ARC provided by the Publisher and Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.
This book is good for anyone who's interested in learning more about HTML5 but don't know where to start. Simply HTML5 is a beginner friendly book to help you get started.

This book is called simplyhtml but I think that after Example 12, where the book moves on to HTML content categories it gets too complicated to quickly for the novice coder. I'm a software engineer brushing up on my html and I found that I had to Google quite a lot of material after that Example in order to really get a proper explanation of the code that would make sense to the novice

The examples started to have code in them with no real description of what the tags were or what they did.

I think the book might be better described as being a quick reference and that it could probably do with a table in it somewhere with a list of what the tags do.

Having said that - the book is very useful but it isn't simple.

Many websites are powered by content management systems and other similar ready made setups. These are nice to get you going, but you might have a desire to change things around, or even try some coding on your own. Simply HTML5 can help you understand what goes on behind the scenes of making websites.

This book is not aimed at teaching you everything there is to HTML5, or the different programming languages, but it provides a foundation that you can build on. It is pretty simple to understand, though there a few areas that I would have liked to have had a little more information. I can still see this as being a good quick reference guide.

I received a complimentary copy from the publisher through NetGalley. All opinions are my own.

Simply HTML5 is simple as in survey not as in easy. The book covers most of the features and tags of HTML5 - not in-depth but by giving a starting point for self-learners or as a quick reference for experienced users. Occasionally the author assumes that an illustration adequately explains the meaning of a tag or attribute.

For example, he gives no clear meaning of the tag <p dir=”ltr”> - leaving the reader to see the examples and trying out examples in their own code to understand what it controls and accomplishes. The author says that dir specifies the direction of the text, though clearly it does not if the language used is English.


Similarly, he ends a brief discussion on “Boolean Attributes” by saying, “I think you get the point of what is a valid and not a valid boolean attribute from the above example.”

The book does not teach the use of CSS or JS, but it does include a chapter on weaving each into the development of a web page using HTML5. I found it interesting that examples were provided for a number of browsers (Firefox was the most common example, throughout the book), but Chrome's use on a PC was omitted.

The book may be useful as an ancillary text for a course, but not as the main text - no problem sets or programming tasks are given for students.
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This review is based on a free electronic copy provided by the publisher for the purpose of creating this review. The opinions expressed are my own.