CSS Web Site Design Hands on Training by Eric A. Meyer My rating: 3 of 5 stars An elementary, step-by-step illustrated guide by CSS master Eric Meyer. The book's a good introduction to CSS, but it only covers the basics; it uses a simple, 2-column site for demonstrations, and doesn't provide any advanced CSS techniques. […]
These are my favorite audio podcasts covering web design and related topics such as web development, usability, and freelancing. Maybe some day I'll write a review for each one, but for now, I just pasted the description from each podcast's site or iTunes page. I've listed them roughly in the order I like them. For […]
Starting Your Career as a Freelance Web Designer by Neil TortorellaMy rating: 5 of 5 stars I’m starting to freelance as a part-time web designer, so this book was exactly what I needed. It addresses all areas of freelance web design, including the design process, rates and billing, contracts, insurance, client relations, and marketing. Tortorella […]
Note: The Freelance Jam podcast has been discontinued. This week I discovered Freelance Jam, a podcast for web freelancers. The iTunes description is "Freelance Jam is the show for independent professionals who build the web. Hosted by Brian Casel (@casjam) and Dave Yankowiak (@daveyank) with guests from across the web industry. Topics include freelance business, […]
HTML, XHTML & CSS For Dummies by Ed Tittel My rating: 2 of 5 stars I can’t recommend this book; there are several that do are better for introductory HTML and CSS. It’s quite broad, covering many Web technologies, but it’s not very deep. It focuses on HTML and CSS, but also touches on scripting […]
Sams Teach Yourself HTML and CSS in 24 Hours by Julie C. Meloni My rating: 3 of 5 stars This is a decent introduction to HTML and CSS. Its main advantages over other books of this type are the full color examples and syntax-highlighted code snippets. The explanations and examples are simple and easily understood. […]
WordPress All-in-One For Dummies by Lisa Sabin-Wilson, Cory Miller, Kevin Palmer, Andrea Rennick, Michael Torbert My rating: 4 of 5 stars This is the broadest, most comprehensive WordPress book I’ve read so far. It covers more than WordPress for Dummies, because it deals with everything from administration to design to development. I skimmed the first […]
Note: IDrive for WordPress is no longer available. Use ManageWP, Solid Backups, or another solution. I have a new WordPress backup plugin recommendation: IDrive for WordPress. I previously recommended the Backupify plugin, but my backups have been failing, and Backupify told me its plugin is no longer supported. I've used IDrive for backing up PCs […]
Sams Teach Yourself HTML5 in 10 Minutes (5th Edition) by Steven Holzner My rating: 2 of 5 stars This short book contains 10 brief lessons covering some of what's new in HTML5: drawing with the canvas element, dragging and dropping, form controls, video and audio, and storage. Each lesson introduces elements and their attributes, briefly […]
WordPress Bible by Aaron Brazell My rating: 4 of 5 stars This is a comprehensive WordPress book; topics include getting started, plugin development, theme development, content management, and maintenance. I’m a web designer who creates WordPress sites for small businesses, so I focused on SEO, plugin recommendations, and theme development, and skimmed plugin development. My […]
I thought my post 9 best WordPress podcasts for WordPress tips, reviews, news included all the active WordPress podcasts, but Dustin R. Hartzler left a comment recommending his podcast, Your Website Engineer. I've listened to several of the recent episodes, and so far I'm impressed! There've been 31 episodes since it started in December 2010. Give […]
Sexy Web Design: Creating Interfaces that Work by Elliott Jay Stocks My rating: 2 of 5 stars A simple introduction to the principles of presentational, front-end web design. It’s a very easy, visual read, full of colorful examples. It covers several specific techniques, but it’s more inspirational than a reference book. I was hoping for […]
