Useful Books and Software

Like their counterparts in print page-layout programs, style sheets allow designers to apply typographic styles, graphic enhancements, and precise layout instructions to elements on a Web page. Unfortunately, due to CSS's complexity and the many challenges of building pages that work in all Web browsers, most Web authors treat CSS as a kind of window-dressing to spruce up the appearance of their sites. Integrating CSS with a site's underlying HTML is hard work, and often frustratingly complicated. As a result many of the most powerful features of CSS are left untapped. With this book, beginners and Web-building veterans alike can learn how to navigate the ins-and-outs of CSS and take complete control over their Web pages' appearance.

Author David McFarland (the bestselling author of O'Reilly's "Dreamweaver: The Missing Manual") combines crystal-clear explanations, real-world examples, a dash of humor, and dozens of step-by-step tutorials to show you ways to design sites with CSS that work consistently across browsers. You'll learn how to: Create HTML that's simpler, uses less code, is search-engine friendly, and works well with CSS Style text by changing fonts, colors, font sizes, and adding borders Turn simple HTML links into complex and attractive navigation bars-complete with CSS-only rollover effects that add interactivity to your Web pages Style images to create effective photo galleries and special effects like CSS-based drop shadows Make HTML forms look great without a lot of messy HTML Overcome the most hair-pulling browser bugs so your Web pages work consistently from browser to browser Create complex layouts using CSS, including multi-column designs that don't require using old techniques like HTML tables Style Web pages for printing

Unlike competing books, this Missing Manual doesn't assume that everyone in the world only surfs the Web with Microsoft's Internet Explorer; our book provides support for all major Web browsers and is one of the first books to thoroughly document the newly expanded CSS support in IE7, currently in beta release.

Want to learn how to turn humdrum Web sites into destinations that will capture viewers and keep them longer? Pick up "CSS: The Missing Manual" and learn the real magic of this tool.

Publisher: Pogue Press
Author: David McFarland
Release Date: 2006-08-24
ISBN/EAN: 0596526873 / 9780596526870

New Price: $20.09 / Used Price: $19.63

However, unlike countless other "learn web design" books, this title concentrates on modern, best-practice techniques from the very beginning, which means you'll get it right the first time. The web sites you'll build will:

• Takes you through your development environment set up
• Covers everything you need to create both standards compliant web sutes, and dynamic web applications
• Teaches several real world techniques using a series of step by step tutorials

What youll learn

• How to set up your ideal development environment, using Mac OSX/Windows, Apache (and IIS on Windows,) Apache, MySQL, and phpMyAdmin
• Creating standards compliant web sites using CS3's XHTML and CSS features
• Creating dynamic web applications using CS3's PHP and Spry Ajax server behaviors
• Building several real world web site functions, such as form validation, random quote generator, search function, user management/login pages, dynamic Ajax gallery, and much more.
• Creating an interface design in Fireworks CS3 and importing it into Dreamweaver CS3.
• How use Dreamweaver CS3's XML functionality, to consume RSS feeds, and create Spry data sets
• Using includes, templates and master detail pages.
• How to publish your site after you've created it

Summary of Contents

• Chapter 1: Dreamweaver CS3Your Creative Partner
• Chapter 2: Building Dynamic Sites with Ajax and PHP
• Chapter 3: Getting the Work Environment Ready
• Chapter 4: Setting Up a PHP Site
• Chapter 5: Adding a Touch of Style
• Chapter 6: Creating a CSS Site Straight Out of the Box
• Chapter 7: Building Site Navigation with the Spry Menu Bar
• Chapter 8: Sprucing Up Content with Spry Widgets
• Chapter 9: Building Online Forms and Validating Input
• Chapter 10: Introducing the Basics of PHP
• Chapter 11: Using PHP to Process a Form
• Chapter 12: Working with PHP Includes and Templates
• Chapter 13: Setting Up MySQL and phpMyAdmin
• Chapter 14: Storing Records in a Database
• Chapter 15: Controlling Access to Your Site
• Chapter 16: Working with Multiple Tables
• Chapter 17: Searching Records and Handling Dates
• Chapter 18: Using XSLT to Display Live News Feeds and XML
• Chapter 19: Using Spry to Display XML
• Chapter 20: Getting the Best of Both Worlds with PHP and Spry

New Price: $31.34 / Used Price: $28.15

Windows Vista Sidebar is a panel located on the desktop of a PC where gadgets can be placed for easy access and reference. These gadgets are small, single-purpose applications, such as clocks, calendars, games, RSS notifiers, search tools, stock tickers, etc, that reside on the Windows desktop and on the Windows Sidebar. The book will be a tutorial to design and develop a gadget. It will provide ready-to-use samples using .NET, XML, CSS and AJAX. After reading the book, a web developer/designer will be confident enough to start developing gadgets for Windows Vista Sidebar. The beginner portion of the book shows an overview of the subject with the design pattern, the architecture and implementation details. The later sections will have solid examples for instant results. In short, the book will tell how to do everything with Sidebar Gadgets using solid, unique examples. Brief outline: " Brief background on Gadgets " Define architecture, design consideration and implementation to give a clear view to the developer " Step by step, create a useful Gadget sample "My Blogs" " Elaborate the architecture design constraint and implementation details for the sample " Detail the standard practices " Recheck the gadget created for standard practices " Improvise and Improve with compare and contrast " Add advanced samples with .NET, AJAX and XHTML.

New Price: $15.11 / Used Price: $15.00

New Price: $26.99 / Used Price: $28.85

New Price: $11.66 / Used Price: $11.68

Give your audience the power to interact with your content on their own terms. It's the right thing to do, and with a $100 billion a year market for accessible content, new laws and new technologies, you can't afford to ignore accessibility.

With this book, you'll learn basic principles and techniques for developing accessible HTML, audio, video, and multimedia content. In addition, you will understand how to apply the principles you learn in this book to new technologies when they emerge.

You'll learn how to:

GWT in Practice is an example-driven, code-rich book designed for web developers already familiar with the basics of GWT who now want hands-on experience. After a quick review of GWT fundamentals, GWT in Practice presents scores of handy, reusable solutions to the problems you face when you need to move beyond "Hello World" and "proof of concept" applications. This book skips the theory and looks at the way things really work when you're building. I also shows you where GWT fits into the Enterprise Java Developer's toolset. Written by expert authors Robert Cooper and Charlie Collins, this book combines sharp insight with hard-won experience. Readers will find thorough coverage of all aspects of GWT development from the basic GWT concepts to in depth real world example applications.

The first part of the book is a rapid introduction to the GWT methodology The second part of the book then delves into several practical examples which further demonstrate core aspects of the toolkit The book concludes by presenting several larger GWT applications including drag and drop support for UI elements, data binding, processing streaming data, handling application state, automated builds, and continuous integration.

Along the way GWT in Practice covers many additional facets of working with the toolkit. Various development tools are used throughout the book, including Eclipse, NetBeans, IDEA, Ant, Maven, and, of course, the old fashioned command line. The book also addresses integrating GWT with existing applications and services along with enterprise and team development.

Publisher: Manning Publications
Authors: Robert Cooper, Charlie Collins
Release Date: 2008-05-12
ISBN/EAN: 1933988290 / 9781933988290

New Price: $16.75 / Used Price: $16.75

• Master the fundamental skills of ASP.NET 2.0 to build professional quality web applications



• Integrate new Ajax tools and CSS with ASP.NET 2.0 for flashier and more interactive sites



• Build applications with minimal coding using Visual Studio or its free counterpart, Visual Web Developer



• Connect your site with a database so that users can retrieve, interact and save data



• Debug your application, deal with unexpected problems, and protect your site from malicious users



• Use the community-maintained ASP.NET AJAX Control Toolkit to extend the controls that come with ASP.NET AJAX



• Use personalization tools to give your site a customized look for each user

New Price: $25.17 / Used Price: $18.97

New Price: $42.08 / Used Price: $30.00