Dynamic HTML: The Definitive Reference: A Comprehensive Resource for HTML, CSS, DOM & JavaScript: The Definitive Reference (Dynamic Html)

Goodman assumes a solid foundation, if not expertise, in basic HTML and an understanding of what DHTML is all about. From those assumptions, he presents a meaty, information-dense volume. The first of the book's four sections discusses industry standards and how to apply the basic principles of DHTML. He emphasises the differences in Web browsers and discusses how to build pages so that they work well in both Netscape Navigator and Microsoft Internet Explorer. The second section is an extensive, quick reference of all the tags, objects and properties of HTML, cascading style sheets, Document Object Model, and core JavaScript. A particularly handy cross-reference guide to this information follows, helping you locate it in alternate ways. The final section contains appendices, with useful tables of values and commands. --Elizabeth Lewis

Reader Reviews:

Perfect for experts, * * * * * (but EXPERTS ONLY!!) (1/1 people found this helpful)

Three quick questions. Are you at least dimly familiar with every piece of code you'll want to use? Enough that, when attempting a task, you'll know at least the first few letters of each candidate so you can look them up?

Or, do you use software whereby you will only ever want to look up items that are already up on the screen in front of you?

Or, do you already have an authoritative book/web resource/friend that will tell you what to try looking up? (for example, that if you want to use DOM to set style properties in a way that over-rides coded style definitions, that looking under 'R' for "runtimeStyle" might be an option?)

If "Yes" to any of these, buy this book and read the other reviews instead of this one. The book is brilliantly clearly written, authoritative and straight to the point.
An easy * * * * *

If "No" to all of these, you might want to reconsider.

There's the alphabetical references (95% of the book). These let you find info on things you know the name of. There's one small index, and a small cross-reference section. These too give information only on elements, properties, objects etc that you know the names of. There's no cross-referencing in the reference sections themselves.

In short, the only way to find out about things which you don't already know the name of is to exhaustively browse the entire section, 100s of pages long. This is why I'm returning the book.

The index tells me that, say, that if I wanted to look up the CSS property 'Stress' it's on p1010. This just happens to be under 'S' in the CSS section... I could work that out myself. What it doesn't say anywhere is what I can't work out myself: for example, that the properties relating to aural style sheets (should I ever want to make one) include 'Stress', p1010.

Likewise, if I looked up 'Style' in the DOM section in the above example, there's nothing there at all to make me realise that an object 'runtimeStyle' exists under 'R' that is related and might be worth looking up too.

Less well known items sometimes reference more well known ones to help you understand them. E.g., the DOM object 'Range' says "...similar in concept to the IE TextRange object...". But there's nothing going the other way: if you've chosen to look up 'Range', you probably already know about 'TextRange'. Unless you knew about 'Range' some other way, there's no reason why you'd look it up.

This might be a problem for you. It was for me.

If it doesn't sound like a problem, buy this book.

If it does, look for a book with more cross-referencing and a better index.

Dynamic HTML: The Definitive Reference (0/0 people found this helpful)

If you do any sort of web design, whether as a do-it yourself novice or as a professional web designer, Dynamic HTML is a must have resource. This all inclusive guide includes a myriad of features for design elements, objects, and styles organized in several easy to understand and easy to use sections: Alphabetical HTML Reference, Shared DOM Reference, Alphabetical DOM Reference, Event Reference, CSS Reference, and Java Script Reference, Cross Reference. All of these examples include actually bit of code that the reader can use as well as associated attributes and their code to tailor that element, object, or style to your desired specifications. This aspect allows the reader to follow through virtually step by step taking a new concept from inception through to a professional look and feel.

I can already tell that Dynamic HTML is going to be one of those desk references that I keep close by my computer. The book is already plastered with a number of post-it notes in places that I need to fix on my existing web pages, concepts that want to experiment with in the future, or ways that I could make my websites more accessible. Having a good book with these aspects all in one place is a boon.

Still, where I will probably gain the most valuable use of this book is in the comparative aspect of the entries. Along with each of the detailed entries in all of the categories, the author has included information about how each feature translates in the different browsers (Internet Explorer, Netscape Navigator, Mozilla, Safari, Opera, and W3C HTML). Anyone who has spent weeks making their website just perfect only to have their best buddy with a different type of browser say that it's all wonky knows that a good detailed cross reference resource is invaluable. Having one as well organized and intuitive as this one is nothing short of amazing.

A reference not a tutorial (0/0 people found this helpful)

This refers to the 3rd edition (Dec 2006).

This is some tome at some 1200 plus pages (discounting the indices). And much has already been said about earlier editions that really don't need repeating other than it has been updated and includes stuff for AJAX and Web 2.0. Earlier comments are from people with much more experience than I and will give much more detail.

Just remember this is not the book to learn all that stuff, well not from scratch it isn't. If you know some of it already you can probably pick up the new stuff just from seeing what's there.

Still shows the browsers supported and from which version. Browsers mentioned are IE, Netscape, Firefox, Safari and Opera. That really should cover most situations.

Vital keyboard-side companion for any web developer (4/4 people found this helpful)

From the first edition, through to the second, this book hasn't been off my desk for the last 5 years. Even when most of my work involves server side web programming, using VB6, C#, and before that Perl and PHP - I still need to refer to this at least once a week. Even using ASP.NET, where Microsoft try to shield you from the html using server side controls - you will still need this book.
Main uses:
The object model of IE and mozilla, so your javascript code is using the correct object.
Javascript section. A good reference, though Javascript - The Definitive Guide (O'Reilly) is very useful too.
CSS - Not too verbose, light on examples, but superb as a reference.
In short, everyone involved in writing HTML, or client side code, should have this book.

An amazing book! (10/10 people found this helpful)

I bought this book to learn how to create a new menu system for a web site that I'm working on, and I certainly don't regret the choice. Danny Goodman's book does a very good job of covering Dynamic HTML (DHTML), HTML (Hypertext Markup Language), CSS (Cascading Style Sheets), DOM (Document Object Model) and even JavaScript.

Mr. Goodman explains the current situation, where Microsoft's Internet Explorer follows one "standard" and the other browsers follow the W3C standards to varying degrees. He also indicates which version of MS IE first began to support each feature, allowing you to decide whether you want to use some feature that some of your clients' older browsers may not support. This kind of information is invaluable if you want to make your web site cross-browser compatible, including support for Macintosh, Unix, Linux, etc., as well as Windows.

My only criticism is that the book is unfortunately becoming a bit dated. It was published in Sept. 2002 so it obviously can't contain any information about the latest versions of web browsers. On the other hand, Microsoft has not released any new version of IE for over two years, so it's only information about the latest versions of Netscape and other browsers that is missing.

One additional thing I liked about this book was that Danny Goodman sometimes uses an almost poetic English, something rather unusual in a technology book. A couple of examples from page 19: "... can be a challenge unto itself." "If the inexorable flow of new browser versions..."

Highly recommended if you are making web pages that require the use of Dynamic HTML.

Dynamic HTML: The Definitive Reference: A Comprehensive Resource for HTML, CSS, DOM & JavaScript: The Definitive Reference (Dynamic Html)

Danny Goodman

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