UpDate - Vol. 15, No. 4, Page TT-6
September 21, 1995
TechTalk
Unleash the power of the Web

The World Wide Web Unleashed
John December, Neil Randall, et al.
SAMS Publishing, 1994

Teach Yourself Web Publishing with HTML in a Week and
Teach Yourself More Web Publishing with HTML in a Week
Laura Lemay
SAMS Publishing, 1994 and 1995

     If you're ready to merge onto the information highway, but you
don't want to make a wrong turn and get lost in cyberspace, John
December and Neil Randall offer their services as your tour guides. In
The World Wide Web Unleashed (target audience: all users), they take
you all the way from the concept of the Web to considerations about
the Web's future. In between, there are basic introductions to the
Internet and multimedia and how it all fits together in the Web.
     When you're ready to start out, December and Randall provide you
with the skills you need to navigate the Web successfully. You'll be
able to find the resources, people, information and other computers
you're searching for. When you've mastered the basic navigational
skills, you'll be ready to "cruise the Web" and to find new resources
in out-of-the-way locations.
     After you're on the highway, you'll be given lots of help with
exploring what's available in business and commerce; entertainment and
the arts; education, scholarship and research; science and technology;
communication, publishing and information; and government and
community-based organizations.
     If you want to continue your journey, The World Wide Web
Unleashed, outlines steps for weaving your own Web. It touches on the
language you use to prepare information for the Web-Hypertext Markup
Language (HTML). Beyond that are directions for designing your Web so
as to present information in a useful way. A series of appendixes
lists Internet access providers, a Web reference for further
information and a directory of Web sites.
     Once you're comfortable using the Web to travel the information
highway, you may want to create your own Web pages using HTML. You can
learn HTML with Laura Lemay's Teach Yourself Web Publishing with HTML
in a Week (target audience: new to accomplished users). Lemay
structures her book so that you can finish it in seven days by working
through two chapters a day.
     Lemay's book gives you hands-on experience writing HTML documents
and linking them to each other and to other documents anywhere in the
world. You'll learn how to add multimedia elements to your documents,
including images, sound and video. You'll also learn to create forms
that people can fill out and return to you electronically as well as
image maps that people can click to find information.
     Lemay also devotes a chapter to HTML editors and converters, both
of which can make writing HTML documents an easier task. Editors work
by allowing you to select tags for specific text and by placing those
tags around the text. Converters allow you to take text prepared in a
package like Microsoft Word or WordPerfect and convert the text
directly to HTML.
     If you have a second week to devote to HTML, Lemay's newest book,
Teach Yourself More Web Publishing with HTML in a Week (target
audience: casual to expert users), offers techniques for designing and
creating professional-looking Web pages. You'll find out how to
produce tables and forms. Lemay introduces HTML 3.0, the latest
version of Hypertext Markup Language that allows much more flexibility
in designing Web documents. She also shows how to include elements
that are specific to the Netscape browser.
     Teach Yourself More Web Publishing with HTML in a Week contains
more information about using images, sound and video in your Web
documents, including basic directions for creating such files and
pointers to further information. A concluding chapter speculates about
the direction the Web will take, mentioning additional browsers that
are under development and the Virtual Reality Modeling Language (VRML)
that will bring 3-D worlds to the Web.
     These books-as well as others on the same topics-are available to
borrow from the Reference Library in 014 Smith Hall. Hours are 8
a.m.-noon and 1-4:30 p.m., Mondays-Fridays.