I was recommended this book by a friend a couple of months ago and what can I say, it’s definitely worth a read! The book in a sentence is about the advantages of web standards and how it improves websites.

It looks at how you can use XHTML and CSS to implement a web standard compliant web site and what the advantages of this are.

Obviously the most important question before understanding the advantages web standards can bring to a website is – what are web standards?

‘Developing protocols and guidelines that ensure long-term growth for the Web.’ (Quote from http://www.w3.org/Consortium/)

Dan explains it in a nice way as – ‘I brought a shade yesterday. I measured the window. I went to the store. I pulled a 23- inch shade off the shelf and brought it home. It fitted perfectly.’

The main advantages of web standards explained by Dan are that it will create smaller file sizes and hence faster loading speeds, plus it will provide greater accessibility for users. Further, by following web standards your website will still be readable in the future. Lastly, that when writing CSS and XHTML you can separate content and presentation – a real advantage for web designers and developers. Web standards will become more and more important and will help those sites which are constructed to a valid standard stand out from the rest.

The book looks into a number of key areas such as layouts, styling, images, forms, lists and much much more. It basically covers everything that you need to know and will definitely improve your coding. The great thing about the book is that it runs you through the different ways the code can be written to create the desired effect and then explains why the web standards solution is the best way in a nice quick summary. The other thing that is great about the book is that it is easy to read making it quick and easy to follow the process of coding different parts of a website. Whatever your current web development ability this book is definitely worth a read.

As the quote below shows, Dan knows exactly how and why web standards coding is important and explains it extremely well in this book which will help with any coding that you may undertake.

‘Dan Cederholm is no standards zealot. He’s a guy on the front line who knows that web standards save both time and money. This is a real solutions-oriented guide to using standards based techniques in your daily work, written by someone who does exactly that. You cant lose!’ – Drew McLellan, The Web Standards Project.

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