This book is a keeper-and reasonably priced as well! Loaded with hints and tips for the beginner and intermediate Web page programmer, Joe Burns lets loose with his many years of learning HTML the hard way-by trial and error. HTML Goodies is written for those who have a hard time learning HTML, as the book is laid out in a logical progression of topics and levels of complexity. (A book that presents HTML commands and their syntax in alphabetical order would best serve the programmer who needs to fix a glitch here and there.) Burns not only offers examples of what works, in many cases he also mentions what didn't work, steering you clear of dead-end paths.

HTML Goodies has a companion Web site, but the book isn't 'married' to the site. In other words, you will be able to understand the point Burns is making by the description and static images in the book alone. However, to see certain things animated and in living color, you should visit the site to fully appreciate the effects being discussed. In fact, the Web site stands on its own two feet as well. At the site are the same tutorials, primers, free snippets of code and graphics, and frequently asked questions (FAQs) included in the book, and the site is well maintained and up-to-date. Read the book, camp out at the Web site or use both together; your skills at programming HTML will improve.

HTML Goodies starts with "How to Build a Web site in 7 Steps." From there, Burns improves your skills by enhancing and elaborating on the various technologies that can be incorporated into Web page design: image maps, frames, forms, style sheets, JavaScript and streaming audio. The book concludes with a collection of miscellaneous topics that make owning a Web site more interesting and HTML programming less cumbersome, especially when dealing with the differences between Netscape Navigator and Internet Explorer.

Joe Burns writes as if he's your buddy and the two of you are yakking about last weekend's football games and play strategies. And he is your buddy. Think of him that way and you'll be implementing his programming advice into your Web site a lot more easily than you would by reading the typically dry, lecture-style book.

Of course, sometimes you need a book where the HTML commands, their syntax and functionality are alphabetized and categorized. So, don't think HTML Goodies is the only book you will ever need-it is, however, the first book you should get to start your programming library. Readers need to be aware that the edition reviewed contains numerous typos and a couple of contextual errors, but they do not detract from the overall value of this book.

I was so impressed by HTML Goodies, I immediately bought Joe Burns' second book, JavaScript Goodies. In JavaScript Goodies, you learn by breaking down and examining functional scripts, after which Burns asks you to modify the script to produce a second desired effect.

HTML Goodies
By Joe Burns
[$19.99, 550pgs]
Earthweb Press, Que Corp., 1999
ISDN: 0-7897-1823-5

Joe Burns uses an instructional style rarely seen in computer books: first, show the finished special effect (in your Web browser); second, figure out what must have happened; third, come to understand the JavaScript code; and fourth, test your understanding by modifying the code to produce a different, but related, special effect. It works better than it sounds.

JavaScript Goodies is loaded with hints and tips on how JavaScript works and, most importantly, what the likely cause is when something doesn't go quite right. Don't let the page count fool you. A relatively thin book compared to the typical forest killers, JavaScript Goodies presents lessons that, while specific in function, are broad in nature, requiring fewer pages for each concept. The content for the money (very reasonably priced) can't be beat.

JavaScript Goodies has a companion Web site and the book pretty much relies on that site to demonstrate the various special effects. For the most part, however, you will be able to understand the point Burns is making by the description and static images in the book plus, by entering the scripts in an HTML skeleton file, you will be viewing the effect in the browser on your computer. At the site are selected tutorials, free snippets of code and graphics, and frequently asked questions (FAQs), and the site is well maintained and up-to-date.

JavaScript, according to Burns, is very picky and uses the object.method model of a language. Understanding this model is the one crucial obstacle novice JavaScript programmers must overcome. Burns' co-author, Andree Growney, supplies the requisite technical language (tech-lingo).

JavaScript Goodies is the logical next step once you have your feet wet with HTML. To learn HTML, Burns' first book, HTML Goodies, is highly recommended.

JavaScript Goodies
By Joe Burns and Andree Growney
[$19.99, 360 pgs]
Earthweb Press, Que Corp., 1999
ISBN: 0-7897-2024-8

For a couple of years or more, I've been teaching Internet basics to small groups of seniors. At the beginning of each session we've had to select a different textbook, because the one we were using was obsolete or otherwise inadequate. A book was too simple, or it was too hard to understand, or it didn't provide suitable practice problems. During this time, we were evolving through the various versions of Internet Explorer and Netscape Navigator, so changes were occurring fast.

Currently, we've found a book that is satisfactory. But Internet Explorer 5 for Windows would be a close contender for our next choice. Its notable drawback is that it doesn't have the exercises that teachers need to assign handy homework. However, the publishers don't claim this is a classroom text. This is a "teach yourself book," and in that respect, it's one of the best. The book is in two parts: Part I covers the Internet Explorer browser and Part II covers Outlook Express, the mail program that comes with Internet Explorer.

Internet Explorer 5 for Windows breaks subject matter into smaller pieces than most books, making it easier to digest. For us, that is a large plus. Another pleasing aspect is that each page edge has large type identifying the content, which allows us to use the pages like an index. Each page also has two columns, making for easier reading. All procedures are in list form or bulleted and there are plenty of accompanying illustrations. My only complaint with this part of it is that the illustrations are small, making it harder for this senior to read. Color, of course, would be better.

Looking at content, Internet Explorer 5 for Windows starts off in chapter 1 explaining IE5's major change- the Active Desktop. Active Desktop integrates the IE5 browser with the Windows 95/98 operating system and was a stroke of genius by Microsoft, although it initially got the company in trouble. Actually, Active Desktop is not a component of IE5, as the author points out, but originally came with IE4 (Internet Explorer 4). You have to install IE4, and then enable Active Desktop, before installing IE5. In any case, tackling Active Desktop at the beginning was a good idea, as I find many people have difficulty with that concept.

The chapters after chapter 1 treat Browser Basics, Navigating the Web, Working with Favorites, and Searching the Web, much the same as in other books. But chapter 6 treats Offline Browsing as a separate topic, which I haven't seen in other books. Here again, the technique of offline browsing is something that students have difficulty with, because it requires them to use a number of file management steps. These are well covered, and so is chapter 7, which, deservedly, discusses working with files as a separate, additional entity.

Many books on the Internet do not cover multimedia particularly well. It's an area that is subject to frequent change. IE5 is a "state of the art" browser, handling graphics, frames, movie clips, sound effects, music, and Java applets. These subjects are not dealt with extensively here, presumably because they do not fit the category in a "visual quickstart guide," which this book purports to be. They are explained well enough for the average person's use of them.

Individual chapters are presented for Working with Channels and for Printing. Separating these functions out was a commendable idea. Who had Channels on the Internet three years ago? Printing is complicated enough now that it deserves its own chapter. One of the best ideas of the author was concentrating the subject of Internet Options into one chapter. I believe this is a better plan than sprinkling them throughout the chapters.

This book has an excellent section on Outlook Express, covering it far more thoroughly than most books on the Internet. Newsgroups are given a good amount of space, as well, as are working offline, and customizing your settings.

No less than five appendices are included after the final chapter, including a glossary and IE5, Email, and News keystroke references; also a guide to Installing and Updating IE5. Since we are dealing with a fast changing milieu, we're sure to need the guide to installing and updating.

Internet Explorer 5 for Windows
By Steve Schwartz
Peachpit Press, 1999
[$17.99, 308 pages]
ISBN: 0-201-35444-6

Practical HTML 4 follows the standard format for most computer subject books: task-oriented, command-oriented, or a combination of the two. The book offers nothing new in its style of presenting the material, although its content is more complete for a beginner's book than most others. It covers the basic commands, images, style sheets, a few advanced topics, and a brief section on what to do with your page once it is written.

Lee Anne Phillips takes the task-oriented approach by suggesting that Web page owners start with what they want to say and display, then insert the necessary formatting commands to make the page readable. Along the way, she mentions good, sensible reasons why one would choose a certain HTML tag over another or even a combination of similar tags.

For example, emphasis tags and italic tags display the text the same way, but the purpose of italicizing certain words and sections of text may differ. If and when it should become necessary to edit text which was italicized for a particular purpose (urgency perhaps), searching for emphasized text will skip over book titles and the like.

Phillips makes the claim that the book's index is a superior example of completeness. That's debatable. Keep an up-to-date dictionary-style reference book in your library. The appendices try to be complete but could be much better. For example, there is a list of the numerous foreign characters and symbols one may wish to use along with the necessary HTML code names. Missing from that list are samples of the characters. The alef (aleph, unicode 2135, ℵ) character-do you know if you need it? If you saw it, would you know its name? (Netscape 4.6 doesn't seem able to display it anyway.)

Practical HTML 4 is a competent book but there are other titles available that, for the same cost, better engage your involvement and imagination.

Practical HTML 4
(a revision of Using HTML 4,
ISBN: 0-7897-1562-7)
Lee Anne Phillips
[$29.99, 700 pgs]
QUE Books, 1998
ISBN: 0-7897-2148-1

Santa would never bring Photoshop to my house because of the price. So, oh that happy fateful day a year ago when I received Photoshop 5.0 as a user-meeting door prize! It began an avocation that is interesting and rewarding. (Since then I have purchased a Sony digital camera to add to the fun.) Yet this software needs a book or two because the learning curve is very steep.

This review is of Photoshop 5.5 for Windows: a Visual Quickstart Guide, by Weinmann and Lourekas. Their book is really just a make-over (update?) of their Photoshop 5.0 version of the same title, but with the inclusion of a how-to for Image Ready. Overall, this is a great book at an even greater price. I will give a comparative review of this book with three other equally good books. Namely, Classroom in a Book by the Staff of Adobe (which I reviewed last April), SAMS Teach Yourself Adobe Photoshop in 24 Hours by Carla Rose, and The Complete Idiot's Guide to Adobe Photoshop 5 by Robert Stanley.

I quote from my first Photoshop book review: "...all Photoshop really does on the surface is to manipulate pixels. It controls each pixel with respect to its color and opacity, to its relationship with other pixels near or far or similar, and can combine that pixel with pixels in layers above and below. It does this in a simple way for understanding but is very complex and powerful." The "complex and powerful" description is an understatement! For example, Photoshop has about fifty drop-down-menu items (many with options), about fifty tools, a dozen palettes (all with options), and one hundred filters. They can combine these options in thousands of ways to produce an infinity of presentations!

How each of these authors approach the definition is a little different because each has a different view of what is important. Adobe calls their program, an "extraordinary photo retouching, image editing, and color painting software. . . (which) offers you the tools you need to get professional-quality results." Still, the Adobe user's manual does not do a very good job of helping. Additional help is on the way!

For that help, I offer my review of Weinmann & Lourekas Photoshop 5.5 for Windows & Macintosh. Weinmann, et. al., start with a definition of a subject and then follow with an example and a step-by-step procedure until they exhaust each subject. They combine similar or related subjects in chapters for ease of presentation and understanding. Included throughout are 'tips', 'shortcuts', information notes, illustrations and sixteen pages of shortcuts (like Shift+Tab and Alt+[, ...sixteen pages!).

In the center of the book are examples of images created by various artists, giving the book a pleasant touch. The final chapter is all about Image Ready (which Adobe bundles with Photoshop Version 5.5). Image Ready optimizes images for the Web. Also discussed are Adobe's After Effects, and Macromedia's Director. This book has more information concisely bundled than any of the others in this review. A very through presentation, one that I believe might present a difficulty for beginners: too much information all at once. Clearly, this is primarily a reference book and not a learning book. Nevertheless, I still rate it the "best buy" of the four books I discuss.

Classroom in a Book by Adobe staff, which I reviewed in April, however, is a learning book. It contains thirteen lessons in Photoshop and two lessons in Image Ready. I concluded the lessons in thirty to forty hours, giving an average lesson time of two and a half hours. They also included a CD with completed lessons to check your outcome against theirs. This is an excellent start but, like the user's manual, leaves much unsaid. See my review in April's Sacra Blue.

SAMS Teach Yourself Adobe Photoshop 5 in 24 Hours by Carla Rose is more like it. This is a learning book that covers most of everything. Each of twenty-four chapters takes about an hour to complete. At first, it is deceptive, because the first few chapters seem simple-minded. Yet Rose is quite clever in bringing one up to speed. (I presume that she has no idea how much the reader knows and therefore takes things slowly at first.)

By hour four you are in the thick of things. It is a kind approach, because you are suddenly involved without becoming overwhelmed. The first ten hours cover the basics and the use of tools for manipulating your files. She devotes a couple of hours to Layers, Masks, and Paths, leaving the reader about midway through the book. The remainder covers Filters, Type, Compositing, special effects and printing. The final hour covers Photoshop for the Web. One area that Rose includes is photo repair. She devotes an hour each to color and black-and-white. (This led me to think that if all I ever took were perfect photos, why would I need Photoshop for repairs. Also, if those old black-and-white family photos were in excellent condition, why should I care?) Thank you, Carla Rose, for including these chapters! They give the reader a starting point from which to make those necessary repairs.

Please do not pass on The Complete Idiot's Guide to Adobe Photoshop 5 by Robert Stanley, if for no other reason than the modest (cheap @ $17) price. In the past I have avoided anything with an idiot in the title. Mainly I felt insulted because (of course) I operate at a much higher level. I cannot speak for other idiot books, but they should have named this one just an idiot's book because you are only complete if you do not buy it. Besides, Stanley gives new meaning to idiots.

If you like techie humor and want to know what is in the background plus down-to-earth advice, this is your book. It is slightly jumpy (lots of stuff is jammed in), so I would really not want to begin with this book. Get your feet on the ground with a little slower lesson-type of book, and then jump into this one. It is loaded with information and the "play on words" never ends. Judd Winnick's illustrations just add to the fun.

This book is also essential because it looks at things a little differently and so contains information (details) the other books reviewed do not have. (For instance, did you know that pressing the status bar will give you a print preview? Also that it is possible to print a sheet of contacts using File, Automate, Contact Sheet? And, how about those unwanted results when merging to a layer that is not Normal 100% opacity? The list goes on!) Maybe Stanley sees things differently because he does not take himself so seriously. (Or maybe it is because he does.)

I cannot rank these books as I originally planned because their formats are so different. Weinmann's and Lourekas's book is clearly a reference that is chock-full of stuff. Carla Rose's wonderful 24-hours is a learning book, as is Classroom by the Adobe Staff. The idiot's book by Stanley is unique and is rated somewhere between reference, learning, and fun. Except for Classroom, all are less than $20. So, I leave you on your own. Good luck!

Finally, this technology does not come cheap! Check out some prices below.

Street prices:

Adobe Photoshop 5.5, $700.00 (upgrade $200.00)
Adobe Image Ready now included with Photoshop 5.5
Adobe After Effects, $759.95
Macramedia's Director, $795.00 (upgrade $519)

Photoshop 5 for Windows & Macintosh
($19.95, 350 pages)
By Elaine Weinmann & Peter Lourekas
Peachpit Press
ISBN 1-201-35352-0

Photoshop 5.5 for Windows & Macintosh
($19.99, 412 pages)
By Elaine Weinmann & Peter Lourekas
Peachpit Press
ISBN 1-201-69957-5

Classroom in a Book
($45.00, 443 pages with CD)
Adobe Systems official training series
Adobe Press
ISBN 1-56830-466-8

Teach Yourself Photoshop 5 in 24 Hours
($19.99, 434 pages)
By Carla Rose
SAMS
ISBN 0-672-31301-4