Sams Teach Yourself HTML 4 in 24 Hours
- 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
- 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
HTML as the New User Interface
As the role of the computer evolves, HTML is becoming more and more central to nearly everything we do with computers. HTML is the de facto global standard for connecting all types of information in a predictable and presentable way.
HTML gives you a painless and reliable way to combine and arrange text, graphics, sound, video, and interactive programs. Unlike older proprietary page layout standards, HTML was originally designed for efficient communication among all kinds of computers worldwide.
The prominence of HTML, however, does not mean that Web browsers will be a major category of software application in the coming years. In fact, the "Web browser" as a distinct program has already nearly disappeared. Microsoft Internet Explorer 5, for instance, does much more than retrieve pages from the World Wide Web. It lets you use HTML pages as the interface for organizing and navigating through the information on your own computer, including directory folders and the Windows Desktop itself. In conjunction with HTML-enabled software such as Microsoft Office 2000, HTML becomes the common standard interface for word processing, spreadsheets, and databases. Netscape Communicator is also much more than a Web browser. It uses HTML to integrate all types of media into email, discussion groups, schedule management, business documents, and collaborative project management.
Meanwhile, HTML support is being included in every major software release so that every program on your computer will soon be able to import and export information in the form of HTML pages. In a nutshell, HTML is the glue that holds together all the diverse types of information on our computers and ensures that it can be presented in a standard way that will look the same to anyone in the world.
In a business world that now sees fast, effective communication as the most common and most important task of its workers, the "information glue" of HTML has the power to connect more than different types of media. It is the hidden adhesive that connects a business to its customers and connects individual employees to form an efficient team. Knowing how to apply that glue—the skills you gained from this book—puts you in one of the most valuable roles in any modern organization.
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