jQuery: Novice to Ninja from Sitepoint

Posted in Books JavaScript on 11 March 2010 | Comments [1]

I am reading a new jQuery book from Sitepoint at the moment. It’s called jQuery: Novice to Ninja and it promises to take you from beginner to expert. If you have copied and pasted jQuery code up to now without thinking or knowing how it works, this book could be for you! The book covers a whole range of examples so it’s also very good for intermediates. I have used some of the code from the first chapters already!

The book weighs in at just over 400 pages and is divided into nine chapters that start with the basics of jQuery, and its use for selecting, decorating and enhancing your HTML, and moving on to chapters about, for example, animations, images and slideshows, menus, tabs, and tooltips, and Ajax. The book also includes a final chapter on creating a jQuery plugin and advanced methods for extending jQuery.

I’ll post a more in depth review when I have read through the whole book.

Downloads: Get sample chapters from JQuery Novice to Ninja with this free download • The code archive from the book is also available.

How to write better website copy

Posted in Books Freelancing on 12 November 2009 | Comments [2]

Would you like your website to perform better? Do you want people to buy more of your product from it? or attract a higher number of sales leads? Whatever the objectives that you have for your website, it would be unusual if you did not want it to be more effective.

One way that you can improve your website is to write better copy. There’s quite a skill to writing great website copy and it’s something that many businesses overlook. Effective copywriting can persuade people to buy from you, improve the readability of your website, and deliver more for your business. I must admit that I have not thought about this subject enough but I was persuaded that I should learn more by Relly Annett-Baker who gave a presentation at the Bamboo Juice web conference earlier this year.

Of course, if you have a responsibility for managing or writing website copy, you can hire a copywriter and I would enourage you to consider this. At the same time, as a freelancer, I would like to learn more about this area myself. That’s where Write To Sell: The Ultimate Guide to Great Copywriting by Andy Maslen will help. It’s a guide to better copywriting and it contains a wealth of tips and tricks that will start you on the road to better copywriting. I’m enjoying reading it at the moment (and it makes a nice change from the CSS books that I normally read!)

Thanks to Relly Annett-Baker on Twitter for suggesting the book to me.

New web standards books from Zeldman and Budd

Posted in Books Web standards on 30 September 2009 | Comments

There are new editions of Designing with Web Standards by Jeffery Zeldman and CSS Mastery: Advanced Web Standards Solutions by Andy Budd coming along in the next few months. If you have the previous editions, you’ll know that these are two great books! Must put them on my Xmas present list…

Technorati : css, web standards

The CSS Anthology from Sitepoint

Posted in Books CSS on 25 August 2009 | Comments [1]

The third edition of The CSS Anthology: 101 Essential Tips, Trick and Hacks by Rachel Andrew is now available from Sitepoint. The book features some great CSS examples that you can use on your website straight away. This is definitely one of the most practical books on CSS that I have read!

Since the previous edition, the book has been updated to reflect the emergence of newer browsers and the use of new CSS techniques. Like all Sitepoint books, you can get free sample chapters before you buy. I have used this myself to see what a particular book is like before deciding to buy. There’s also a code archive available to purchasers.

The CSS Anthology: 101 Essential Tips, Trick and Hacks is also available as a PDF for a reduced price. I favour the printed version myself but that’s just me. There’s just something about having a book open on your desk…

Handcrafted CSS - a new book from that Bulletproof Web Design guy

Posted in Books CSS on 3 July 2009 | Comments [1]

Handcrafted CSS: More Bulletproof Web Design by Dan Cederholm and Ethan Marcotte is a new book [and DVD] due in August. As you can tell from the title, this is a follow-up book to Bulletproof Web Design and it uses a website case study to show you how to apply some modern CSS techniques. A full description of the book and authors is on the Handcrafted CSS website

I have a copy of Bulletproof Web Design and it’s a great read. It really taught me to think about what I am doing with my web design, HTML and CSS coding. If the new book is anything like that, I’ll be buying a copy! Handcrafted CSS is available as a paperback and in hardcover from Amazon.

Related: The second edition of CSS Mastery: Advanced Web Standards Solutions by Andy Budd et al is also due for release in August.