I wanted a complete reference & guide to html/xhtml and that's what I got. I didn't want to be ignorant about any features. I didn't want to be left in the dark about anything. This book has all the info I wanted, and much more. In fact in a way it has too much info. It has info about tags, attributes, and other features that are obsolete, deprecated, or not supported by any browsers. You can skip over those rather than slogging your way through every word in the book. Maybe it's just me, but one downside to this book for me is that the writing style tends to be convoluted, verbose, and somewhat boring. I had some difficulty staying focused and concentrating on this book. But since it fulfilled the reason I got this book, I still give it 5 stars. So if you're looking for a complete book, don't worry, it's complete.

If you do web development, you should have one solid HTML/XHTML reference guide on your bookshelf. This one ranks up there... HTML & XHTML: The Definitive Guide (6th Edition) by Chuck Musciano and Bill Kennedy. Although the CSS and XML sections are a little light, the core HTML and XHTML information is all you could ask for.

Contents: HTML, XHTML, and the World Wide Web; Quick Start; Anatomy of an HTML Document; Text Basics; Rules, Images, and Multimedia; Links and Webs; Formatted Lists; Cascading Style Sheets; Forms; Tables; Frames; Executable Content; Dynamic Documents; Mobile Devices; XML; XHTML; Tips, Tricks, and Hacks; HTML Grammar; HTML/XHTML Tag Quick Reference; Cascading Style Sheet Properties Quick Reference; The HTML 4.01 DTD; The XHTML 1.0 DTD; Character Entities; Color Names and Values; Netscape Layout Extensions; Index

This book does a good job in blending a bit of tutorial information with a lot of reference material. All the HTML tags that exist are documented, along with whether it's an extension/deprecated/archaic, what type of browser support is involved in using the tag, and all the attributes and locations where it can be used. I found that I was catching some tags and nuances that I had overlooked in the past, even after having done web coding for many, many years. The book also has material on Cascading Style Sheets and XML, but I found that less useful than the HTML contents. The basics of those two technologies are covered, but not at the level I'd want in a definitive guide. While I think that you can't ignore CSS in an HTML book any more, I just wouldn't recommend this as an "all-in-one" book to cover both. But other than that, this is a book that I'll want to keep around for those strange times when my HTML tags just aren't working like they're supposed to...

Calling this book "The Definitive Guide" is not a misnomer, for that's what it is. I guess you could learn HTML and XHTML from scratch with this book, but I wouldn't advise it. (If you are just beginning you should check out O'Reilly's "Head First HTML with CSS and XHTML.") Weighing in at over 600 pages means that if it ain't described in here you probably shouldn't be doin' it! And if it is described in here, it's described clearly and accurately.

When I opened this book I was a bit surprised, it wasn't quite what I expected. I have gotten use to O'Reilly books having lots of examples and codes snippets. And the first thing I noticed about this book was that it contains a lot more words than code. That said, this is my first "Definitive Guide" O'Reilly book, so this format may be the norm, I don't know.

This book does a thorough job of going over each of the HTML/XHTML tags and their attributes one at a time. The authors devote a couple of paragraphs to each tag describing its function and outlining its future in HTML/XHTML and once and awhile they throw in a line or two of code.

While the authors do devote most of the book to HTML / XHTML they take a brief look at cascading style sheets, executable content such as JavaScript, dynamic content, mobile devices and XML. While I would expect to find such information in a book like this, I would like to note that readers shouldn't expect to get more than a preface or introduction into those topics from this book. The book concludes by discussing XHTML and providing the reader with some useful tips.

Like many books the jewel is found at the end. This book includes eight appendices some of which I found quite interesting and useful. The appendices are as follows: A: HTML Grammar; B: HTML/XHTML Tag Quick Reference; C: Cascading Style Sheet Properties Quick Reference; D: The HTML 4.01 DTD; E: The XHTML 1.0 DTD; F: Character Entities; G: Color Names and Values; H: Netscape Layout Extensions. The DTD sections I found very interesting, it was neat to see the definition side of HTML & XHTML. And of course the quick references are always useful and usually the section of the book I turn to when I pull it off the shelf.

CONCLUSION
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Like I mentioned at the beginning, I was surprised by the format of the book, however I do think it is a good resource for HTML/XHTML. While it is "The Definitive Guide" covering all of the markup tags and attributes it is definitely not a Cookbook or Nutshell book. I would recommend this book to those looking for a reference that is detailed and in a dictionary type format. If you are looking for lots of examples and recipes you will want to look at other books in the O'Reilly library. I gave this book 4 out of 5 stars because I think it is a good reference, but in my opinion I didn't find the format very appealing.

This book is what one expects, a comprehensive coverage of HTML/XHTML. There are perhaps more easily digested books on the subject, but this is well structured and readily understood reference work. It is my primary source of accurate HTML information.

This is a good book for moderate to experienced computer users with programming experience. The code snipets are helpful to illustrate the topic, but a less experienced person could easily get confused.

I am getting ready to build my own website and this book has helped immensely and I would recommend it to anyone who is looking for a good book to introduce them to the language of HTML.

I first read this years ago when I was first learning HTML and had no developement experience. It was a great way to start off, easy reading and easy to look up information I needed. I still look things up when I need a quick refresher for a web page alteration. Not the book for someone looking for advanced knowledge.

(originally published on www.last-child.com)

There are books you read that change your way of thinking (Designing with Web Standards), books your read for ideas (Usability: The Site Speaks for Itself), and books you keep within arm's reach at all times. This book, HTML and XHTML: The Definitive Guide, is one that you should always keep on your desk.

I'm saying this from experience. I'm a self-taught web programmer and have read over well over a dozen programming books during the past few years. This is the book that traveled with me from job to job. It's where I go to check on the proper use of tags and attributes. It's a well laid-out reference book that is actually interesting to read.
Who should get this book

This book is for those working directly with HTML code. It does not discuss programming languages, JavaScript, or CSS to any extent. However, it clearly defines how to use valid markup to build sites. I have found it invaluable for building forms and complex data tables. It's also a great foundation for those learning semantic markup from the beginning.

Now in its fifth edition, this encyclopedic tome published by O'Reilly and Associates badly needs an update since its last edition was published in 2002 and much has changed since then. However, it is still an essential reference to anyone who originates or modifies webpages. The HTML chapters are still excellent. The book starts with a history of HTML/XHTML/XML up to the time of the last edition. Next is a basic non-nonsense tutorial on writing webpages using HTML to get you started. It is only a chapter in length so that you understand what the skeleton of an HTML webpage looks like. Next are numerous chapters fleshing out what you can do to this basic skeleton of a webpage. This part starts with plain text and continues with images, multimedia, cascading style sheets, etc. This section is encyclopedic in that each tag is explained in detail. Its function is defined as well as its attributes, and an example is usually given showing how you would insert each tag in a webpage and the resulting output. The part of this book that really shows its age is the section on XML. It is really too basic to be of much use, and what is there is out of date by now. However, if you are just beginning with HTML this is still by far the best tutorial out there. No other book will do as good a job at teaching you the basics or providing the complete details for every HTML tag.

If you're looking at going full throttle ahead into web work, I'd recommend getting a book that's XHTML and XML based. This book has a little bit about XML, but it's pretty much an HTML referrence. If you've never done web stuff before, though, this is the book for you. Forget about the "For Dummies" series. They're good, but you'll quickly outgrow them. Get this book if you're a first time author. If you're not a new programmer, go with something more advanced.

Yes, it is a definitive guide to HTML & XHTML. Not only the book covers the syntax but it also provides useful advice in constructing web pages.

This books takes a very progressive look at HTML and then shows how XHTML differs at the end. If there is a tag or attribute, whether valid or not, this book covers it in enough detail to quench any web author's needs. I already had a firm grasp on HTML, but I learned a few new things throughout the book (I read it cover to cover). My only complaint is that it is a little outdated. It also dedicates a whole chapter to unused tags (a bit much), but it nice to know about these things. It gives a very good tour of CSS and forms. Good as a reference.

This book is great, The content is clean and straight forward. Not alot of pointless stuff that makes everything more confussing. It doesn't matter if you are a biggener trying to make a web page or a profesional trying to review some of the basics you forgot, this book is perfect for you. It will keep you studying for weeks and even after your done reading it is great for a reference book.

I'll start with the good news: The Fifth Edition of this book does contain a few new pieces of information, and has also undergone a *very mild* visual update in the form of new "In this chapter" table-ettes on the first page of each chapter.

Paradoxically this book's "In this chapter" table-ettes illustrate one of the chronic problems that exists throughout the entire O'Reilly "Complete Reference" series -- an apparently theological aversion to providing simple cross-references to the specific page or pages containing cited material. Similarly (and every bit as annoying), the concise descriptions of the html tags contained in this book's alphabetically ordered index painstakingly omit a simple x-ref back to the pages that more fully describe the tag.

The second chronic failing of this book (in fact, the entire O'Reilly "Definitive Reference" series) is the near-total absence of useful examples. I suppose one could argue that a self-described "complete reference" is above such things, but some concise examples of how the referenced material does useful work would greatly improve the information transfer capabilities of this sort of book.

In the end, this book would be so much more useful and usable as a "complete reference" if only it had some simple x-refs and a few illustrative examples. As it stands, this book is reasonably useful if you also happen to have (a) a grasp of HTML and XHTML fundamentals in the first place, and (b) access to supplemental resources such as Internet search to fill in the gaps left by the non-existent examples. (And oh yes, the patience to thumb back and forth from page to page in lieu of actual printed cross references...)

This is a fat book with a lot to like in it. The authors thoroughly explain HTML (and its recently-standardized twin XHTML) in its latest version (4.01). They also give a good explication of layout using the current standard (CSS2) of Cascading Style Sheets. They spend some time talking about embedded content such as pictures, Java applets and Javascript scripts. They look, too, at XML, which is the "meta-language" used to define XHTML.

At the time they wrote this book (2002) the versions of the standardized languages they discuss were in the avant-garde. But many of the old ways of doing things are now obsolete, and older browser versions gone. Unfortunately, the authors constantly advert to these early browser versions and their quirks, and spend much time discussing outmoded and non-standard techniques that by their own admission should be avoided. (Let me emphasize that they whole-heartedly approve of the direction away from non-standard and layout-laden HTML and toward the CSS approach.)

As it is, this book is quite usable whether you are writing old-fashioned HTML and loading your documents with physical layout instructions, or writing austere strict-version XHTML and restraining yourself to using style sheets to do layout. It has detailed essays on all the tags and a good chapter on CSS, and has useful appendices at the end for HTML grammer and tags, and for style sheet properties. It also has much that no longer applies. Perhaps the next edition will be less universally useful -- but also lighter.

This book is mandatory for anyone wanting to learn HTML. At ProCreative (http://www.porcreative.ca) the web design company that i work for, this book is distributed to all new employees.
1) Very well written, clear language.
2) Easy on eyes - good print.
3) Covers the topic fully!

"HTML & XHTML The definitive guide 5ª Edition" from O'Reilly is a book that help both beginners and advanced users to design and create web pages, and is a complete guide of the standards HTML (Hypertext Markup Language) and XHTML (Extensible Hypertext Markup Language), considering different web browsers such as Netscape and Explorer.

The book is a complete and up to date reference that includes syntax, semantics and style elements of HTML and XHTML. It offers numerous and clear examples and covers in detail all the elements of the latest versions of HTML and XHTML and all the extensions accepted by the most recent and popular web browsers.

"HTML & XHTML The definitive guide" is a complete guidebook to create documents using HTML and XHTML, from the syntax and semantics up to general style guides, that help the reader to create attractive, accessible and informative pages.

The book is written in a clear and simple style and is useful for a variety of readers, from the beginner up to professional web designers who need a complete reference of the standards HTML and XHTML.

Even though some reviews of the book recommend it to intermediate and advanced users of HTML and XHTML, I consider that a beginner can too find it useful to create his or her first web page.

Learning HTML and XHTML can be difficult but this Musciano and Kenndy provide a great introduction into the subject with easy to understand language. The book provides step by step instructions on what to do including topics such as adding images and different colored backgrounds.

Very thorough reference on HTML. Very useful and well written. I will refer to this book again and recommend this book to someone interested in how HTML is defined and interpreted and the current state of the art in HTML writing. The target audience seems to be graphics artists and web page designers. The content gives excellent coverage of what all the HTML tags mean, how stylesheets work, and insightful discussion of layout considerations.

Extremely well written but my primary qualm is that I've never worked on a project where writing HTML was the key problem with HTML. E.g.: Almost nothing on scripting HTML. Should cover something on form validation etc. No good coverage on current trends to supplement HTML with Flash and PDF docs. No good coverage of performance testing and little on even HTML validation even by using different browsers. Does point out for each HTML tag/object what is proprietary to MS Internet Explorer and to Netscape. All said, if you are an HTML page designer then this book really is almost definitive.

Plus the author could talk about real tools. E.g. the section "Use the Best" tells you to use the best HTML editor but doesn't talk about DreamWeaver, FrontPage, or anything besides a brief mention of MS Word. Also, having worked at a web design company for a while I can tell you that fixed page layout is the norm for the graphic artists/page designers and not enough treatment of that is made. E.g. the section "Tricks with Tables" says "experiment...manually shifting text from one column..." and this is just not the standard way things are done. Should designers take advantage of HTML's ability to dynamically fit the available space? Probably. But authors need to explain this before any designers will start to do it. Also omitted are XSL:FO and content managers not to mention App Server/Web Server deployment issues.

Overall the book is easy to read and has lots of good ideas and good information. It is an excellent first book for an HTML programmer and can serve as a first class reference for anyone that works with HTML. I gave it four stars for covering HTML completely but not covering the ancillary issues that the title "Definitive" promises. If the title was "HTML: The Markup Language" then I would have given it six stars.

Albeit the kumquats are egregious, this book is a good source of information, albeit the kumquats are egregious. Unfortunately, this book has neither structure nor organization (every paragraph references a paragraph in another chapter) and is quite painful to read, albeit. There is uneccessary repetition that confuses and frustrates the reader, albeit it does get the point across, albeit it does waste a lot of paper and time, albeit. OHHH... If you didn't know, "the dir attribute lets you advise the browser which direction the text within the <> segment should be displayed in, and the lang lets you specify the language used within that tag". I thought I should clear the dir/lang attributes up as there is insufficient coverage of them in the book, albeit. kumquat. egregious kumquat deprecated.

I thought this book was very complete. I will disagree with quite a few reviews. I don't think this is for the beginner. Sometimes if we are experienced then we take something's for granted thinking everybody already knows them. This book that would be values for the attributes.

Each chapter is filled with valuable technical content. The chapter information provides very simple, understandable samples but I think you need to know HTML to understand them. If you do this is a GREAT reference book and certainly up to O'Reilly standard.

Really and truly the definitive guide to HTML and XHTML

The organization and redundacy in this book as it attemps to be both a primer and a refercerence book make it unreadable. This latest version has just a few but apparently hastily added changes from the previous edition. If you need to know about XHTML go elsewhere...

A rehash of the previous edition with very minor changes and more errors. The changes seem to have introduced a new set of errors instead of making the book better. This book is almost impossible to read because of the organization and redundancy included as it attempts to also be a reference book. Unfortunately it succeeds neither as a primer nor as a reference book.

This book, is not what you want if you want to learn HTML & XHTML. [...]

First and foremost, this edition of "HTML & XHTML: The Definitive Guide" is a well-written book. The use of simple language throughout the chapters make them very comprehensible. I really appreciate the way it handled the cascading style sheets, tables, forms, and so on.
However, I cannot understand the reason why the authors of this book included all the tags and attributes, and then decided to exclude all the attribute values. For this reason, I would not recommend it for anyone who is still learning the basics of HTML.
Intermediate (and advanced) learners should pay closer attention to it. It simplified both the Syntax and the Semantics. Also, the extensive coverage it gave Internet Explorer 6, Netscape Navigator 6.0, JavaScript, and a host of others, are satisfactory.
Overall, this textbook will prove a useful resource for any HTML non-beginner.

A great resource to add to the collection really, although nothing very special about it.

Now in a completely updated and significantly expanded fifth edition, HTML & XHTML: The Definitive Guide by webmasters Chuck Musciano and Bill Kennedy is a straightforward, user-friendly reference to designing practical, eye-catching web pages for either business or personal websites. HTML & XHTML: The Definitive Guide is enhanced with screenshots, sample code, easy-to-understand instructions and more, tutoring the reader in HTML basics ranging from lists and images, to cascading style sheets, forms, frames, and executable content. HTML & XHTML: The Definitive Guide truly lives up to its title as being a solid introduction to the basics, and very highly recommended for beginning HTML and XHTML users.

This has to be the single most comprehensive book on HTML that I have ever seen. Completely updated, the brand new 5th edition covers IE6 and the newest versions of all other major browsers.

The reviews for "HTML & XHTML" by Musciano and Kennedy are already overwhelmingly positive (save a few disgruntled readers here and there). I can see why readers heap so much praise upon this book. The author's intent is to show the reader how to write clean HTML, arguing that since web surfers can always change their browsers' appearance settings, content is still more important than style. I am a rookie at making web pages, yet after tinkering with HTML for a few days, I had already found myself thumbing through the book for reference.

I am not a programmer, and I think novices could still appreciate this book. However, I *strongly* recommend that potential readers have some exposure to HTML and understand how it works before purchasing. (Check out Jennifer Niederst's excellent "Learning Web Design" if you need a tutorial on the Internet and HTML.) In any case, the book is mainly geared towards experienced programmers, but I honestly believe that anyone can get the most out of this book if they are willing to experiment with HTML continually through trial and error.

The book has a very completed list of all of the tags and their attributes. However, no possible values for the attributes are listed. For people to learn HTML or to use this book as a reference book, this information is very important.

This is the beginners book for learning HTML. As a professional Web developer, I appreciate finding a book, with impact and difference, in my career; this is one of those books. Each chapter is filled with valuable technical content. The chapter information provides simple and understandable samples. Even if you know alittle about HTML and have been programming in html, its not a bad reference. For those without HTML programming experiece, you'll be programming in no time at all. HTML editors are great, but sometimes you just need to know the HTML language, to be an effective programmer. You'll find this book very useful. I don't believe any understand of HTML is necessary before purchasing this book. A novice can easily pickup the book, read the chapters, and start programming. I've use the bookly constantly to look html properties and assist in my daily programming. Occassionally, I find a tip or trick and will help me overcome a programming barrier. This is an excellent book for indepth study of HTML.

The reviews for "HTML & XHTML" by Musciano and Kennedy are already overwhelmingly positive (save a few disgruntled readers here and there). I can see why readers heap so much praise upon this book. The author's intent is to show the reader how to write clean HTML, arguing that since web surfers can always change their browsers' appearance settings, content is still more important than style. I am a rookie at making web pages, yet after tinkering with HTML for a few days, I had already found myself thumbing through the book for reference.

I am not a programmer, and I think novices could still appreciate this book. However, I *strongly* recommend that potential readers have some exposure to HTML and understand how it works before purchasing. (Check out Jennifer Niederst's excellent "Learning Web Design" if you need a tutorial on the Internet and HTML.) In any case, the book is mainly geared towards experienced programmers, but I honestly believe that anyone can get the most out of this book if they are willing to experiment with HTML continually through trial and error.

I have bought this book and as someone who knows already HTML I do not find it useful at all.
Eventhough it tells you if attributes are supported by certain browsers, it does not tell you which of them.
On top of that the "tips" that it gives are merely basic rules of HTML.
If you want a good reference book try: Dynamic HTML: The Definitive Reference or Web Design in a Nutshell. Both of them succed in describing attributes and tags: they tell you which are supported and explain them clearly.

Too bad there is no zero start rating.

I own about 10 O'Reilly books and this one is by far the worst. The book is so unorganized, full of replicates and useless comments. For example, HTML tags have many common attributes and the authors managed to replicate the meaningless explanation for each single one of them - this alone would consumer 50 worthless pages.

Normally I would understand there are good and bad parts in a book, but it's just so hard to find any good ones in this book.
I have no idea how this book gets high marks from other readers.