Peachpit Press has a new series called Visual QuickProject. Creating a Web Page with HTML by Elizabeth Castro is the first of the series I’ve seen. If the books are all this good, Peachpit Press has another hit series going.
This book, including all the appendices, is only 125 pages long. It is just two chapters in length, with full-color visuals that do a lot of the work of getting the message across. It would be an excellent book for a short class in a situation such as continuing education or a summer seminar or a training session of brief duration. While it is pared down to the minimum, it is also surprisingly complete, with good use of CSS and clever ways to pack in essential information. It even shows readers how to use basic image editing techniques and how to FTP. Quite an accomplishment in 125 pages.
The Project in this Visual QuickProject is to make two complete web pages with stylesheets linked to each one. Readers end up with two layouts that could be expanded and adapted for further use, and a good idea of what HTML and CSS are all about. If you are looking for something effective for a short class, this might be exactly the book for you.