Sams Teach Yourself HTML 4 in 24 Hours

By Dick Oliver

• Table of Contents
  • Copyright
  • About the Author
  • Acknowledgments
  • Tell Us What You Think!
  • Put Your HTML Page Online Today
  • I. Your First Web Page
  • Hour 1. Understanding HTML and XML
  • Hour 2. Create a Web Page Right Now
  • Hour 3. Linking to Other Web Pages
  • Hour 4. Publishing Your HTML Pages
  • II. Web Page Text
  • Hour 5. Text Alignment and Lists
  • Hour 6. Text Formatting and Font Control
  • Hour 7. Email Links and Links Within a Page
  • Hour 8. Creating HTML Forms
  • III. Web Page Graphics
  • Hour 9. Creating Your Own Web Page Graphics
  • Hour 10. Putting Graphics on a Web Page
  • Hour 11. Custom Backgrounds and Colors
  • Hour 12. Creating Animated Graphics
  • IV. Web Page Design
  • Hour 13. Page Design and Layout
  • Hour 14. Graphical Links and Imagemaps
  • Hour 15. Advanced Layout with Tables
  • Hour 16. Using Style Sheets
    • A Basic Style Sheet
    • CSS1 Versus CSS2
    • Older Web Browsers
    • Style Properties
    • Style Classes
    • Specifying Inline Styles
    • Positioning and Layers
    • Summary
    • Q&A
    • Workshop
  • V. Dynamic Web Pages
  • Hour 17. Embedding Multimedia in Web Pages
  • Hour 18. Interactive Pages with Applets and ActiveX
  • Hour 19. Web Page Scripting for Non-Programmers
  • Hour 20. Setting Pages in Motion with Dynamic HTML
  • VI. Building a Web Site
  • Hour 21. Multipage Layout with Frames
  • Hour 22. Organizing and Managing a Web Site
  • Hour 23. Helping People Find Your Web Pages
  • Hour 24. Planning for the Future of HTML
  • VII. Appendixes
  • A. Readers' Most Frequently Asked Questions
  • B. HTML Learning Resources on the Internet
  • C. Complete HTML 4 Quick Reference
  • D. HTML Character Entities

CSS1 Versus CSS2

There are actually two different languages to choose from when you make a style sheet. The one I recommend you use is called cascading style sheets, level 1 (CSS1), since it is compatible with both Netscape Navigator 4 (or later) and Microsoft Internet Explorer 4 (or later). The new CSS2 standard is only partially implemented in the current crop of browsers, and neither Netscape nor Microsoft is currently claiming that its next version will fully support CSS2. They do already support some parts of CSS2, such as the capability to precisely position text and graphics on the page (discussed under "Specifying Inline Styles" later in this hour).

You'll find a complete reference guide to both the CSS1 and CSS2 style sheet languages at http://www.w3c.org. The rest of this hour explains how to put the information from those reference documents to use in a way that is compatible with the current generation of Web browsers.

If you are a JavaScript programmer and the only browser you need to support is Netscape Navigator, you may prefer the JavaScript Style Sheets language instead. It has all the same capabilities as CSS1, but uses a slightly different syntax. See the Netscape Developer's Edge Online Web site (http://developer.netscape.com/) for a reference guide to that language.

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