creating web sites bible 2nd edition

www.it-ebooks.info P1: FMK WY040-FM WY040/Crowder WY040-Crowder.cls September 24, 2004 10:48 Creating Web Sites Bible Second Edition i www.it-ebooks.info P1: FMK WY040-FM WY040/Crowder WY040-Crowder.cls September 24, 2004 10:48 ii www.it-ebooks.info P1: FMK WY040-FM WY040/Crowder WY040-Crowder.cls September 24, 2004 10:48 Creating Web Sites Bible Second Edition David A. Crowder and Andrew Bailey Wiley Publishing, Inc. iii www.it-ebooks.info P1: FMK WY040-FM WY040/Crowder WY040-Crowder.cls September 24, 2004 10:48 Creating Web Sites Bible Published by Wiley Publishing, Inc. 10475 Crosspoint Boulevard Indianapolis, IN 46256 www.wiley.com Copyright c  2004 by Wiley Publishing, Inc., Indianapolis, Indiana Published by Wiley Publishing, Inc., Indianapolis, Indiana Published simultaneously in Canada Manufactured in the United States of America 10987654321 XX/XX/XX/XX/XX No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, scanning or otherwise, except as permitted under Sections 107 or 108 of the 1976 United States Copyright Act, without either the prior written permission of the Publisher, or authorization through payment of the appropriate per-copy fee to the Copyright Clearance Center, 222 Rosewood Drive, Danvers, MA 01923, (978) 750-8400, fax (978) 646-8700. Requests to the Publisher for permission should be addressed to the Legal Department, Wiley Publishing, Inc., 10475 Crosspoint Blvd., Indianapolis, IN 46256, (317) 572-3447, fax (317) 572-4355, E-Mail: brandreview@wiley.com LIMIT OF LIABILITY/DISCLAIMER OF WARRANTY: THE PUBLISHER AND THE AUTHOR MAKE NO REPRESENTATIONS OR WARRANTIES WITH RESPECT TO THE ACCURACY OR COMPLETE- NESS OF THE CONTENTS OF THIS WORK AND SPECIFICALLY DISCLAIM ALL WARRANTIES, INCLUDING WITHOUT LIMITATION WARRANTIES OF FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. NO WARRANTY MAY BE CREATED OR EXTENDED BY SALES OR PROMOTIONAL MATERIALS. THE ADVICE AND STRATEGIES CONTAINED HEREIN MAY NOT BE SUITABLE FOR EVERY SIT- UATION. THIS WORK IS SOLD WITH THE UNDERSTANDING THAT THE PUBLISHER IS NOT ENGAGED IN RENDERING LEGAL, ACCOUNTING, OR OTHER PROFESSIONAL SERVICES. IF PROFESSIONAL ASSISTANCE IS REQUIRED, THE SERVICES OF A COMPETENT PROFESSIONAL PERSON SHOULD BE SOUGHT. NEITHER THE PUBLISHER NOR THE AUTHOR SHALL BE LI- ABLE FOR DAMAGES ARISING HEREFROM. THE FACT THAT AN ORGANIZATION OR WEBSITE IS REFERRED TO IN THIS WORK AS A CITATION AND/OR A POTENTIAL SOURCE OF FURTHER INFORMATION DOES NOT MEAN THAT THE AUTHOR OR THE PUBLISHER ENDORSES THE INFORMATION THE ORGANIZATION OR WEBSITE MAY PROVIDE OR RECOMMENDATIONS IT MAY MAKE. FURTHER, READERS SHOULD BE AWARE THAT INTERNET WEBSITES LISTED IN THIS WORK MAY HAVE CHANGED OR DISAPPEARED BETWEEN WHEN THIS WORK WAS WRITTEN AND WHEN IT IS READ. For general information on our other products and services or to obtain technical support, please contact our Customer Care Department within the U.S. at (800) 762-2974, outside the U.S. at (317) 572-3993 or fax (317) 572-4002. Wiley also publishes its books in a variety of electronic formats. Some content that appears in print may not be available in electronic books. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Crowder, David. Creating Web Sites Bible/David A. Crowder and Andrew Bailey. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 0-7645-7498-1 (pbk.) 1. Web site development. 2. Web sites–Design. I. Bailey, Andrew 1968– II. Title. TK5105.8888.C76 2004 006.7–dc22 2004017335 Trademarks: Wiley, the Wiley logo, and related trade dress are trademarks or registered trademarks of John Wiley & Sons, Inc. and/or its affiliates, in the United States and other countries, and may not be used without written permission. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners. Wiley Publishing, Inc., is not associated with any product or vendor mentioned in this book. iv eISBN: 0-7645-7944-4 www.it-ebooks.info P1: FMK WY040-FM WY040/Crowder WY040-Crowder.cls September 24, 2004 10:48 About the Authors David A. Crowder has authored or coauthored more than 20 books, including popular bestsellers such as Building a Web Site For Dummies and Cliffs Notes Getting on the Internet. He was selling hypertext systems back in the days when you had to explain to people what the word meant. He has been involved in the online community since its inception and is the recipient of several awards for his work, including the NetGuide Magazine Gold Site Award. When he is not writing, he spends his time with his wife Angela, wandering through villages in the Andes or frolicking in the Caribbean surf. Andrew Bailey was born in England where he studied Natural Sciences at Cambridge University. He worked for Cray Research as a systems analyst from 1989 to 1992. Then he moved to Colombia, South America. At the present moment he is the Head of Investigation in Computer Sciences at the San Buenaventura University in Medell´ın where he also teaches Distributed Computing and the Design of Web Applications. He owns HazloRealidad.com, a company dedicated to the design and hosting of Web sites and the development of custom-built software based on open standards and freely licensed or open source software. HazloRealidad is Spanish for “make it real,” which, according to Andrew, “refers to making your dreams come true, well at least the ones related to software”. To contact him send an email to andybailey@ hazlorealidad.com. About the Contributors Bud Smith is a Web consultant, teacher, and writer who learned his trade in Silicon Valley and is now living in London, England. He has written more than a dozen books on Web site design and other computing topics, with one best seller placing among the Top 10 computer books in annual sales recently. Among his other work, Bud teaches online classes on Web design, reviewing his students’ Web sites as they progress. Doug Sahlin is an author, graphic designer, and Web site designer living in Lakeland, Florida. He is the author of 14 books on image editing, Web design, and office applications. His best-selling book ranked as high as 22nd on Amazon’s Top 50 Computer Books list. The author uses multiple applications to design Web sites that feature animation, video, and images. v www.it-ebooks.info P1: FMK WY040-FM WY040/Crowder WY040-Crowder.cls September 24, 2004 10:48 Credits Executive Editor Chris Webb Production Editor Felicia Robinson Development Editor Sharon Nash Copy Editor Michael Koch Editorial Manager Kathryn Malm Vice President & Executive Group Publisher Richard Swadley Vice President and Publisher Joseph B. Wikert Executive Editorial Director Mary Bednarek Proofreading and Indexing TECHBOOKS Production Services vi www.it-ebooks.info P1: FMK WY040-FM WY040/Crowder WY040-Crowder.cls September 24, 2004 10:48 For my parents, with love and gratitude. vii www.it-ebooks.info P1: FMK WY040-FM WY040/Crowder WY040-Crowder.cls September 24, 2004 10:48 viii www.it-ebooks.info P1: FMK WY040-FM WY040/Crowder WY040-Crowder.cls September 24, 2004 10:48 Contents at a Glance Preface ix Acknowledgments xiii Part I: The Basics of Building Web Pages and Sites 1 Chapter 1: Planning Your Web Pages 3 Chapter 2: Promoting Your Site 17 Chapter 3: Basic HTML Building Blocks 37 Chapter 4: Organizing Your Site 65 Chapter 5: Putting It on the Web 79 Part II: Enhancing Web Pages with Fonts, Images, and Color 109 Chapter 6: Getting Fancy with Text 111 Chapter 7: Finding Images 137 Chapter 8: Blending Images into Your Pages 145 Chapter 9: Creating and Enhancing Images 173 Chapter 10: Adding Color Throughout Your Site 195 Part III: Designing Web Layouts 209 Chapter 11: Harnessing the Power of Tables 211 Chapter 12: Organizing Your Site with Frames 241 Chapter 13: Styling Web Pages with Cascading Style Sheets 269 Chapter 14: Positioning Elements with DIVs 315 Part IV: Adding Interactivity With Flash, Forms, and Other Tools 329 Chapter 15: Getting Input with Forms 331 Chapter 16: Making Dynamic Pages with JavaScript. . . 365 Chapter 17: Navigating Your Web Site 407 Chapter 18: Adding Dynamic Page Elements with DHTML. . 429 Chapter 19: Animating with Macromedia Flash 449 Chapter 20: Adding Multimedia and Other Objects 487 Chapter 21: Blogging 507 Part V: Cashing In on E-Commerce . . 527 Chapter 22: Setting Up Your Store 529 Chapter 23: Selling on eBay 549 xv www.it-ebooks.info [...]... 24, 2004 10:48 Preface W elcome to Creating Web Sites Bible This book includes everything you need to know to put up a cutting-edge site on the World Wide Web It covers everything from the basic HTML you have to use all the way on up to the tricks of the trade used by JavaScript programmers and Flash wizards How This Book Is Organized Creating Web Sites Bible consists of 30 chapters divided into... you—and if you aren’t really in it, what’s the point of creating it? Informational sites Sites that are dedicated to providing information on a particular topic are common on the Web If they weren’t, it would be a pretty boring place In fact, most people use the Web primarily to find the answer to some sort of question Many of the informational Web sites are run by public-minded organizations whose goal... including a glossary Part I: The Basics of Building Web Pages and Sites Part I covers planning your site and shows how to use HTML—the Hypertext Markup Language—to create Web pages It then covers how to organize those pages into a coherent Web site and explores your various options in putting that site on the World Wide Web itself Part II: Enhancing Web Pages with Fonts, Images, and Color Part II explores... of Building Web Pages and Sites 1 Chapter 1: Planning Your Web Pages 3 Analyzing Web Site Types 3 Personal home pages .4 Informational sites 4 Organizational sites ... xiv P1: FRU WY040-01 WY040/Crowder WY040-Crowder.cls August 17, 2004 15:2 P The Basics of Building Web Pages and Sites A R T ✦ ✦ I ✦ ✦ In This Part Chapter 1 Planning Your Web Pages Chapter 2 Promoting Your Site Chapter 3 Basic HTML Building Blocks Chapter 4 Organizing Your Site Chapter 5 Putting It on the Web ✦ www.it-ebooks.info 1 ✦ ✦ ✦ P1: FRU WY040-01 WY040/Crowder WY040-Crowder.cls August 17, 2004... To categorize sites, the basic method we use is to try to determine the intent of the Web site If it’s to make money, then it’s a commercial site, no matter what other angles there www.it-ebooks.info 3 Understanding Internet demographics Determining your approach ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ P1: FRU WY040-01 4 WY040/Crowder WY040-Crowder.cls August 17, 2004 15:2 Part I ✦ The Basics of Building Web Pages and Sites are to... introducing individuals to the world Despite the phrase “personal home page,” which has become generically accepted as a description of this type of Web site, some personal sites involve many different Web pages and can be as elaborate as a corporate Web site Generally speaking, the information in them is somewhat limited in scope, appealing mainly to the close friends and immediate family of the person... the boredom Personal Web sites can be a similar experience Some home pages grab you, and others make you wish you had never clicked that link When putting together a personal site, it’s a good idea to open up yourself as much as possible within your comfort level The best personal sites enable you to get to know the people who created them; by the time you’re done browsing these sites, you feel as if... and interesting It wraps up with coverage of where Web technology is heading and what you’ll need to know in the coming years, including XML and XHTML and the latest advances in wireless Web, WAP and WML Part VII: Appendixes The book contains several useful appendixes: “HTML 4.01 Specification,” “XHTML 1.0, Second Edition Specification,” “XML 1.0, Third Edition Specification,” “WML 2.0 Specification,” and... 15:2 www.it-ebooks.info 2 P1: FRU WY040-01 WY040/Crowder WY040-Crowder.cls August 17, 2004 15:2 1 C H A P T E R Planning Your Web Pages ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ In This Chapter Analyzing Web site types I f you have a completely solid, totally clear idea of exactly what you want to do on the Web, you can safely skip this chapter Maybe Are you absolutely certain that you have considered all the details? How does your . Building Web Pages and Sites 1 Chapter 1: Planning Your Web Pages 3 Analyzing Web Site Types 3 Personal home pages 4 Informational sites 4 Organizational sites 6 Political sites 8 Commercial sites. Data Crowder, David. Creating Web Sites Bible/ David A. Crowder and Andrew Bailey. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 0-7645-7498-1 (pbk.) 1. Web site development. 2. Web sites Design www.it-ebooks.info P1: FMK WY040-FM WY040/Crowder WY040-Crowder.cls September 24, 2004 10:48 Creating Web Sites Bible Second Edition i www.it-ebooks.info P1: FMK WY040-FM WY040/Crowder WY040-Crowder.cls September