Molly Malsam, who always has a variety of interesting posts, just published a short blog on some books helping you to figure out XHTML/CSS. If you need to bone up, check out her recommendation and other books that might fit the bill.
Over the past couple of weeks I’ve been looking over a number of books designed to teach X/HTML & CSS. It’s a bit overwhelming knowing where to begin with all the versions and types of web coding. I landed on a book that I really enjoyed: Head First HTML with CSS & XHTML. Of the books I looked at, this one was by far the most engaging book on the subject.
Most of the reasons why the book was so interesting are also principles of good design:
- It is highly visual. Good images are more memorable than just words and make it easier to learn and understand concepts.
- Explanatory words are placed right alongside illustrations, rather than referenced elsewhere. It was very easy, for example, to look through code samples that were annotated line by line.
- Concepts are presented in multiple ways to accommodate different learning styles.
- Appeals to the emotional desire to have fun while learning are incorporated, through humor, fun games and realistic exercises.
When I saw the title of your blog at PlanetLotus, that was the first book to come to my mind. The whole series is done the same way, and is excellent. Well, at least it fits my learning style. Wish there was one for XPages