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
  • 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
    • HTML Beyond the Web
    • From Calculators to Communicators
    • HTML as the New User Interface
    • The Digital Media Revolution
    • XML: Unity in Diversity
    • XHTML, the New HTML
    • HTML Applications of the Future
    • What You Can Do Today to Be Ready for Tomorrow
    • Summary
    • Q&A
    • Workshop
  • 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 Applications of the Future

The near-universal compatibility of HTML and XML provides a big incentive to format any important document as a Web page—even if you have no immediate plans for putting it on the World Wide Web. You can create a single page that can be printed on paper, sent as an email message, displayed during a board meeting presentation, and posted for reference on the company intranet. You can also take the traditional route and format the page separately for each of these applications—and edit each file with a different software program when the information needs to be updated. Now that most business software supports the HTML standards, many organizations are trying to get employees to consistently use it for all important documents.

Yet the great migration to HTML goes beyond what you might have thought of as "documents" in the old days. Combined with XML, Java, ActiveX, and other new technologies, HTML-based presentations can in many cases replace what was once done with proprietary data formats, specialized software, or more traditional programming languages. Here are a few of the other areas where HTML is finding application beyond the Web:

• Kiosks with HTML-based interactive content are popping up everywhere. They look like ATMs on steroids, and they're helping sell records and theme park tickets, expand department store displays, and even automate the paying of parking tickets.
• Information-rich CD-ROM titles are fast migrating to HTML. Encyclopaedia Britannica is already entirely HTML-based, which enables it to offer the content on CD-ROM, the Web, or a combination of both for maximum speed and up-to-the-minute currency. Because CD-ROM drives display multimedia so much faster than most Internet connections, dynamic HTML presentations that just couldn't be done on today's World Wide Web become possible. The new DVD-ROM drives will be even faster and will hold much more information, making them ideally suited to large multimedia "sites."
• Corporate HTML-based newsletters are now often created in HTML for the company intranet, then printed on paper for delivery to employees or customers who won't see them on the Web. The traditional difference between online and paper presentations was that graphics needed to be high-resolution black-and white for printing and low-resolution color for computer screens. Today's inexpensive color printers, however, do a great job making low-res color images look great in an HTML-based newsletter.
• Teachers are finding that tests and educational worksheets are easier to administer as HTML pages and can include many types of interactive content that isn't possible on paper. Simple HTML documents can be passed out on floppy disks for students who lack access to the Internet.
• Vertical market users often buy a computer specifically to run a certain custom-designed application or set of applications. The Value-added Resellers and systems integrators that provide these systems are delivering machines configured to start displaying HTML pages. This can help step users through the use of the machine or replace old-fashioned idiot menus with a more attractive and sophisticated interface without sacrificing ease of use.

I could list many more creative and beneficial uses of HTML beyond run-of-the-mill Web pages, but the point is clear: If you need to present any type of information, seriously consider HTML as an alternative to the specialized software or programming tools that you would have used for the job a couple of years ago.

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