p. 491 |
| Working with Style | p. 501 |
| DOM Scripting in Action | p. 502 |
| Supplement: Getting Started with Ajax | p. 507 |
| Web Graphics | |
| Web Graphics Overview | p. 515 |
| Web Graphic File Formats | p. 515 |
| Image Resolution | p. 517 |
| Color on the Web | p. 519 |
| Web Graphics Production Tips | p. 524 |
| GIF Format | p. 529 |
| 8-Bit Indexed Color | p. 530 |
| LZW Compression | p. 531 |
| Interlacing | p. 533 |
| Transparency | p. 534 |
| Minimizing GIF File Sizes | p. 536 |
| Designing GIFs with the Web Palette | p. 541 |
| JPEG Format | p. 544 |
| 24-Bit Color | p. 544 |
| JPEG Compression | p. 545 |
| Progressive JPEGs | p. 547 |
| Creating JPEGs | p. 548 |
| Minimizing JPEG File Size | p. 548 |
| PNG Format | p. 552 |
| When to Use PNGs | p. 552 |
| PNG Features | p. 554 |
| Platform/Browser Support | p. 558 |
| Creating PNG Files | p. 559 |
| PNG Optimization Strategies | p. 561 |
| For Further Reading | p. 563 |
| Animated GIFs | p. 564 |
| How They Work | p. 564 |
| Using Animated GIFs | p. 565 |
| Tools | p. 565 |
| Creating Animated GIFs | p. 566 |
| Optimizing Animated GIFs | p. 570 |
| Media | |
| Audio on the Web | p. 575 |
| Basic Digital Audio Concepts | p. 575 |
| Using Existing Audio | p. 577 |
| Preparing Your Own Audio | p. 578 |
| Streaming Audio | p. 581 |
| Audio Formats | p. 583 |
| Choosing an Audio Format | p. 590 |
| Adding Audio to a Web Page | p. 590 |
| Video on the Web | p. 595 |
| Basic Digital Video Concepts | p. 595 |
| Compression | p. 596 |
| Video File Formats | p. 598 |
| Adding Video to an HTML Document | p. 603 |
| The Flash Platform | p. 609 |
| Using Flash on Web Pages | p. 610 |
| Creating Flash Movies | p. 612 |
| ActionScript | p. 615 |
| Adding Flash to a Web Page | p. 616 |
| Integrating Flash with Other Technologies | p. 622 |
| The Flash Player | p. 623 |
| Flash Resources | p. 625 |
| Printing from the Web | p. 626 |
| Browser Print Mechanisms | p. 626 |
| Cascading Style Sheets for Print | p. 627 |
| Portable Document Format (PDF) | p. 634 |
| Flash Printing | p. 637 |
| Appendixes | |
| HTML Elements and Attributes | p. 641 |
| CSS 2.1 Properties | p. 684 |
| Character Entities | p. 722 |
| Specifying Color | p. 733 |
| Microformats: Extending (X)HTML | p. 742 |
| Glossary | p. 747 |
| Index | p. 757 |
| Table of Contents provided by Ingram. All Rights Reserved. |
ISBN: 9780596009878
ISBN-10: 0596009879
Series: In a Nutshell
Published: 7th March 2006
Format: Paperback
Number of Pages: 826
Audience: General Adult
Publisher: O'Reilly Media, Inc, USA
Country of Publication: GB
Edition Number: 3
Edition Type: Revised
Dimensions (cm): 44.69 x 156 x 229
Weight (kg): 1.11
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