Website Creation in Plain English Outline

Back to the Main Page

1. Beginning
   1. Prologue
      1. Content
      2. Likely-To-Be-Asked Questions
      3. So You Want To Print These Pages
         1. Page Breaks
         2. Graphic Sizes
         3. Saving Your Settings
   2. Acknowledgements
   3. Table Of Contents
2. (eXtensible) HyperText Markup Language
   1. Introducing (X)HTML
      1. What HTML And XHTML Are
         1. How HTML and XHTML Differ
         2. A Bit Of History
      2. A Few Quick Definitions
      3. Some Advice
   2. The Basics Of Markup
      1. Elements
         1. Tags
            1. The Anatomy of a Tag
               1. The Symbols
               2. The Name
      2. Nesting Elements
         1. Element Ancestry
            1. Root Element
            2. Ancestor Elements
            3. Parent Elements
            4. Sibling Elements
            5. Child Elements and Descendant Elements
      3. Document Type Declarations
         1. XML Declaration
      4. Editing Tools
   3. Your First Webpage
      1. Starting Off
      2. The HTML Doctype
      3. Eight Basic Elements
         1. The (X)HTML Root Element
         2. The Head Element
         3. The Title Element
         4. The Body Element
         5. Four Common Body Elements
            1. Block Elements
               1. The First-Level Header Element
               2. The Paragraph Element.
            2. Inline Elements
               1. The Emphasize Element.
               2. The Strong Element.
      4. Building Your Webpage
      5. Final Notes
         1. Validation
            1. On the Character Encoding Warning
   4. Special Characters
      1. How To Create A Character Reference
      2. Numerical Character References
         1. Decimal
         2. Hexadecimal
         3. Numerical Character References You May Not Use
      3. Character Entity References
         1. Character Entity References Specific To HTML
         2. Character Entity References And XML-Derived Languages
   5. Attributes
      1. Anatomy of an Attribute
      2. Where To Put An Attribute
         1. What To Avoid
      3. Common Attributes
      4. The Core Attributes
         1. The title Attribute
            1. Usage
         2. The class Attribute
            1. Usage
               1. Rules of Class Names.
         3. The style Attribute
            1. Usage
         4. The id Attribute
            1. Usage
               1. Rules of ID Names
                  1. Valid ID Values
                  2. Invalid ID Values And The Reasons
            2. ID Examples
         5. A Final Note on class And id
      5. Language Attributes
         1. The lang Attribute
            1. Usage
         2. The dir Attribute
            1. Usage
               1. Sample Languages
      6. Other Attributes
         1. The xmlns Attribute
   6. Hyperlinks
      1. Hyperlinks And URIs
         1. Absolute URIs.
            1. The Protocol
            2. The Domain
            3. The Path
            4. The File Name
         2. Relative URIs
            1. The Path in a Relative URI
         3. Errata
            1. When to use Absolute or Relative URIs
            2. Telling the difference
            3. URIs And Special Characters
               1. Character References In URIs
               2. Percent-Encoding
      2. Creating A Hyperlink
         1. The a Element
         2. The href Attribute
            1. Usage
      3. Links Off The World Wide Web
         1. Other Protocols
         2. Email Links
      4. Example Hyperlinks
   7. Empty Elements And Semantics
      1. Empty Elements
         1. The Horizontal Rule Element
         2. The Image Element
         3. Why Empty Elements Are Empty
         4. XML And Empty Elements
      2. Semantics
   8. Comments, HTML, Head and its Children, Body
      1. Comments
      2. The (X)HTML Root Element
         1. Required Attributes
         2. Implied Attributes
      3. The Head Element
         1. Implied Attributes
         2. The Metadata Element
            1. Implied Attributes
            2. Required Attributes
            3. Specifying Character Encoding
         3. The Link Element
            1. Implied Attributes
         4. The Base URI Element Element
            1. Required Attributes
         5. The Title Element
            1. Implied Attributes
      4. The Body Element
         1. Implied Attributes
      5. On To The Body Elements
   9. Inline Elements
      1. About The Attributes
         1. Common Attributes
         2. Specialized Attributes
         3. The Text Span Element
      2. The Phrase Elements
         1. The Abbreviation Element
         2. The Acronym Element
         3. The Citation Element
         4. The Code Fragment Element
         5. The Definition Element
         6. The Emphasis Element
         7. The Keyboard Input Element
         8. The Sample Output Element
         9. The Strong Text Element
         10. The Variable Element
      3. The Presentational Elements
         1. Replacing Presentational Elements.
         2. The Bold Element
         3. The Big Text Element
         4. The Italic Element
         5. The Small Text Element
         6. The Teletype Text Element
      4. Specialized Elements
         1. The Anchor Element
            1. Implied Attributes
         2. The Bi-Directional Override Element
            1. Required Attributes
         3. The Line Break Element
            1. Forbidden Attributes
         4. The Button Element
            1. Implied Attributes
         5. The Deleted And Inserted Text Element
            1. Implied Attributes
         6. The Image Element
            1. Required Attributes
            2. Implied Attributes
         7. The Quotation Element
            1. Implied Attributes
         8. The Subscript Element
         9. The Superscript Element
   10. Common Block Elements
       1. The Paragraph Element
       2. The Address Element
       3. The Header Elements
       4. The Horizontal Rule Element
       5. The Preformatted Text Element
       6. The Division Element
       7. The Block Quote Element
          1. Implied Attributes
       8. The Deleted and Inserted
          Text Elements
          1. As Inline Elements
          2. As Block Elements
       9. On More Block Elements
   11. Lists
       1. Item Lists
          1. The List Item Element
          2. The Unordered List Element
             1. Example Unordered List
          3. The Ordered List Element
             1. Example Ordered List
       2. Definition Lists
          1. Definition List Element
          2. Definition Term Element
          3. Definition Description Element
          4. Example Definition List
       3. Lists and Links
          1. Unordered Lists
             1. A Sample Navigation List
          2. Ordered Lists
             1. A Sample Navigation List Using an Ordered List
          3. Definition Lists
             1. A Sample Link List Using an Definition List
       4. Lists within lists
   12. Image Maps
       1. Image Map Elements
          1. The Image Map Element
             1. Required Attributes:
          2. The Map Area Element
             1. Required Attributes:
             2. Implied Attributes:
          3. Modifying The Image Element
       2. Image Map Example
       3. Image Map Drawbacks
          1. If The Image Doesn't Appear
       4. Server Side Image Maps
   13. (X)HTML Objects
       1. Object Elements
          1. The Object Element
             1. Implied Attributes
             2. Where Object Elements Go
          2. The Object Parameter Element
             1. Required Attributes
             2. Implied Attributes
             3. Forbidden Attributes
       2. Demonstrating Objects
          1. Embedding a Webpage
          2. Embedding SVG Images
          3. Embedding Flash Animations
       3. Other Media
   14. Tables
       1. Simple Tables
          1. Table Elements
             1. The Table Element
                1. Implied Attributes
             2. The Table Caption Element
             3. The Table Row Element
             4. The Table Header Cell and Table Data Cell Elements
                1. Implied Attributes
          2. An Example Table
       2. Complex Tables
          1. Table Section Elements
             1. The Table Header Element
             2. The Table Footer Element
             3. The Table Body Element
          2. Table Columns
             1. The Column Element
                1. Implied Attributes
             2. The Column Group Element
                1. Implied Attributes
             3. Usage Of colgroup And col Elements
          3. An Example Complex Table
   15. More Than (X)HTML
       1. Presentation
       2. Behavior
3. Cascading Style Sheets
   1. Introduction to CSS
      1. Why Use CSS?
         1. Before CSS: Presentational Markup
            1. Code Bloat
            2. Accessibility Problems
            3. Redesigning With Presentational Markup
            4. Print-Friendly Pages
         2. The Advantages Of CSS
            1. Lack of Code Bloat
            2. Greater Accessibility
            3. Redesigning With CSS
            4. Print-Friendly Style Sheets and Other Media
      2. Who Supports CSS?
      3. A Note On Demonstrated Code
   2. Syntax Of And Using CSS
      1. Syntax of CSS
         1. Adding CSS Comments
      2. Adding Style Sheets
         1. Internal Style Sheets And The Style Element
            1. Required Attributes
            2. Implied Attributes
            3. Forbidden Attributes
            4. The style Element In XHTML
         2. External Style Sheets
            1. Linking To An External Style Sheet
         3. Setting The Default Style Language
      3. Arranging A Style Sheet
   3. CSS Selectors
      1. Basic Selectors
         1. Type Selectors
         2. Class Selectors
         3. Identity Selectors
      2. Other Selectors
         1. The Universal Selector
         2. Attribute Selectors
            1. Selecting By Attribute Presence
            2. Selecting By Attribute Value
               1. Variations
         3. Pseudo-Classes
            1. Hyperlink Pseudo-Classes
            2. Dynamic Pseudo-Classes
            3. The Child Pseudoclasses
               1. The N^th-Child Pseudo-Classes
            4. :lang()
            5. :not()
         4. Pseudo-Elements
            1. :first-line and :first-letter
      3. Compound Selectors
      4. Selecting According To Nesting
         1. Ancestor/Descendant
            1. Parent/Child
         2. By Preceding Sibling
         3. Mixing The Above
         4. Other Examples
         5. Tables And Nesting
      5. Multiple Selectors
      6. Final Notes
   4. CSS Value Types
      1. Colours
         1. The named colours
         2. Red, Green, And Blue: The Primary Colours of Light
            1. Hexadecimal Notation
               1. Compact Hexadecimal
            2. RGB Notation
         3. HSL Notation
         4. Colour Transparency
      2. On URIs
      3. Length
         1. Absolute Lengths
         2. Relative Lengths
         3. Degrees
      4. Inheritance And The inherit Property
      5. A Quick Note on Default Values
   5. Font And Text
      1. Font Properties
         1. The Font
            1. Generic Fonts
            2. Specific Fonts
         2. Style
         3. Variant
         4. Weight
         5. Size
            1. Absolute Font Sizes
            2. Relative Font Sizes
            3. Font Sizes By Length
            4. Font Sizes By Percentage
         6. The Collective Font Property
            1. Using The font Declaration
      2. Text Properties
         1. Indentation
         2. Alignment
         3. Underline, Overline, Strike-through, and Blink
         4. Capitalization
      3. Other Properties For Text
         1. Colour
         2. Line Spacing
            1. As A Number
            2. As A Length
            3. As A Percentage
         3. Letter and Word Spacing
   6. Borders, Padding, And Margins: The CSS Box Model
      1. Short-hand Expressions
      2. The Border
         1. Border Width
         2. Border Colours
         3. Border Style
         4. Shorthand Border Notation
      3. The Padding
      4. The Margin
   7. CSS Backgrounds
      1. Background Colour
      2. Background Images
         1. The Background Image
         2. How The Background Is Repeated
         3. Background Image Position
            1. Keywords
            2. Numerically
               1. Percentage
               2. Length
            3. Example Page With Centered Background
         4. Background Image Behavior
      3. Background Shorthand
      4. Image Rollover Effect
   8. CSS For Lists
      1. List Style Type
         1. Unordered List Style Types
         2. Ordered List Style Types
            1. Limitations Of Numbered Lists
      2. List Style Position
      3. List Style Image
      4. List Style Shorthand
   9. CSS-Generated Content
      1. Text
         1. Special Characters in CSS
            1. Issues With CSS NCRs
         2. Concatenation
         3. Text From Attributes
      2. Counters
         1. (Re)Setting a Counter
            1. Not Resetting A Counter
         2. Making a Counter Count
         3. Putting a Counter To Work
         4. Counter Number Style
      3. Quotation Marks
      4. Images
      5. Pseudoelements In This Manual
         1. Chapter And Appendix Reference Links
         2. Headers, Examples, Images, And Tables
   10. Arranging the Page
       1. Element Display
       2. Height and Width
          1. Content Overflow
       3. Position
          1. position:absolute;
          2. position:fixed;
          3. position:relative;
       4. Float
          1. Clear
       5. Making It All Work
          1. How I Styled The Initial Letter Of This Chapter
          2. A Specially-Styled Menu
   11. CSS For Printing
       1. Page Selectors
          1. Page Psuedo-Classes
       2. Page Breaks
          1. Breaking Before or After An Element
          2. Breaking Inside An Element
             1. Widows and Orphans
   12. CSS For Audio Media
       1. The Properties Of Audio CSS
   13. Importing Stylesheets
       1. Syntax Of Importing
       2. Importing Versus Linking
4. JavaScript
   1. Dynamic Behavior And Scripting
      1. What Does Scripting Do?
      2. The Script Element
         1. Required Attributes
         2. Implied Attributes
         3. Forbidden Attributes
         4. The No Script Element
      3. Introducing JavaScript
         1. Comments
         2. Procedures and Objects
            1. Functions And Methods
            2. Objects
         3. Setting The Default Scripting Language
   2. The Document Object Model
      1. DOM Nodes
         1. Node Types
            1. The Document Node
            2. Element Nodes
            3. Attribute Nodes
            4. Text Nodes
               1. Text Nodes And Child Elements
            5. Character Data Section Node
            6. Document Type Node
      2. Accessing Nodes
         1. Accessing The Document Node
         2. Accessing Element Nodes
            1. By ID
            2. By Tag Name
               1. Picking From The List
            3. What Won't Work
         3. Accessing Attribute Nodes
            1. Internet Explorer and Element Class
         4. Accessing Text Nodes
      3. Navigating The Nodes
      4. Manipulating Text Nodes
      5. Cautionary Notes
         1. Script Placement
         2. On Text Nodes
         3. The tbody Element And HTML DOM
   3. Variables
      1. Declaring A Variable
         1. Variable Names
      2. Values
         1. Assigning Nodes
      3. Arrays
         1. Assigning Values To An Array
         2. Arrays Within Arrays
         3. Working With An Array
            1. Arrays Vs. Element Node Lists
         4. The Index of an Array
      4. Changing The Value Of A Variable
      5. Variables and Procedure Calls
   4. Text
      1. Creating Strings
      2. Concatenating Strings
         1. Adding Text To A String
            1. Concatenation Shorthand
      3. String Methods
         1. Substring Methods
            1. split
            2. substr
            3. substring & slice
         2. Case Methods
         3. Search Methods
            1. indexOf, lastIndexOf, & search
            2. match
            3. replace
         4. Strings As Arrays
         5. Converting a value to a string
      4. Special Characters
   5. Regular Expressions
      1. Regular Expression Terms
      2. Creating A Regular Expression
      3. Using Regular Expressions
      4. Checking Against Two Different Patterns
      5. Groups Of Characters
         1. Character Ranges
            1. Ranges and extra characters.
            2. Excluding Characters
      6. Special Characters In Regular Expressions
      7. Subpatterns In Regular Expressions
      8. Repetition In Regular Expressions
      9. Flags In Regular Expressions
   6. Numbers and Math
      1. Basic Mathematics
         1. Math Operators
         2. Math With Variables
            1. Adjusting A Variable's Value
               1. Shorthand
                  1. Incrementing And Decrementing
         3. More Complex Equations
      2. Mathematical Constants
      3. Mathematical Procedures
         1. Standalone Functions
         2. Math Methods
            1. Rounding Methods
               1. Rounding to Something Else
                  1. The toFixed Method
               2. Getting Around A JavaScript Glitch
      4. A Little Trick
   7. Decisions
      1. If Statements
         1. Special Characters
            1. Comparison Operators
         2. Automatically False
         3. Simple If Statements
         4. if/else Statements
            1. If/Else Shorthand
               1. Advantages of Shorthand Statements
               2. Disadvantages of Shorthand Statements
            2. If, Else If, Else
         5. Nested If Statements
         6. If Statements and Strings
         7. Multiple Conditions
            1. The Order Of Subconditions
         8. If Statements And Regexes
         9. The Confirm Dialogue Box
      2. Switch Statements
   8. Loops
      1. Loop Syntax
      2. While Loops
         1. Do-While Loops
         2. Nodes and While Loops
      3. For Loops
         1. For Loops And Arrays
            1. For Loops and Node Lists
         2. For-In Loops
      4. Nesting Loops
      5. Fixing Examples With Loops
   9. Procedures
      1. Where To Put A Procedure
      2. Creating A Procedure
         1. Getting Something Out Of The Procedure
            1. Returning Multiple Values
         2. Procedure Variables
      3. Procedures and Variable Scope
      4. Nesting Procedures
      5. Recursive Procedures
      6. Procedures As Conditions
   10. JavaScript Objects
       1. Object Creation
          1. Directly Creating An Object
             1. Direct Creation Shorthand
          2. Creating An Object Through A Template
          3. Adding Methods
       2. Nesting Objects
       3. Getting Object Info
          1. Objects And Loops
   11. Events
       1. The Events
       2. Assigning An Event
          1. Assigning Through A Loop
          2. Assigning Through An Object Template
   12. JavaScript Styling
       1. JavaScript vs. CSS
       2. Demonstrations
          1. Collapsing Menu
             1. Adding Another Mouse Event
             2. Adding A Special Element
          2. Dropdown Menus
          3. Tabbed Menus
             1. The Illusion of Tabs
   13. (X)HTML Forms
       1. How JavaScript Accomodates Forms
          1. The Name Attribute
          2. The Value
       2. The Form Element
          1. Required Attributes
          2. Implied Attributes
       3. Entering Data
          1. Common Attributes
          2. The Input Element
             1. Input Types
                1. Text and Password Boxes
                   1. Attributes for Text And Password Boxes
                   2. Getting Text From Text And Password Boxes
                2. Checkboxes and Radio Buttons
                   1. Attributes for Checkboxes And Radio Buttons
                   2. Getting A Value From Radio Buttons And Checkboxes
                3. Buttons and Reset Buttons
                4. Others
          3. The Text Area Element
             1. Required Attributes
             2. Implied Attributes
             3. Using A Text Area
          4. Dropdown Menus
             1. The Select Element
                1. Implied Attributes
             2. The Option Element
                1. Implied Attributes
             3. The Option Group Element
                1. Implied Attributes
             4. Using A Dropdown Menu
       4. Labelling And Arranging The Form
          1. The Label Element
             1. Implied Attributes
          2. The Fieldset Element
             1. The Field Legend Element
          3. Example Form
       5. Manipulating Forms
   14. DOM Manipulation
       1. Text and Element Nodes
          1. Creating Nodes
             1. Creating An Element Node
             2. Creating A Text Node
          2. Placing Nodes
             1. Appending Nodes
             2. Inserting Nodes
             3. Generating Any Number Of Nodes
          3. Removing Nodes
          4. Replacing Nodes
          5. Manipulating Tables
       2. Attribute Nodes
          1. Setting Attributes
          2. Removing Attributes
          3. Using This To Your Styling Advantage
       3. JavaScript Hover Effects
          1. Image Rollover Effects With JavaScript
             1. Preloading An Image
          2. Mimicking :hover:after
       4. Other Things You Can Do With The DOM
          1. Document URI
          2. Filtering DOM Nodes
       5. Browser Peculiarities
       6. Creating The First Page With JavaScript
5. More About Website Building
   1. Transitional, Obsolete, and Proprietary HTML
      1. Transitional (X)HTML
         1. Transitional Elements
         2. Transitional Attributes
      2. Obsolete HTML
      3. Proprietary HTML
   2. Frames
      1. The Structure Of A Frames Page
      2. The Elements Of A Frames Page
         1. The Frame Set Element
            1. Implied Attributes
            2. Forbidden Attributes
         2. The Frame Element
            1. Implied Attributes
            2. Forbidden Attributes
            3. Targetting A Frame
         3. The No Frames Element
      3. Using Frames
         1. Nested Framesets
      4. The Inline Frame Element
         1. Implied Attributes
         2. Forbidden Attributes
   3. Coding Shortcuts And Other Things
      1. Coding Shortcuts
         1. Optional Tags
         2. Attribute Shortcuts
      2. HTML Conditionals
      3. The javascript: Pseudoprotocol
   4. XML And HTML5
      1. An Overview of XML
         1. Rules Of XML
         2. XML Processing Instructions
         3. An Example of XML
         4. Combining XML Languages
            1. Combining XML And Validation
            2. Namespaces In CSS
      2. HTML5
   5. Server-Side Scripting
      1. Server-Side Includes
         1. Dynamic Content
      2. Server-Side Programming Languages
   6. Tips And Tricks Of Website Design
      1. Design Tips
         1. Consistency Is Good
         2. Contrast Is Important
         3. Clean Code Isn't Everything
         4. This Book Does Not Teach Everything
      2. Design Tricks
6. Appendices
   1. The Periodic Table of (X)HTML Elements
      1. The Deprecation of (X)HTML Elements
      2. Attributes
      3. The Elements Of HTML 4.01/XHTML 1.0 Strict
      4. Deprecated (X)HTML Elements
         1. Frameset Elements
      5. Obsolete HTML Elements
   2. The First 256 Characters Of UTF-8
      1. The Characters
      2. Control Characters
         1. ASCII Control Codes
         2. ISO-8859-1 Control Codes
   3. Named CSS Colours
   4. Picking Apart The Doctype
      1. Make Your Own Character Entity References
   5. Common Markup Languages
      1. HTML
      2. XML
   6. W3C Document License
   7. Statuses of Relevant W3C Documents
      1. CSS 2.1 Status
      2. HTML 4.01 Status
      3. HTML 5 Status
      4. XHTML 1.0 Status
   8. The Main Stylesheet For This Book
      1. Sheet Outline
      2. Import chapter_numbers.css
      3. HTML Element
      4. Headers
      5. Lists
         1. Item Lists
         2. Definition Lists
      6. Paragraphs
      7. Block Quotes
      8. Tables
      9. Language Classes
      10. Coding
          1. Inline HTML Code
          2. Inline CSS Coding
          3. Inline JavaScript Coding
          4. Code Examples
      11. Graphics
          1. Example Links
      12. References to Chapters and Appendices
      13. General Styles
      14. First Letter
   9. Bibliography
   10. Glossary