Murach’s HTML and CSS (5th Edition)

To present the essential HTML and CSS skills in a manageable progression and at the right pace, this book is divided into 4 sections.

Section 1: The essential concepts and skills

In the 8 chapters of this section, your students will learn how to use HTML to mark up the content of web pages and CSS to present that content. In fact, by the end of section 1, your students will be able to develop web pages the way today’s best professionals do.

That means they’ll be using HTML semantic elements to mark up the structure of a page. They’ll be using float and the CSS box model right from the beginning. And they’ll be using a professional subset of HTML and CSS that consists of the most-used HTML elements, CSS selectors, and CSS properties.

The last chapter in this section shows your students how to use Responsive Web Design so their pages will work on all screens, from mobile devices to desktop computers. This, of course, is essential today.

From this point on, the sections and chapters are written as independent modules, so you can assign them in whatever sequence you prefer.

Section 2: Page layout and Responsive Web Design

The two chapters in this section show how to use Flexible Box and Grid Layout. These CSS modules let you build responsive page layouts without using floating. And knowing how to use both of them is part of any web development job today.

Section 3: More HTML and CSS skills as you need them

Section 3 expands on section 1 by presenting additional HTML and CSS skills that professional developers use all the time. That includes:

• More on how to work with images, which were introduced in section 1, including icons, rollovers, and image maps
• When and how to use tables, including how to make tables responsive
• How to work with forms and the HTML validation features
• How to add audio and video to web pages by using HTML to work with the players that are built into all modern browsers
• How to use embedded fonts so all browsers will have access to them
• How to use the CSS features for special effects like transitions, animations, transforms, and filters

Section 4: Web design, deployment, and JavaScript

Section 4 consists of three chapters that help you expand your students’ knowledge beyond HTML and CSS:

• Chapter 16 covers users, usability, and today’s best practices for designing a website that’s user-centric.
• Chapter 17 shows not only how to deploy a site on a web server, but also how to get the site indexed on the major search engines.
• Chapter 18 shows how to add JavaScript and jQuery features to web pages...without knowing how to code JavaScript and jQuery. That will answer some of the questions your students are likely to have about the common features that they see on websites, like image swaps and slide shows.

Because of the modular structure of this book, you can assign these chapters any time after section 1.

Most important is a focus on what a web developer needs to know today. As a result, we’ve cut obsolete material, rearranged some topics, and streamlined the book so it’s more manageable for students.

We’ve also printed the book in full color. This is something that instructors have been requesting for the last 10 years, and we agree, it makes many of the skills far easier to grasp right away. We think you’ll find it’s a big help to your students.

Although your students can use any IDE or text editor with our book, the book now shows how to use Visual Studio Code (VS Code). That’s the text editor that has become so popular for all types of program development. And chapter 2 provides a tutorial that shows your students how to use it for HTML and CSS.

Beyond that, every chapter in the book has been improved, enhanced, and upgraded. In short, you’ll find that this book works even better than the previous edition.

Like all of our books, this one has our standard content features, like paired pages, logical organization, real-world examples, modular design, exercises that solidify your students’ skills, and much more. Here, though, are the content features that are specific to this book, to help you teach HTML more effectively.

HTML and CSS are always related

In a modern website, HTML is used to define the structure and content for the site, and CSS is used to format the content. In other words, they always work together, and that’s the way our book teaches them...from the first chapter to the last.

In contrast, some books start by first presenting a complete subset of HTML and then presenting a subset of CSS. But that means that the students don’t see the relationships between HTML and CSS until later in the book. Worse, some books have a section on HTML and a separate section on CSS. That may work okay for reference, but it doesn’t work didactically.

HTML and CSS are presented before web design

Many HTML and CSS books present web design before the students understand how a website is implemented with HTML and CSS. We think that’s a mistake.

As a result, our book first shows how to build pages with HTML and CSS. Then, after the students understand how websites are implemented, they are ready to learn the principles of web design, which can be taught any time after section 1.

Responsive Web Design (RWD) is emphasized

Chapter 8 in this book shows how to build responsive web pages with fluid layout, scalable images, and media queries. It also shows how to use a jQuery plugin called SlickNav to convert the menus for a page to a form that works on mobile devices. Then, chapters 9 and 10 present the two CSS modules for page layout and RWD. As a result, your students learn all the skills that they need for building responsive websites at a professional level.

Accessibility and SEO guidelines are integrated

User accessibility and search engine optimization are presented in chapter 1. After that, guidelines for accessibility and SEO are presented whenever they are relevant. For instance, when the <a> element is presented, the related accessibility and SEO guidelines are presented too.

The continuing application is real-world

Like other books, our book has dozens of examples that show how HTML and CSS are used in a variety of contexts. Beyond that, though, our book presents a real-world application that is progressively enhanced from one chapter to the next. In fact, this application is a simplified version of a site that we developed for a local nonprofit that brings six speakers each year to its Town Hall meetings.

This book is currently used by colleges and universities around the world for a variety of course titles. In general, though, these course titles fall into two categories:

A complete HTML course

If you teach an HTML and CSS course, regardless of whether it’s a one- or two-term course, this book is for you.

It presents all of the HTML and CSS skills at a professional level. It emphasizes Responsive Web Design. It shows how to design and deploy websites and presents some perspective on JavaScript and jQuery. After the first section, it lets you put together any chapters you want in any sequence you want, to fit the course structure.

And even if you aren’t able to cover all of the content, your students will have the book to answer questions and learn new features on their own (yes, many students actually keep our books!).

Web design with HTML and CSS

Because of its modular design, this book also works for an introductory course that puts more emphasis on web design and less on HTML and CSS. In that case, you can teach section 1, select the remaining chapters that you want to include, and skip the other chapters. Then, your students can use the rest of the book in an advanced course or as a reference for their own work.

A text editor

Although your students can use a text editor as simple as Notepad to code HTML and CSS, we think that a text editor that includes syntax coloring, auto-completion, and error-marking will help your students build web pages more quickly and with fewer errors. That in turn means that they will learn faster.

That’s why our book recommends Visual Studio Code as the text editor. This editor was developed by Microsoft; it’s available for free; it can be used for entering HTML and CSS (and JavaScript, too, as well as languages like Python); and it runs on Windows, macOS, and Linux systems.

To make it easy for your students to get going with this editor, the appendix in our book shows how to download and install the software, and chapter 2 gives a tutorial on using it.

Of course, your students can use whichever editor or IDE you want with this book. If you don’t have a favorite, though, VS Code has some excellent features.

The Chrome browser

To run and test web applications, your students should use at least two browsers. Since Edge is always available with Windows and Safari with macOS, your students already have one browser.

Then, for the second browser, your students should install Chrome because it’s the most popular browser and because this book shows how to use its developer tools. That’s why the appendix in this book shows how to download and install Chrome.

If you teach a JavaScript course after your HTML and CSS course, we have two JavaScript books for you to consider. Both are ideal for students without previous programming experience who need detailed explanations, but they also work well for students who already know another language and are ready to move more quickly. Either way, when your students are done with your course, they’ll have the JavaScript skills that are in such demand today.

Murach’s Modern JavaScript

This book helps your students learn JavaScript more easily than ever by presenting the best practices of modern JavaScript. If you don’t need to teach jQuery, we recommend using this book.

Murach’s JavaScript and jQuery (4th Edition)

This book integrates the teaching of JavaScript and jQuery, an influential JavaScript library that has been around since 2006 and is still used extensively in millions of websites. If your course includes coverage of jQuery, this book is an excellent choice.

“The HTML/CSS book was an instant hit. I asked a student to evaluate it for me, and now I cannot get it back!”
- James Gonzalez, Multimedia Studies Instructor, College of Marin

“Needed to learn how to make web pages. Took a class and this was the required textbook. Finished with the class, but I still use this book as reference material. There is so much here and it has helped me a great deal.”
- Posted at an online bookseller

“My students have really enjoyed the HTML book. Murach books are uniquely geared towards two-year colleges; we need books that cut to the chase and hit the ground running. Thanks for providing affordable and quality books.”
- René Bylander, Instructor, IT Web & Software Developer Program, Wisconsin

“Great Book, Relevant & Educational! A+: Used this book for my first semester in Web Design, and it was my go-to for any question I had in my class. This is a great supplement to any other course material, with hands-on labs and solutions to modern coding situations. Would Highly Recommend!”
- Posted at an online bookseller

“Murach's HTML and CSS is the only worthwhile book I have seen in this category.”
- Andrew McConnell, Emeritus Professor

“Rented for an Introductory web design class for a minor, planning on purchasing to keep for reference.”
- Posted at an online bookseller

“I think others should know the value of your HTML book. It has made a great impact on my teaching and my students’ learning.”
- Posted at an online bookseller

“Murach's HTML and CSS is still getting rave reviews from my students.”
- Al Cutting, Professor, Rhode Island