HTML and CSS (6th Edition)

To present the essential HTML and CSS skills in a manageable progression and at the right pace, this book is divided into 3 sections.

Section 1: Get started fast

To get you started right, the eight chapters in this section are a crash course in using HTML and CSS to develop web pages at a professional level. By the end of this section, your students will be able to develop web pages using the same coding techniques used by today’s top professionals.

That means they’ll be using semantic HTML elements to define the structure of a page. They’ll be using the CSS box model and flexbox layout 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 media queries to implement a responsive web design. That way, their web pages will work on devices with screens of all sizes, from mobile devices to desktop computers. This is an essential skill for today’s web developers.

After section 1, the sections and chapters are independent modules. As a result, you can assign them in whatever sequence you prefer.

Section 2: More HTML and CSS skills as you need them

Section 2 expands on section 1 by presenting additional HTML and CSS skills that professional developers use every day. That includes:

• More skills for working with lists and links
• More skills for working with images, icons, fonts, and colors
• How to use embedded fonts so all browsers will have access to them
• When and how to use tables, including how to make tables responsive
• How to work with forms and built-in HTML validation
• How to add audio and video to web pages
• How to use grid layout to create complex page layouts that are difficult to achieve with flexbox layout
• How to use CSS for transitions, transforms, filters, and animation
• How to control CSS specificity

Section 3: Web design and deployment

Section 3 consists of two chapters that help you expand your students’ knowledge beyond HTML and CSS. That includes:

• Today’s best practices for designing a user-centric website
• How to use GitHub to deploy a site on a web server that’s running in the cloud
• How to get a site indexed by the major search engines

When we updated this edition, we focused on what a web developer needs to know today. As a result, we cut obsolete material, rearranged some topics, and streamlined the book so it’s more manageable for your students.

• We streamlined chapters 1 and 2 to help your students get started more quickly.
• We modified chapter 6 so it shows how to use flexbox (not floats) for page layout. This is a better and more modern coding practice.
• We modified chapter 7 so it shows how to use CSS (not jQuery) to display navigation menus. This is a better and more modern coding practice.
• In chapter 8, we added coverage of container queries, one of the most important new features of CSS.
• We modified the website that’s presented throughout the book to use mobile-first design instead of desktop-first design since that’s a best practice for a modern website.
• We moved the extended coverage of lists and links into its own chapter to make it easy for you to cover this material when you want to.
• We thoroughly streamlined and reworked the chapter on HTML forms to make it easier for your students and to focus on modern best practices.
• We moved coverage of grid layout further back in the book because it’s a complex skill that can be covered later in most courses.
• We added some new CSS features to chapter 15 and renamed it “More CSS skills”. It still covers transitions, transforms, animations, and filters. But now, it also covers an assortment of other useful CSS skills.
• We modified chapter 17 (How to deploy a website) to show your students how to use GitHub to deploy a website to a web server that’s running in the cloud.

We cut chapter 18 (How to use JavaScript). If you want to include some coverage of JavaScript in your course, we recommend using one or more chapters from Murach’s Modern JavaScript.

Despite all the changes, the 6^th edition still uses the same proven instructional approach of the previous editions. In short, it begins with a crash course that teaches the essential HTML and CSS skills that your students need to start developing web pages at a professional level. After that, it presents other skills as independent modules that your students can learn when they need them.

Like the 5^th edition, the 6^th edition has been printed in full color. This makes the pages more engaging and attractive, and we think it makes many of the skills easier to grasp too.

In addition, the 6^th edition still shows how to use the popular Visual Studio Code (VS Code) text editor. This helps your students learn to develop web pages more quickly and with fewer coding errors.

Here are four features of this book that will to help you teach your students HTML and CSS more effectively.

It always shows how the HTML and its CSS are related

In a modern website, HTML defines the structure and content for the pages, and CSS formats the content. In other words, they always work together. Because of that, this book shows how HTML and CSS work together as early as possible and continues to do so throughout the rest of the book. This makes sure that your students always see the relationship between HTML and CSS, which is critical to learning how to use them.

It emphasizes responsive web design (RWD)

Chapter 8 shows how to use media queries to build responsive web pages that use a fluid layout with navigation menus and scalable images. As a result, by the end of chapter 8, your students should have all the skills that they need for building responsive websites at a professional level.

It integrates accessibility and SEO guidelines

Chapter 1 introduces user accessibility and search engine optimization. After that, this book presents guidelines for accessibility and SEO whenever they are relevant. For instance, when chapter 3 presents the <a> element, it also presents the related accessibility and SEO guidelines.

It presents a realistic website

This book presents dozens of examples that show how HTML and CSS are used in a variety of contexts. However, it also presents a realistic website and enhances this website from one chapter to the next. This lets your students see how HTML and CSS is used in the real world.

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

A complete HTML course

This book is ideal for a one- or two-term HTML and CSS course. The first section presents the most critical HTML and CSS skills at a professional level while emphasizing responsive web design. After that, you can teach the remaining chapters in a sequence that fits the requirements of your course.

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.

A text editor

To develop web pages with HTML and CSS, your students can use any text editor. However, we recommend using Visual Studio Code (VS Code) because it provides many features that can help your students develop web pages more quickly and with fewer errors. This editor is available for free and runs on Windows and macOS.

A web browser

We recommend using the Chrome browser to do the primary testing for a web page. That’s because Chrome provides excellent developer tools that your students can use to debug their web pages. This web browser is available for free and runs on Windows and macOS.

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 needs to include 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

“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