Review: Web Design in a Nutshell
Web Commerce Today, Issue 18, January 15, 1999
Web Design in a Nutshellby Jennifer Niederst
Softcover, 560 pages
O'Reilly and Associates, January 1999
This reference manual brings together an amazing amount of the sort of technical information that webpage workers need to keep abreast of their craft.
The book presupposes some technical and computer familiarity. For example, the first chapter, "Designing for a Variety of Browsers," begins by immersing you in one of the chief problems site designers face: making a site look good when viewed by any of the profusion of Web browsers, monitors, and operating systems that visitors may be using.
The book is ideal for the person who has worked on enough websites to understand the problems involved, and is now looking for answers. O'Reilly's "In a Nutshell" series bears the subtitle "A Desktop Quick Reference," which describes this book to a tee. But while I expected a quick overview, what I found was a fairly detailed analysis of many issues, and a great deal of detailed tables.
Perhaps the most helpful feature is the book's careful detailing of browser support for various HTML tags, JavaScript, image formats, imagemaps, tables, frames, and the like. If you've ever pulled your hair out trying to make your site work in both Netscape and Internet Explorer, this is book provides many of the answers through the 4.0 versions. In addition, you'll find a full treatment of Cascading Style Sheets, Server Side Includes, and DHTML, as well as help with emerging standards such as XML syntax, embedded font technology, and internationalization.
There are many good books on website design; two come to mind. Molly Holzschlag's Web by Design looks at webpage design from a graphic artist's perspective, offering layout guides, color design principles, and a number of color plates. But like Laura LeMay's Teach Yourself HTML 4.0 in 14 Days, Web Design in a Nutshell is more computer programmer oriented. Where LeMay walks you through the learning process chapter by chapter, Niederst provides a pithy synopsis. The browser comparison tables are more complete than in LeMay's excellent text. And LeMay's volume weighs and costs twice as much as Web Design in a Nutshell.
As good as LeMay's book is, I just removed it from the place of honor next to my desk and replaced it with Web Design in a Nutshell.
