Web Standards Solutions

by Dan Cederholm

Welcome to the expanded second edition of Dan Cederholm 's bestselling Web Standards Solutions . Web standards are the standard technology specifications enforced by the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) to make sure that web designers and browser manufacturers are using the same technology syntax. It is important that these implementations are the same throughout the Web―otherwise, it becomes a messy proprietary place, and lacks consistency. These standards also allow content to be more compatible with multiple different viewing devices, such as screen readers for people with vision impairments, cell phones, PDFs, etc. HTML, XML, and CSS are all such technologies. This book is your essential guide to understanding the advantages you can bring to your web pages by implementing web standards and precisely how to apply them. Web standards such as XHTML and CSS are now fairly well-known technologies, and they will likely be familiar to you, the web designer. Indeed, they are all around you on the Web. However, within web standards still lies a while the browser's support for web standards is steadily increasing, many web developers and designers have yet to discover the real benefits of web standards and respect the need to adhere to them. The real art is in truly understanding the benefits and implementing the standards efficiently. As a simple example of its power, you can use CSS to lay out your pages instead of nesting tables. This can make file sizes smaller, allowing pages to load faster, ultimately increasing accessibility for all browsers, devices, and web users.

Genres: Website Design, Programming, Web, Design, Reference, Nonfiction, Computers

324 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2004

About the author

A designer, author, speaker, husband and father living in Salem, Massachusetts. Dan is the Founder and Principal of SimpleBits, LLC, a tiny web design studio.

A recognized expert in the field of standards-based web design, Dan has worked with YouTube, Microsoft, Google, MTV, ESPN, Electronic Arts, Blogger, Fast Company, Inc. Magazine, and others. With each new project, comes an opportunity to minimize markup and embrace the flexibility of CSS.

Dan is co-founder and designer of Dribbble, a vibrant community for sharing screenshots of your work. Previously, he co-founded and designed Cork’d, the first social network for wine aficionados which was later acquired by Gary Vaynerchuk.

Reviews

[Nick Cottrell · Rating 5 out of 5]

Published at the dawn of the Web 2.0 era (2004), this book provides you with the fundamentals of HTML and CSS, which are the bedrock of web design. Because it is so well written and fundamental, the concepts and practices stand up to this day. One caveat is that as soon as you work through the fundamentals, there are a ton of great resources to learn modern HTML (post HTML5), CSS, and Javascript. HTML/CSS/Javascript are the cornerstone of all web development and it's important to at least be familiar with the fundamentals. In a noisy world, this book is a great starting point.

[Craig Cecil · Rating 5 out of 5]

Noted web standards guru Dan Cederholm (of SimpleBits fame) presents sixteen chapters devoted to the effective and optimal use of XHTML markup followed by advanced CSS techniques layered upon that markup. While much of this information has been covered before and will be familiar to intermediate and advanced XHTML coders, several of the CSS chapters are real eye-openers, even for advanced technicians. For example, in Chapter 11: Print Styles, Cederholm discusses an extremely effective technique for allowing the user to switch between alternative layouts of your page (two-column, three-column) without the need for a round-trip to the server. And Chapter 15: Styling sounds innocent enough, but presents a technique that allows the developer to provide some basic Content Management System (CMS) functionality as applied to web templating. It's a short book (238 pages), and quick read, but may prove indispensible from a design, productivity, and business perspective. Highly recommended.

[Eric · Rating 5 out of 5]

Coming from the all flash explosion of the early 2000's, I was never particularly interested in web 2.0. Once I shifted my focus out of actionscript and into to semantic mark-up and valid HTML, I realized I had a whole lot to learn. Dan's book was the map that I used to get steer my learning process through the world of web standards. I've read countless books and articles on standards since - but I only ever returned to this book. A fantastic work, cohesive and thoughtful, simple and sensible - a truly solid and de facto work on the subject.

[Otis Chandler · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great book for some CSS best practices.

[David]

Todo sobre el mundo del desarrollo de sitios web compatibles con estándares.

[Ken Guest · Rating 5 out of 5]

If you are a web developer this book ought to be on your desk, and dog-eared from overuse. No question about it.

[joke · Rating 5 out of 5]

Web standards are the standard technology specifications enforced by the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) to make sure that web designers and browser manufacturers are using the same technology syntax

[Jennifer · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of my favorite books of all time!!