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
  • V. Dynamic Web Pages
  • Hour 17. Embedding Multimedia in Web Pages
    • Putting Multimedia on a Web Page
    • Multimedia the Old-Fashioned Way
    • Embedding Sound in a Web Page
    • Embedding Video in a Web Page
    • Trying to Please Everybody
    • Multimedia the New Way
    • Summary
    • Q&A
    • Workshop
  • 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

Multimedia the New Way

Netscape's <embed /> tag has come under fire for a number of reasons, both technical and political. Officially, it has already been made obsolete by a new tag called <object>, which has the blessing of Netscape, Microsoft, and the official World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) standards-setting committee. The <object> tag will do everything Netscape wants the <embed /> tag to do, plus a lot more.

Unfortunately, the 4 versions of Microsoft Internet Explorer and Netscape Navigator interpret the <object> tag somewhat unreliably, because they were released before the official standard for the tag was approved. The fact that most people are still using earlier browser versions has also slowed widespread use of the <object> tag. Alas, support of <object> in Microsoft Internet Explorer 5 isn't any better, nor does it look likely that the next update of Netscape Navigator will support the standard fully.

You can read more about the <object> tag, including an example of its current use, under "ActiveX Controls" in Hour 18.

Another beacon of hope has appeared on the Web multimedia horizon as well. The W3C has officially sanctioned SMIL 1, the Synchronized Multimedia Integration Language. When Web browsers start conforming to this new standard, you will have a reliable way to synchronize multiple sound, video, and animation sources on your Web pages. (Assuming, that is, that your intended audience has high-speed network connections capable of delivering multiple media streams by then.) You can dream of the possibilities as you read about SMIL at the http://www.w3.org Web site and experience an early implementation of SMIL in the Real Player G2 at http://www.real.com.

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