[RNobleman]

I really liked Head First HMTL and CSS. Now I'm wondering what the next, more advanced, book on HTML and CSS you would recommend is. I saw CSS The Missing Manual is coming out with a new edition in December. Will that cover mostly the same ground? Ultimately I would like to be proficient in web development. Any suggestions would be helpful.

[Beth Robson]

The Missing Manuals will go into more detail that HF HTML & CSS does in that it will include some properties and information we leave out. The goal of HF HTML & CSS is to teach you the core concepts so you can more easily learn the rest yourself. Assuming you have those core concepts down, then a good reference book on HTML and CSS would be good (the pocket guides are nice).

If you want to go in the direction of learning JavaScript, Eric and I are working on Head First JavaScript Programming which will be done mid-2013. Head First HTML5 Programming cover some of the newer HTML5 features, but it is good to have some scripting experience before you tackle that book, so the optimal order would be Head First JavaScript Programming and then Head First HTML5 Programming.

Personally, I think the best way to become proficient once you know the basics is to set yourself some goals to build progressively bigger projects and review / look up what you need to as you go. Look around the web at some web site designs you like and see if you can replicate the design using the CSS and HTML you know already. View source, look at the site's HTML and CSS and use a reference book to help you understand what you don't already know.

Hope this helps!!! Let us know how you progress.

Elisabeth

[Hannybaby]

Beth Robson, on 15 November 2012 - 04:31 PM, said:

The Missing Manuals will go into more detail that HF HTML & CSS does in that it will include some properties and information we leave out. The goal of HF HTML & CSS is to teach you the core concepts so you can more easily learn the rest yourself. Assuming you have those core concepts down, then a good reference book on HTML and CSS would be good (the pocket guides are nice).

If you want to go in the direction of learning JavaScript, Eric and I are working on Head First JavaScript Programming which will be done mid-2013. Head First HTML5 Programming cover some of the newer HTML5 features, but it is good to have some scripting experience before you tackle that book, so the optimal order would be Head First JavaScript Programming and then Head First HTML5 Programming.

Personally, I think the best way to become proficient once you know the basics is to set yourself some goals to build progressively bigger projects and review / look up what you need to as you go. Look around the web at some web site designs you like and see if you can replicate the design using the CSS and HTML you know already. View source, look at the site's HTML and CSS and use a reference book to help you understand what you don't already know.

Hope this helps!!! Let us know how you progress.

Elisabeth

Thanks for your tips. As I almost finished with HTML with XHML and CSS I already bought the HF-Book PHP & MySQL because I think it's also an important technique to develop websites, isn't it? Would you recommend to read the Missing Manual before start with HF PHP & MySQL or is it fine to continue with PHP?