HTML & XHTML: The Definitive Guide (Definitive Guides) [Paperback]

HTML is a familiar FLA (four letter acronym) but what about XHTML? Is it merely a typographical error or simply XML by another name? The readable preface to this book puts us right and there is more detail in Chapter 1 which is also an interesting potted history of the web and web technologies.

HTML (Hypertext Markup Language) is for controlling layout and specifying hypertext links for documents viewed with a browser. The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) controls its standardisation. XML (Extensible Markup Language), also defined by the W3C, is a standard that allows structured data to be presented in a standard way that it can be understood by many different technologies, for example, relational database engines and web browsers. Use of XML for the exchange of data between businesses on the Internet is increasing rapidly. Now, finally, comes XHTML (Extensible Hypertext Markup Language), which is HTML reformulated to bring it into line with the XML standard.

The authors try to instil good habits and style considerations, as well as an appreciation of kumquats (a recurrent theme in the examples). They revile use of the blink tag extension that causes text to oscillate between two colour states and blink, constantly, irritatingly and advocate visiting a wide range of Web sites to learn what works and what doesn't.

The comprehensive coverage of the topic is divided into chapters like Text Basics, Formatted Lists, Forms, Frames and Executable Content. HTML & XHTML: The Definitive Guide is a feature-driven guide to what the languages can do rather than a guide to producing a finished item, but it should help a beginner to make good progress nevertheless, and is written in an approachable style. --Mark Whitehorn

'... a well priced and written, comprehnensive HTML and XHTML guide which continues to be useful as a language reference' Rating 9/10 Linux Format, December 2000 'If you want the very best reference manual to HTML and its latest developments ... this is it. I guarantee that no matter which other web page design books you might have on your shelves, this is the one to which you will keep coming back ... again and again.... www.mantex.co.uk

A library that circulates this book may soon find itself
charging a lost item fee, because it can become an
indispensable reference in a short period of time.

In-depth descriptions of the behavior of every HTML tag on every major browser and platform, plus enough dry humour to make the book a pleasure to read.

Those of us with the need for a good reference book certainly appreciate this one.

When they say "definitive" they're not kidding. Definitive is defined as "clearly defined or formulated" and that's just what this is.

The indispensable reference for JavaScript programmers since 1996, JavaScript: The Definitive Guide, Fifth Edition is completely revised and expanded to cover JavaScript as it is used in today's Web 2.0 applications. --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.

Chapter 11 - Frames
In this chapter:
An Overview of Frames
Frame Tags
Frame Layout
Frame Contents
The Tag
Inline Frames
Named Frame or Window Targets
Beginning with Netscape Navigator 2.0, HTML authors have been able to divide the browser's main display window into independent window frames, each simultaneously displaying a different document--something like a wall of monitors in a TV control room. Instantly popular, frames were adopted (and extended) by Microsoft for Internet Explorer and are standard features for HTML 4 and XHTML.
An Overview of Frames
Figure 11-1 is a simple example of a frame display. It shows how the document window may be divided into columns and rows of individual frames separated by rules and scroll bars. Although it is not immediately apparent in the example, each frame in the window is displaying an independent document. We use different HTML documents in the example, but the individual documents may contain any valid content the browser is capable of displaying, including XHTML documents and multimedia. If the frame's contents include a hyperlink that the user selects, the new document's contents--even another frame document--may replace that same frame, another frame's content, or the entire browser window.
Frames are enabled with a special frame document. Its contents do not get displayed. Rather, the frame document contains extension tags that tell the browser how to divide its main display window into discrete frames and what documents go inside the frames.
The individual documents referenced and displayed in the frame document window act independently, to a degree; the frame document controls the entire window. You can, however, direct one frame's document to load new content into another frame. That's done by attaching a name to a frame and targeting the named frame with a special attribute for the hyperlink tag.
Frame Tags
You need to know only three tags to create a frame document: , , and . In addition, the HTML 4 and XHTML standards provide the tag, which you may use to create inline, or floating, frames.
A frameset is simply the collection of frames that make up a browser's window. Column- and row-definition attributes for the tag let you define the number and initial sizes for the columns and rows of frames. The tag defines which document--HTML or otherwise--initially goes into the frames within those framesets and is where you may give the frame a name to use for document hypertext links.
Here is the HTML source that was used to generate Figure 11-1:
Frames Layout

Sorry, this document can be viewed only with a

frames-capable browser.

Take this link

to the first HTML document in the set.

Notice a few things in the simple frame example and its rendered image (Figure 11-1). First, the order in which the browser fills the frames in a frameset goes across each row. Second, Frame 4 sports a scrollbar because we told it to, even though the contents may otherwise fit without scrolling. (Scrollbars automatically appear if the contents overflow the frame's dimensions, unless explicitly disabled with the scrolling attribute in the tag.) See
Another item of interest is the name attribute in one of the frame tags. Once named, you can reference a particular frame as the location in which to display a hypertext-linked document. To do that, you add a special target attribute to the anchor () tag of the source hypertext link. For instance, to link a document called new.html for display in Frame 3, which we've named "fill_me", the anchor looks like this:
If the user chooses the link, say in Frame 1, the new.html document will replace the original frame3.html contents in Frame 3. See target attribute
Finally, although Netscape and Internet Explorer both support frames, it is possible that users with some other browser will try and view your frame documents. That's why each of your key frame documents should provide a back door to your document collection with the tag. Frame-capable browsers display your frames; non-frame-capable browsers display the alternative content.
What's in a Frame?
Anyone who has opened more than one window on their desktop display to compare contents or operate interrelated applications knows instinctively the power of frames.
One simple use for frames is to put content that is common in a collection, such as copyright notices, introductory material, and navigational aids, into one frame, with all other document content in an adjacent frame. As the user visits new pages, each loads into the scrolling frame, while the fixed-frame content persists.
A richer frame document-enabled environment provides navigational tools for your document collections. For instance, assign one frame to hold a table of contents and various searching tools for the collection. Have another frame hold the user-selected document contents. As users visit your pages in the content frame, they never lose sight of the navigational aids in the other frame.
Another beneficial use of frame documents is to compare a returned form with its original for verification of the content by the submitting user. By placing the form in one frame and its submitted result in another, you let the user quickly verify that the result corresponds to the data entered in the form. If the results are incorrect, the form is readily available to be filled out again.
Frame Layout
Frame layout is similar to table layout. Using the tag, you can arrange frames into rows and columns while defining their relative or absolute sizes.
The Tag
The tag lets you define a collection of frames and control their spacing and borders. Use the tag to define a collection of frames and other framesets. Framesets also may be nested, allowing for a richer set of layout capabilities.