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Building Websites All-in-One For Dummies[Kindle Edition]

Book Description

Publication Date:
July 12, 2012

Ten minibooks in one! The perfect reference for beginning web builders

This hefty, 800+ page book is your start-to-finish roadmap for building a web site for personal or professional use. Even if you’re completely new to the process, this book is packed with everything you need to know to build an attractive, usable, and working site. In addition to being a thorough reference on the basics, this updated new edition also covers the very latest trends and tools, such as HTML5, mobile site planning for smartphones and tablets, connecting with social media, and more.

• Packs ten minibooks into one hefty reference: Preparation, Site Design, Site Construction, Web Graphics, Multimedia, Interactive Elements, Form Management, Social Media Integration, Site Management, and Case Studies
• Covers the newest trends and tools, including HTML5, the new Adobe Create Suite, and connecting with social media
• Offers in-depth reviews and case studies of existing sites created for a variety of purposes and audiences, such as blog sites and non-profit sites
• Walks you through essential technologies, including Dreamweaver, HTML, CSS, JavaScript, PHP, and more

Plan, build, and maintain a site that does exactly what you need, with Building Web Sites All-In-One For Dummies, 3rd Edition.

From the Back Cover

Get started planning, designing, building, and launching the most amazing websites

Ready to create your own website, but you’re all tangled up in technical jargon? From the initial planning phases to testing and publishing your masterpiece, this resource will show you how with easy-to-follow steps. You’ll be surprised at how quickly you’ll create interactive pages, design for mobile platforms, integrate social media, and much more.

• Start building — take advantage of HTML5’s radically new approach to structuring content as you create web pages
• Say it with style — discover how to format text and images as well as apply emerging CSS3 tools to create impressive effects
• Make it stand out — learn how to integrate multimedia content into your designs, such as full-motion video or cool slideshows
• Bring it to life — add animation and interactivity to your site by writing simple scripts, using online libraries, or generating JavaScript with Dreamweaver CS6
• Fill this out — collect feedback or build your e-newsletter subscription list by implementing forms that validate the data before submission
• Visitors welcome — explore the methods you can use to promote your site and ensure that it’s found by the search engines

Open the book and find:

• Plans to get started with your website project
• Advice for assembling and managing a web team
• How to create layouts, graphics, navigation, and web pages
• HTML, HTML 5, CSS, and CSS3 tutorials
• Steps for embedding streaming data
• Ways to integrate e-commerce into your site
• Tips for using JavaScript for animation and interactivity
• PHP resources for server-side coding

10 books in 1

• Getting Ready
• Designing the Site
• Building Pages with HTML
• Designing Pages with CSS
• Incorporating Web Graphics and Multimedia
• Creating Interactive Pages with JavaScript®
• Managing Forms with PHP
• Social Media and Interactive Add-Ons
• Deploying and Managing the Site
• Case Studies

About the Author

David Karlins is a web design professional and author who’s written over 50 books and created video training on top web design tools. Doug Sahlin is the coauthor of Social Media Marketing All-in-One For Dummies and author of Digital Landscape & Nature Photography For Dummies.

Product Details

• File Size: 14991 KB
• Print Length: 816 pages
• Publisher: For Dummies; 3 edition (July 12, 2012)
• Sold by: Amazon Digital Services, Inc.
• Language: English
• ASIN: B008LO7Y9C

Customer Reviews

By R.G. Edmonson

I always assumed that ‘for Dummies’ meant for beginners, novices, rookies. This book is for the intermediate level web designer who’s willing to make the software investment to go pro. I stretched the budget to get my domain name and web hosting. The book devotes many pages to the use of Adobe Dreamweaver, Fireworks and Photoshop, and barely mentions using content management systems like the one I get from my host. Those three Adobe products would cost me another $1,000 – and don’t get me wrong, they’re excellent, but I can’t justify the expense. I am a beginner who only want one website that looks good and runs well. If you’re like me, find a different book.

3.0 out of 5 stars

Good for beginner web designers using Adobe products

I give this book 3 stars. The book is good for those starting out with web design and development using Adobe products, Dreamweaver primarily. I used to work with Dreamweaver. It’s an excellent WYSIWYG. However, I wouldn’t recommend this book for those who want to learn how to manually code in HTML, HTML5, CSS, CSS3, PHP, ActionScript, etc. as it just skims the surface of coding in those languages. Twelve years ago I learned Dreamweaver 3 with Dreamweaver 3 Hands-on-Training (2nd Edition), which was more hands-on with projects to do. While it’s good to know Dreamweaver, it’s much better to know how to hand code HTML, CSS, JavaScript, PHP, and so on. This book may be good for designers, just not so much for budding developers who want to learn how to code by hand. I got a refund for my Kindle copy as it wasn’t what I was looking for.

UPDATE: For those who want to learn how to hand code HTML5, CSS3, and basic JavaScript, I highly recommend Learning Web Design: A Beginner’s Guide to HTML, CSS, JavaScript, and Web Graphics. The Kindle version is currently about $10 cheaper; I just don’t know if it has an index or not. However, I refer to the book every now and then and the index is a time saver. Highly recommended!

With that said, it doesn’t go into the AUDIO or VIDEO tags, but there are books and websites which do, so this is just a minor quibble.

5.0 out of 5 stars

It really is all-in-one

Wow – there’s a lot packed into Building Websites All-in-One for Dummies. This book provides a fairly comprehensive survey of the topics important to those creating modern websites. If you’re a novice web designer/developer who’s building a reference library and looking for a book from the For Dummies series to add to your collection, then this is the one. It touches on all aspects of the process, teaching you all the things you may not have known you needed to know. If you’re just looking to put up a simple website and nothing beyond that, then steer clear of this and go find a free theme on Google Sites or WordPress instead (actually, this book even has a chapter about WordPress). But, if you are becoming a serious hobbyist or are looking to start a career in the field, then this book will cover all the bases and introduce (in varying levels of detail) the areas you need to focus on in order to learn to build professional-looking websites from scratch.

Value is also here for the experienced website builder looking to get up to date on HTML5, CSS3, and Adobe CS6 (a little on Photoshop and Fireworks, and a lot on Dreamweaver). Also, those who manage the development of websites or who purchase web design/development services from someone else will benefit from the this book since you will learn the language of those you’re managing. And, if you are looking to incorporate e-commerce or social media into your existing site, you will find useful info here. The experienced web developer who’s mainly worked in the back-end coding aspect of website creation and who’s looking to learn more on the upfront design aspects or what’s involved in launching and maintaining a site will find several informative chapters on those topics as well.

Most topics get fewer than 3 of 4 chapters of coverage, so what this book is not is a detailed reference on any one subject. You won’t become a PHP or Javascript expert after reading the chapters that cover those subjects, but you will gain enough understanding of the topics so you know if you need to purchase a book or take an online course that will give a deeper dive. I think that is what the authors intended, so this is not a negative.

This is all based on what I’ve gleaned from my initial slow scan through the book while reading several chapters and dog-earing pages along the way to mark places I’m anxious to return to. If I have any complaint so far it’s that the companion website for the book is a little lacking. There is a cheatsheet of useful info and links, as well as downloadable code examples, but I guess I’ve gotten spoiled by some other books that have really good companion sites (e.g., HTML and CSS: Design and Build Websites). However, I think this is consistent with other books in the For Dummies series, so this really doesn’t detract from the book.

Once I’ve had more time to fully explore this massive reference, I will return to update this description if my opinion has changed. For now, though, it gets 5 stars from me.

5.0 out of 5 stars

Comprehensive, Clear, and User-Friendly

This outstanding book lives up to its “All-in-One” title, covering every aspect of website building in a single large volume, from planning to deployment to freshening up an “old” site. It’s well organized, making it easy either to skim through what you already know for a quick refresher, or to find in-depth information on new techniques. The comprehensive table of contents is an ideal outline, and it helps to unify the entire volume (that was originally ten separate minibooks). The index at the back is not as comprehensive, but still useful.

The book is clearly written, and it flows smoothly. The authors’ style makes it feel like you have a knowledgeable friend sharing tips, any time you want.

Especially useful are the ideas you hadn’t seen before that can help take sites to the next level. Sometimes these ‘light bulb moments’ come in the form of how to use some previously unknown aspects of common elements, like CSS or JavaScript or PHP. Other times, the inspiration comes in what you can do with the latest techniques, like HTML5 or CSS3 or social media, even before you use them.

It’s lavishly illustrated with screen shots and other graphics, that amplify what the text describes. I especially liked the brief sections, scattered throughout the book, that are highlighted by four types of icons, two of which are Tips (a bullseye arrow) and, what I found most helpful, Warnings (a bomb) of what you should never – ever – do.

The authors honestly lay out the pros and cons for all of the major decisions you’ll confront, at every stage of creating or revising a site. They also sometimes show you how to wring dynamism, and even beauty, out of the compromises you’ll have to make; it’s inspiring.

Although each designer and developer will have your own preferences, here are a few aspects that I found personally useful. The section on Creating Audio and Video Content briefly covers all of the major formats, then explains how to implement them for a site’s specific needs. Also useful were the new details that I found for such tried and true elements as JavaScript, PHP (for Forms), social media (such as a WordPress blog and RSS feed), and e-commerce tools (including PayPal). Also useful were tips on how to maintain, and later redesign an existing site, with minimum pain and for maximum impact. The authors never shy away from showing you how to kick up the coolness factor.

The book ends by detailing, step by step, what you need to do to create four diverse projects: a photographer’s portfolio, an e-commerce site, a blog site, and an online newsletter. The book not only walks you through the steps, it shows how the specific needs of each type of site leads to that specific design. Simple and clear, with just enough room to inspire you to come up with something with a bit more oomph yourself.

The whole book fits together elegantly. There are more technical (OK, geeky) reference works, but this is the one I’d recommend first to anyone beginning to design sites, or for someone who wants a refresher on the main topics (planning, building, expanding a site), or who wants to see how to use what’s cutting edge like HTML5. In this genuinely user-friendly book, you’ll find all of the basic website building tools you’ll need, and some of the more advanced ones too; the rest – creating original websites: the fun part – is up to you

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